U.S. Dept of Interior Secretary Haaland Announces Major Milestones for Residential School Initiative

By Kaniehtonkie.

The Department of the Interior has announced the next steps in the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, launched by Secretary Deb Haaland in June 2021. This initiative represents the federal government's first comprehensive effort to address the legacy of past federal Indian boarding school policies, aiming to confront their intergenerational impact and illuminate the trauma experienced by Indigenous communities.

The Department released the second and final volume of the investigative report, led by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. This volume builds on the initial report from May 2022, expanding the details on the institutions involved, including attendee deaths, burial sites, the participation of religious organizations, and federal funding for these schools. It also includes policy recommendations for Congress and the Executive Branch to support healing and redress for Indigenous communities.

Secretary Haaland stated, “The federal government – facilitated by the Department I lead – took deliberate and strategic actions through federal Indian boarding school policies to isolate children from their families, deny them their identities, and steal from them the languages, cultures and connections that are foundational to Native people. These policies caused enduring trauma for Indigenous communities that the Biden-Harris administration is working tirelessly to repair. I am immensely proud of the hundreds of Interior employees – many of them Indigenous – who gave of their time and themselves to ensure that this investigation was thoroughly completed to provide an accurate and honest picture. The Road to Healing does not end with this report – it is just beginning.” 

Assistant Secretary Newland said, “For the first time in the history of the United States, the federal government is accounting for its role in operating historical Indian boarding schools that forcibly confined and attempted to assimilate Indigenous children. This report further proves what Indigenous peoples across the country have known for generations – that federal policies were set out to break us, obtain our territories, and destroy our cultures and our lifeways. It is undeniable that those policies failed, and now, we must bring every resource to bear to strengthen what they could not destroy. It is critical that this work endures, and that federal, state and Tribal governments build on the important work accomplished as part of the Initiative.”  

Volume 2 updates the list of federal Indian boarding schools, identifying 417 institutions across 37 states or then-territories. It provides detailed profiles of each school and confirms that at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children died while attending these schools. Additionally, it identifies at least 74 burial sites at 65 school locations and estimates that the U.S. government spent over $23.3 billion (adjusted for 2023 inflation) from 1871 to 1969 on the federal Indian boarding school system and related assimilation policies.

In preparing these volumes, the Department reviewed approximately 103 million pages of federal records. Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland also consulted with officials and Indigenous leaders from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand to learn from their approaches to addressing similar assimilation policies.

The report includes eight recommendations from Assistant Secretary Newland:

Issuing a formal acknowledgment and apology from the U.S. government.

Investing in remedies for the present-day impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system.

Establishing a national memorial to acknowledge and commemorate the experiences of those affected.

Identifying and repatriating the remains of children who never returned from these schools.

Returning former school sites to Tribes.

Educating the public about the history of federal Indian boarding schools.

Investing in further research on the current health and economic impacts of the system.

Advancing international relationships with countries that have similar histories of boarding schools or assimilation policies.

Recognizing the damage done to Native languages, the Biden-Harris administration has prioritized their restoration and preservation. In 2021, the Departments of the Interior, Education, and Health and Human Services launched an initiative to protect and promote Native languages. Secretary Haaland, Assistant Secretary Newland, and First Lady Jill Biden have traveled to learn how Tribal Nations are revitalizing Native languages with federal support. A new ten-year Native Language Strategy is expected by the end of 2024.

Telling the story of these boarding schools has been central to the Initiative, including Secretary Haaland sharing her own personal story in an op-ed. In late 2023, Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland completed “The Road to Healing,” a 12-stop tour where Indigenous survivors shared their experiences. These events included trauma-informed support through the Indian Health Service and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Reflections from these survivors are included in Volume 2, with transcripts available online.

The Department also launched an oral history project to document the experiences of those who attended federal Indian boarding schools. Funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition is interviewing survivors for a collection of first-person narratives. The Department and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are exploring ways to share this history with the public, focusing on the experiences of survivors.

Some historical federal Indian boarding schools still operate in the U.S., but without assimilationist practices. The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) provides educational opportunities considering the mental, physical, religious, and cultural aspects of Native learners. Similarly, Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii offer essential language preservation curricula, crucial to the Native Hawaiian Community.