Stories told by survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system at Road to Healing events across the country "are heartbreaking," Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said recently on social media.
Haaland, the first Native American appointed as a Cabinet secretary, said in a Jan. 27 Twitter post that the Road to Healing tour, launched in May 2022, "is the first time the federal government has embarked on an effort to listen to those who live with this intergenerational trauma. I'm so proud of this work."
The tour was announced in conjunction with the release of the first volume of an investigative report by Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) into the impacts of federal Indian boarding schools on the children forced to move to the schools, their families and their cultures. The 106-page report is part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Iniative, "a comprehensive effort to address the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies," the DOI announcement states.
"This investigative report is a significant step by the federal government to comprehensively address the facts and consequences of its federal Indian boarding school policies—implemented for more than a century and a half—resulting in the twin goals of cultural assimilation and territorial dispossession of Indigenous peoples through the forced removal and relocation of their children," the DOI states in the release.
The federal Indian boarding school system operated from 1819 to 1969 and included 408 schools in 37 states (then territories), with 21 schools in Alaska and seven in Hawaii, the DOI reports. Marked and unmarked burial sites were identified at approximately 53 schools in the system; the number of identified burial sites is expected to increase as the investigation continues.
Bryan Newland, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, stated in a April 1, 2022 letter to Haaland that the report "confirms that the United States directly targeted American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children in the pursuit of a policy of cultural assimilation that coincided with Indian territorial dispossession."
Newland wrote the report shows that the boarding school system was "part of a broader objective to dispossess Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community of their territories to support the expansion of the United States."
"The Federal Indian boarding school policy was intentionally targeted at American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children to assimilate them and, consequently, take their territories," Newland wrote. "I believe that this historical context is important to understanding the intent and scale of the Federal Indian boarding school system, and why it persisted for 150 years."
Haaland, in a May 2002 interview with NPR, said a lack of Native American representation in government leadership is a reason there hasn't before been an investigation into the federal Indian boarding school's lasting affects on Native communities, such as a lack of economic opportunities, healthcare disparities, addiction and poverty. "When people are invisible, you don't have to pay attention," Haaland said to NPR.
In her Twitter post, Haaland shared an article written by Levi Rickert and published Jan. 22 by Native News Online. Rickert wrote of his experience listening to the stories shared at Road to Healing events by Tribal members who either attended the schools or were descendants of those who did. Speakers told of horrific acts of physical and sexual abuse suffered by Native children at the hands of those who worked at and operated the schools.
"Like many Native people, I had heard of the atrocities committed against young American Indians and Alaska Natives at the federal boarding schools for years," Rickert wrote. "But largely, these stories weren’t told. In many Native families, including my own, survivors of the schools chose not to talk about what happened while they were there.
"These Road to Healing events have begun to change that dynamic, as survivors speak openly about their experiences and descendants talk about the effect boarding schools have had on their families and their communities," Rickert wrote.
"The consequences of federal Indian boarding school policies—including the intergenerational trauma caused by the family separation and cultural eradication inflicted upon generations of children as young as 4 years old—are heartbreaking and undeniable,” Haaland said in the report. “We continue to see the evidence of this attempt to forcibly assimilate Indigenous people in the disparities that communities face.
"It is my priority to not only give voice to the survivors and descendants of federal Indian boarding school policies, but also to address the lasting legacies of these policies so Indigenous peoples can continue to grow and heal,” Haaland said.
