On July 30, 2024, Secretary Deb Haaland released the second and final volume of the “Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative – Investigative Report.” The Federal Boarding School Initiative was launched in June of 2021 and has now produced two investigative reports.
Volume I of the Initiative, an Investigative Report, was released in May 2022 and included recommendations for collecting oral histories. Volume One documented between 1819 and 1969 how the United States operated or supported 408 boarding schools. The report confirms the targeting of Indian children in the pursuit of a policy of cultural assimilation and land dispossession. We reported on Volume One here.
Volume II builds on Volume I and expands on the details such as the attendee deaths, the number of burial sites, participation of religious institutions and organizations, and federal dollars spent to operate these locations. As of now, the official list of federal Indian boarding schools and maps include 417 institutions across 37 states or then-territories. Volume II also finds that there have been at least 973 deaths of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiians while attending federal operated or supported schools, and at least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at 65 different school sites. Volume II is available here.
Volume II also includes policy recommendations for consideration by Congress and the Executive Branch to continue to chart a path to a path to healing and redress for indigenous communities. In particular, the report makes 8 recommendations for the federal government:
- Issuing a formal acknowledgment and apology from the United States regarding its role in adopting and implementing national federal Indian boarding school policies;
- Investing in remedies to the present-day impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system;
- Establishing a national memorial to acknowledge and commemorate the experiences of Indian Tribes, individuals, and families affected by the federal Indian boarding school system;
- Identifying and repatriating remains of children and funerary objects who never returned from federal Indian boarding schools;
- Returning former federal Indian Boarding school sites to Tribes;
- Telling the story of federal Indian boarding schools to the American people and global community;
- Investing in further research regarding the present-day health and economic impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system; and
- Advancing international relationships in other countries with similar but their own unique histories of boarding schools or other assimilationist policies.
Patterson Earnhart Real Bird & Wilson LLP is dedicated to the representation of American Indian tribes, tribal entities, and individual Indians across the United States. Our mission is to support and advance the sovereignty, self-sufficiency, and self-governance of our tribal clients.
To learn more about how we can assist your tribe, contact our DC office at 202-434-8903.