More Information About Federal Indian Boarding Schools Out in January
Second volume of Interior Department investigation will detail Indigenous children who attended the schools, burial sites.
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More information about the atrocities committed at boarding schools run by the federal government that were designed to eradicate Indigenous people is expected in the new year.
In May 2022, the U.S. Department of Interior released a based on the federal government鈥檚 first-ever investigation of the boarding school system in the country. It identified 408 federal Indian boarding schools which dispossessed Indigenous people of their lands and forcibly assimilated their children, including 43 schools in New Mexico.
The report鈥檚 second volume is expected to be published in early January 2024, said Heidi Todacheene, a senior advisor to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna). Todacheene could not give a specific date of publication.
The upcoming report will contain new information on the total number of Indigenous children who attended federally run boarding schools, including their names and tribal affiliations, Todacheene (Din茅) said.
It will also identify their marked and unmarked burial sites, the schools鈥� affiliations with religious organizations, and federal money spent on the boarding school system, Todacheene said.
Todacheene was speaking via Zoom from Washington D.C. on Tuesday to the New Mexico Legislature鈥檚 Indian Affairs Committee in Santa Fe.
Since the first volume on the U.S. boarding school initiative came out, Todacheene said, officials from Interior and other federal agencies have continued researching and collecting data, including through Road to Healing listening sessions across the country. The second-to-last session was in Albuquerque on Oct. 29, according to Native News Online.
During the sessions, Todacheene said, Interior 鈥渉as come to realize that the United States forcibly removed Indian children and relocated them hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their original tribal communities to prevent runaways or those from returning at home.鈥�
鈥淔ederal laws have also forced parents to give up their children through punishment, imprisonment, or withholding food rations to families and communities,鈥� Todacheene said. 鈥淭he deliberate federal disruption of tribal communities through the removal of Indian children to off-reservation boarding schools will never be completely healed, nor that the loss of community or language or culture can adequately be replaced.鈥�
The listening sessions are over but Todacheene said Haaland and Interior assistant secretary Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) still welcome anyone to their story or experience.
About half of the federally run boarding schools 鈥渞eceived support or other involvement鈥� from religious organizations, the report found, and the federal government paid those schools using money from Indian Trust Funds to take children away without their parents鈥� consent and force them into environments designed to destroy generational bonds by eliminating language and culture.
Sen. Benny Shendo (D-Jemez) asked if the Interior Department plans to pay reparations to survivors, but Todacheene鈥檚 presentation ended before she could answer.
鈥淚 believe that鈥檚 illegal, because those are accounts that are held in trust for people,鈥� Shendo said. 鈥淔or the federal government to dip into that fund to pay for the annihilation and dispossession of tribes of their land, I think it鈥檚 pretty egregious.鈥�
Rep. Harry Garcia (D-Grants) asked what the federal government is doing to make up for the damage it did to survivors.
鈥淭here鈥檚 gotta be long-term effects on these children who are adults now,鈥� Garcia said.
Todacheene said the second volume will contain Newland鈥檚 recommendations 鈥渙n how to move forward and help elevate those issues.鈥�
鈥淎ll of our leadership at the Department and other federal agencies, and of course in Indian Country, we know that we could have some improvements to our health care and mental health services,鈥� Todacheene said.
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