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Anchor: Daniel Montaño
Crews are excavating the basement of historic Drexel Hall at the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
A worker previously told officials that he discovered what looked like three graves decades ago, but was told to keep quiet about them at the time.
An investigation by Indian Country Today and Reveal found evidence of at least 20 student deaths at the school, at least one unmarked grave, and report of dehumanizing, brutal treatment of students.
The site is just one of hundreds of schools run by the U-S government and religious groups beginning in the 1800s.
Thousands of Native children were forcibly removed from their homes in an attempt to assimilate them into non-Native culture.
The Kansas historical society is also moving forward with a ground penetrating radar survey of nearly 12 acres to search for unmarked graves.
The Kansas City Star reports the Shawnee tribe and others have been requesting an investigation into the school, but say they were not consulted prior to the project proposal’s announcement.
The U.S. Department of Interior is currently investigating the nation’s treatment of native students at the schools. The department is holding listening sessions about boarding schools in several locations.
A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds Native Americans are 30% more than their white counterparts to be hospitalized with the flu.
The CDC says Native residents also have lower flu vaccination rates.
The agency says four in ten Native Americans are covered by vaccine against the flu, compared to more than half for whites.
The study covers the past 13 flu seasons.
Blacks and Hispanics are also hospitalized at higher rates than the general population.
The University of Oregon announced a new program last week that will cover tuition and fees for tribal members living in Oregon.
The Home Flight Scholars program will immediately allow any students who are members of any federally recognized tribe to receive financial assistance, and it’s the latest in a series of efforts to boost higher education enrollment and graduation rates among tribal members.
The Oregon Capital Chronical reports in May, the state’s Higher Education coordinating Commission rolled out a grant that covers the average cost of attendance for all the state’s public universities and colleges, and 14 of the 18 private colleges in Oregon.
Three of the public universities, including the University of Oregon, are going further announcing they will offer in-state tuition to anyone who is a member of any of the 574 federally recognized tribes no matter where they live.
The National Center of Education Statistics says nationwide, native students enroll at only half the rate of the general population between 18-24-years-old.
Also, a recent study found that 40% of Oregon’s Native students still struggle to afford college even after receiving conventional financial aid.
University of Oregon says their program aims to not only increase enrollment, but also to combat financial issues and academic difficulties, and help students connect with their culture.
The program will offer a variety of services, from counseling and mentorship to tribal job placement and graduate study opportunities, and it creates a new Native American Academic Advisor position.
Oregon now joins Montana and Michigan in making tuition for tribal members free at public universities, along with several universities choosing to do so independently — including the university of California system, which is the largest in the nation.
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