History of Boarding Schools

In the United States and countries around the world, prior to colonization, Indigenous practices and beliefs about raising a child allowed a natural system of child protection to flourish. Traditional Indigenous spiritual beliefs reinforce that all things have a spiritual nature that demands respect, including children. Traditionally, not only are children respected, but they are taught to respect others. Extraordinary patience and tolerance mark the methods that have been and are still used today to teach children self-discipline. At the heart of this natural system are beliefs, traditions, and customs involving extended family with clear roles and responsibilities. Responsibilities shared by extended family and community members make the protection of children the responsibility of all people in the community. Within the natural safety net of traditional tribal settings and beliefs, child maltreatment was rarely a problem. 

Federal Indian policy is characterized by alternating policies toward American Indian and Alaska Native tribal nations—on the one hand attempting genocide or forced assimilation of Native people into mainstream America and on the other hand recognizing and supporting tribal governments and distinct American Indian and Alaska Native cultures (Deloria, 1985; NCAI, 2020; O’Brien, 1989). In order to advance the goals of colonization, the US government enacted several centuries of interrelated and intersecting policies and practices (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2023; Child Trends, 2023). When efforts to assimilate Native adults faltered, children became the target. Through the education and then public child welfare systems, often in partnership with churches, religious organizations, and other nonprofits, Native children were forcibly separated from their families and communities with the goal of severing their sense of identity and belonging, their relationships, and their knowledge of their culture and community (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2023; Child Trends, 2023).

U.S. Boarding School Policies

Because of their significant impact on Native children and families, federal Indian boarding school policies are widely acknowledged to be precursor to the forced removal of Native children from their families by public and private child welfare agencies, which accelerated in the 1960s as boarding schools waned.  For more information about American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments and federal Indian policy, see Tribal Nations and the United States: An Introduction created by the National Congress of American Indians.

As described in detail by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS, 2021), the federal policies that launched, grew, and sustained the Indian boarding school movement began with the Indian Civilization Fund Act (1819) and the Peace Policy (1869). According to Volume 1 of the Federal Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report produced by the U.S. Department of the Interior in May 2022, 408 federal schools in 37 states and territories operated in the United States between 1819–1969.

“The investigation found that the federal Indian boarding school system deployed systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies in an attempt to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children through education, including but not limited to renaming Indian children from Indian to English names; cutting the hair of Indian children; discouraging or preventing the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages, religions and cultural practices; and organizing Indian and Native Hawaiian children into units to perform military drills. Despite assertions to the contrary, the investigation found that the school system largely focused on manual labor and vocational skills that left American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian graduates with employment options often irrelevant to the industrial U.S. economy, further disrupting Tribal economies” (DOI, 2022).

On  June 22, 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland stated, “The Interior Department will address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools to shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past, no matter how hard it will be. I know that this process will be long and difficult. I know that this process will be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak and loss we feel. But only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace.”

On July 30, 2024, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the release of the second and final report of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

Volume II furthers public knowledge of the Federal Indian Boarding school system by:

• Updating the official list of Federal Indian boarding schools to include 417 institutions across 37 states or then-territories;
• Providing detailed profiles of each Federal Indian boarding school;
• Identifying 1,025 other institutions that did not satisfy the four criteria used for this investigation, but were nevertheless used to advance similar assimilation and education policy goals;
• Confirming that at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children died while attending Federal Indian boarding schools;
• Confirming that there are at least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at 65 different school sites;
• Listing 127 Treaties between the United States and Indian Tribes that implicate the Federal Indian boarding school system; and,
• Reporting that the Department estimates that the U.S. Government made appropriations available of more than $23.3 billion in FY23 inflation-adjusted dollars between 1871 and 1969 for the Federal Indian boarding school system as well as other similar institutions and associated assimilation policies.

The final report concludes with eight recommendations listed on pages 95–104 from Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland based on the findings. According to the Department of Interior press release, the recommendations include:

1. Issuing a formal acknowledgment and apology from the U.S. government regarding its role in adopting and implementing national federal Indian boarding school policies;
2. Investing in remedies to the present-day impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system;
3. Establishing a national memorial to acknowledge and commemorate the experiences of Indian tribes, individuals, and families affected by the federal Indian boarding school system;
4. Identifying and repatriating remains of children and funerary objects who never returned from federal Indian boarding schools;
5. Returning former federal Indian boarding school sites to tribes;
6. Telling the story of federal Indian boarding schools to the American people and global community;
7. Investing in further research regarding the present-day health and economic impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system; and
8. Advancing international relationships in other countries with similar but their own unique histories of boarding schools or other assimilationist policies.

On October 25, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a historic formal apology for the federal government’s role and policy in federal Indian boarding schools and the profound harm of abuse and neglect on Native children, separating them from their families, languages, cultures, and communities.

Both the Administration and Congress have roles in continuing to investigate and document this history, facilitating truth-telling, in order to provide an opportunity for healing.The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative can be complemented by the creation of a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy in the United States. Since 2020, legislation has been introduced several times to establish such a Commission. Most recently in 2023-24, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS) introduced companion bills, S. 1723 and H.R. 7227, called the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. The legislation establishes a commission to formally document and investigate Indian boarding school policies and practices in the United States. The commission members are appointed by Senate and House of Representatives leadership and the president. The legislation also establishes an advisory committee to provide advice and recommendations to the commission.

The commission will hold public hearings to gather evidence and will make recommendations on how to address and heal the historical and intergenerational trauma caused by Indian boarding school policies and practices. The commission collaborates and exchanges information with the Department of the Interior during the ongoing investigation. Congressional action is needed to enact the legislation, including appropriating a budget sufficient to fund the commission’s work. Unfortunately, the legislation was not enacted into law in the 118th Congress and bills will need to be re-introduced in the 199th Congress.

The Canadian Experience: Residential Schools

Indian boarding school policies were not unique to the United States. The Indigenous peoples of many colonized countries, including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand were subjected to boarding schools.

Canada attempted to investigate and document Indian residential schools 15 years before the United States, and thus, has had a better grasp of the number and locations of schools, records of children who attended specific schools, records detailing the policies and treatment of children who attended those schools, and, profoundly, first-person accounts of the survivors of Indian boarding schools.

In 2007, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, began to be implemented. One element of the agreement was the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). The Canadian Government spent about $72 million from 2007-2015 to support the TRC’s work, including six years of travel across Canada to gather testimony from more than 6,500 witnesses and seven national events to educate the Canadian public about the history and legacy of the residential school system, and share and honor the experiences of former students and their families. The historical record of the Indian residential school system includes more than five million records provided by the Government of Canada, now housed as the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. In December 2015, the TRC published its six-volume final report, including 94 “calls-to-action” (or recommendations) to further the reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous peoples. 

In May 2021, the discovery of 215 children’s bodies buried in unmarked graves at the site of Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada, shocked, horrified, and outraged people from around the world. However, the discovery was not a surprise to many Indigenous peoples because they were told about the child deaths and graves by Indian residential school survivors, most recently documented in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This was but one more example of how Indigenous peoples and communities in Canada and the U.S. still suffer from individual and collective unresolved grief and trauma related to the long history of parallel practice for over 110 years of voluntary or forced removal of Native children from their families and placement in government-funded, church-run boarding/residential schools hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Citations

Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2023, November). Native children’s health and well-being. Annie E. Casey Foundation Blog. https://www.aecf.org/blog/native-childrens-health-and-well-being 

Child Trends. (2023). Federal policies contribute to racial and ethnic health inequities: Potential solutions for Indigenous children, families, and communities. https://www.childtrends.org/publications/federal-policies-contribute-racial-ethnic-health-inequities-potential-solutions-indigenous-children-families-communities 

Deloria Jr., V. (1985). American Indian policy in the 20th century. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

National Congress of American Indians. (2020, February). An introduction to Indian nations in the United States. Washington, DC: Author. 

National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (2020, June). Healing voices volume 1: A primer on American Indian and Alaska Native boarding schools in the U.S., 2nd Edition. Minneapolis, MN: Author.    

O’Brien, S. (1989). American Indian tribal governments. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). (2022, May). Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative investigative report. Washington, DC: Author.

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). (2024, July). Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative investigative report, volume II. Washington, DC: Author.