Thursday, February 8, 2024
This week, U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk/D-KS) and Tom Cole (Chickasaw/R-OK) reintroduced legislation to investigate, document, and report on the histories of Indian boarding schools and their long-term impacts on tribal communities.
The bill has been endorsed by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS).
NABS CEO Deborah Parker talked about the legislation at the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit.
“It’s much needed to help us tell the story, help us understand what happened to our Native American children in U.S. boarding schools. And we deserve, America deserves, not only Native Americans, but students, but people, any human being who is living today deserves to understand the truth about what happened in the United States.”
Parker says they’re seeking records and information from both the federal government and churches that ran the schools.
“We know parents are still looking for children to this day, their relatives who never came home. Most of the parents are no longer with us, but there are elders who have brothers and sisters, siblings, cousins who never made it home from the boarding school. So, they are missing. We’re trying to help families locate their loved ones…we still know our communities have, we have broken systems within our communities because we don’t know where our loved ones are.”
The legislation would establish a formal commission to investigate federal Indian boarding school policies, develop recommendations for federal entities to help with healing efforts, and provide a forum for victims to speak.
Reps.
Davids and Cole, co-chairs of the Congressional Native American Caucus,
say they’re committed to investigating the abuses at the institutions,
which are connected to an estimated 500 student deaths. (I have seen bigger numbers: 10,000 + who died in the schools)
The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2024 has also been endorsed by the National Congress of American Indians.
Where are they? Where are all the adoptees? Genocide is hard to document, right? Trace
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