This story may trigger individuals suffering from boarding school and related intergenerational trauma. To find support and other resources, visit the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition at: https://boardingschoolhealing.org/self-care-resources/
On Friday October 25, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden made a diplomatic visit to Gila River Indian Community to issue an apology from the United States to all Indigenous Americans for some of the harms the federal government caused through the policy of federal Indian boarding schools. Under this policy, the U.S. separated Native children from their families and tribal communities to impose anti-Indigenous indoctrination in federal boarding schools. The U.S. sent Native children hundreds or thousands of miles away from their tribal communities. Stripped from the love and protection of their parents, families, and communities, Native children suffered many harms and abuses at federal Indian boarding schools, and in many cases even died as a result of their mistreatment.
“By accounting for the full history of federal Indian boarding schools and publicly reporting its sad truths, President Biden and his administration have been allies of Indigenous peoples and Tribal Nations, who have been striving to raise awareness of the grave injustices to our children into public consciousness for more than a century,” said Native American Rights Fund Executive Director John Echohawk, referencing the U.S. Department of Interior investigative report released in a first volume in 2022 and a second in July 2024.
“We hope President Biden will follow up by effectuating meaningful and appropriate action throughout his Administration. Even as Indigenous people receive this first-time official apology from the Commander in Chief, the U.S. Army continues to refuse to fulfill repatriation requests, pursuant to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, to return the remains of the children who died at the one of the first and most notorious federal Indian boarding schools, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. We hope President Biden’s apology provides leadership for federal officials and personnel to foster cooperation between the U.S. and Tribal Nations so that Native communities may heal,” said Echohawk.
The history of what Native children endured at federal Indian boarding schools is not well-understood or even known by most of the general public because for generations, schools and universities in the U.S. have failed to teach about it and the assimilation era. The U.S. designed the schools to force the children to forget and reject their Indigenous languages, religious practices, and culture, and to replace them with Anglo-centric ones. Federal boarding schools destroyed children’s identities in often cold, cramped, and prison-like institutions that spawned abusive and unhealthy conditions that led many of the children to die.
The U.S. took Native children into the federal Indian boarding school system by force, in the open and secretly. Pre-teen and teenage Native children often ended up at federal Indian boarding schools as prisoners of war captured by U.S. soldiers. It was standard for the federal government to take children and send them to boarding schools without parental consent. Parents often did not know if a missing child had been taken and sent to boarding school. If they did know, they were uniformed of their children’s care, and staff generally failed to notify parents that their children became sick or had died. Many schools did not release the children’s bodies to their families for burial. Today, many Tribal Nations are beginning to search for and bring home the remains of their children who died and were never returned home.
“Indigenous people alive today are survivors actively healing and rebuilding their communities from intergenerational trauma stemming from the abuses, harms, and injustices federal Indian boarding schools inflicted on our ancestors. For many Tribal Nations, that healing would be supported by the federal government cooperating to facilitate the respectful return of the remains of children who died at federal Indian boarding schools according to the terms of the hard-fought law designed to bring the remains of our relatives home, NAGPRA,” said Echohawk.
The U.S. operated Indian boarding schools for nearly 150 years. In 2021, the Biden Administration began investigating the federal government’s roles in and responsibilities for the damages and harms inflicted by the federal Indian boarding school system, including how many children died at the schools. Today, Tribal Nations continue to address the impact of the federal Indian boarding school era in a variety of ways. Many Tribal Nations continue to lead the effort to tell their own story of the federal Indian boarding school era and its impact.
Take Action
If you would like to help Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities utilize NAGPRA to bring home the remains of their children from Carlisle Indian Industrial School and other federal Indian boarding school cemeteries, please share this post with others and support NARF’s work with donations, social media activity, and any other ways you can.
Teachers may find additional information to inform new curriculum at: https://narf.org/cases/boarding-school-healing/ For resources and information about healing from the boarding school era, visit: https://boardingschoolhealing.org.
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is one of the Tribal Nations seeking to bring home children who attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial school, pursuant to NAGPRA.
After the Army denied Winnebago’s NAGPRA repatriation request for the remains of Samuel Gilbert and Edward Hensley from the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery, Winnebago sued to enforce NAGPRA.
Learn more: Winnebago v. U.S. Army
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