DOI Probe Finds Hundreds of Children Died at Indian Residential Schools
The Department of Interior released a report last week detailing the federal government’s efforts between 1819 and 1969 to coerce Indigenous children to integrate into American society. This is the first volume of findings from the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a coalition Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched last year.
The report identifies 408 boarding schools across 37 states–the first inventory of federally operated schools with profiles and maps–and further outlines the varying conditions endured at these institutions. The report found that school officials subjected Indigenous children and teenagers to systematic militarization and identity alteration endorsed by the federal government. This included providing English names, haircuts, service uniforms, as well as restrictions on the use of their native languages and religion.
“This report presents the opportunity for us to reorient federal policies to support the revitalization of Tribal languages and cultural practices to counteract nearly two centuries of federal policies aimed at their destruction,” said Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland.
Initial investigations revealed that 19 boarding schools were linked to the death of more than 500 American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians, left at more than 50 burial sites, marked or unmarked. The report points to punishment and extensive manual labor practices as influencing the deaths associated with the schools. However, the overall mortality count is unknown at this time.
Deborah Parker, Chief Executive Officer of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, described the report as an essential milestone but expressed concerns about what remains to be done.
“It reaffirms the stories we all grew up with. The truth of our people and that often immense torture our elders and ancestors went through as children at the hands of the federal government and the religious institutions,” Parker said. “After generations, we still do not know how many children attended, how many children died, and or how many children were permanently scarred for life because of these federal institutions.”
Through fiscal year 2022, the department will continue investigating Indigenous boarding schools and produce a second report that details locations of unmarked and marked graves, identities of the interred children, and accounts of federal funding involved.
“The Department’s work thus far shows that an all-of-government approach is necessary to strengthen and rebuild the bonds within Native communities that federal Indian boarding school policies set out to break,” Secretary Haaland concluded.
