Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Anchor: Art Hughes
The U.S. Department of Interior released the government’s first-ever attempt to quantify atrocities committed at federal boarding schools for more than a century and a half. Completed largely by Indigenous staff members, the document released Wednesday acknowledges the boarding schools’ role in carrying out the official U.S. policies of dispossessing Native people of their land, and driving out Native languages, cultures and spirituality primarily by forced assimilation of Native children.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) ordered the Volume 1 report last July after revelations of unmarked graves presumably of students on the grounds of former residential schools in Canada. Sec. Haaland says the report is the start of a path toward reconciliation.
“I come from ancestors who endured the horrors of the Indian board school assimilation policies carried out by the same department that I now lead. This department was responsible for operating what we now know to be 408 federal boarding schools across 37 states, or then territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii. Now we are uniquely-positioned to assist in the effort to recover the dark history of these institutions that have haunted our families for too long.”
Sec. Haaland became emotional as she described the trajectory of her own life, born to parents who were sent to boarding schools when they were 8 years old, to go on to create what she hopes will be a foundational document for future healing.
“The fact that I am standing here today as the first Indigenous cabinet secretary is testament to the strength and determination of Native people. I am here because my ancestors persevered. I stand on the shoulders of my grandmother and my mother, and the work that we will do with the federal boarding school initiative will have a transformational impact on the generations to follow.”
Sec. Haaland says she will now embark on a year-long listening tour of the country to, in her words, elevate survivors and give them opportunities to share their stories and build a permanent oral history. She says it is her responsibility and legacy as a Pueblo woman to do so.
The report is overseen by Deputy Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland, who also fought back tears as he recounted the lost cultures, languages and relatives… a trauma he says, whose echoes are still reverberating.
“This has left lasting scars for all Indigenous people. There is not a single American Indian, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian in this country whose life has not been affected by these schools. We haven’t begun to explain the scope of this policy era until now.”
Looking ahead, Interior officials say the report is the Launchpad for renewed efforts aimed at language and cultural revitalization. The first steps of many, they say, toward repairing what was violently broken.
At the press conference, Deb Parker, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Boarding School Healing Coalition said the report reaffirms the stories all Native people grow up with.
“Our children had names. Our children had families. Our children had their own languages. Our children had their own regalia, prayers and religion before Indian boarding schools violently took them away.”
Sec. Haaland says she will now embark on a year-long listening tour of the country to, in her words, elevate survivors and give them opportunities to share their stories and build a permanent oral history. She says it is her responsibility and legacy as a Pueblo woman to do so.
Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.
