The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs investigative report details the legacy of violence and abuse and death perpetrated by Indian boarding schools. The report found that the United States operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states (or then-territories) between 1819 and 1969 and identified 53 burial sites for children across the system. Approximately 50 percent of schools may have received support or involvement from a religious institution or organization. The boarding schools sought to advance goals of forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples through the forced removal and relocation of their children.
Let us urge Congress to take up and pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 1723). This legislation would establish a “Truth and Healing Commission” to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the assimilative policies of Indian boarding schools in the United States, while identifying the locations of children's burial sites, locating church and government records, and documenting the ongoing impacts to Native communities.