Federal Boarding School Report – Summary and Key Points
On May 11, 2022, the Department of the Interior released the first volume of a comprehensive report on the history of Native American boarding schools in the United States. As outlined in a June 2021 memo on the Federal Boarding School Initiative, this first volume sought to identify all boarding schools that operated in the U.S., create an official list of federal records connected with federally-managed boarding schools, and find evidence of unmarked burial sites at these facilities. The report was prepared under the leadership of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland.
The report identifies 408 federal schools that operated across the United States between 1819 and 1969. (These dates represent the first official documentation of federal support for boarding schools and the year the last federally-supported boarding school opened, respectively.) Schools were established in 37 U.S. states/territories during this period, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 in Hawaii. The states with the highest numbers of schools were Oklahoma (76), Arizona (47), and New Mexico (43).
The report describes the schools as “militarized” and employing “identity-alteration methodologies” to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children. Specific methods to these ends included renaming Indigenous children, cutting their hair, prohibiting linguistic, religious, and cultural practices, and forcing children to engage in military drills. The report also finds that federal boarding schools focused students’ time and energy primarily on vocational training and manual labor, and that this training did not adequately prepare them for economic success after graduation. The violent and draconian punishments many students experienced at the schools are also confirmed in this initial report.
Additional Key Findings:
· 50 percent of these schools may have received support from religious organizations in terms of funding, personnel, or assistance in maintaining school infrastructure. Additionally, the federal government funded some religious organizations that operated schools within this system.
· Funds from Tribal trust accounts maintained by the U.S. government were used, along with congressional appropriations, to fund boarding schools.
· Attending a boarding school contributed to chronic health problems in adult boarding school survivors. These schools also fostered intergeneration trauma and “familial disruption” among boarding school survivors and their children.
· This research “identified over 1,000 other Federal and non-Federal institutions, including Indian day schools, sanitariums, asylums, orphanages, and stand-alone dormitories that may have involved education of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people…” These combined numbers are staggering, and illustrate the immense scope of efforts to reshape and erase Indigenous cultures in the U.S.
· The report does not identify the names of each of the children who attended the boarding schools. The Interior Department cites Covid-19-related pandemic restrictions and the absence of “specific appropriations” as limiting factors in these efforts. Investigators hope to uncover this information as research efforts progress.
Native American Boarding School Burial Sites and Student Deaths
Burial sites were discovered at 53 of the schools. 33 of these are marked as burial sites, 6 are unmarked, and 14 schools have both marked and unmarked burial sites associated with the campus. The report does not include a list of these burial sites, citing the long history of “grave-robbing, vandalism, and other disturbances to Indian burial sites,” and its desire to protect these locations.
This initial investigation identified over 500 student deaths at boarding schools across the U.S. between 1819 and 1969. The Interior Department expects this number to increase as research continues.
Methodology and Appendices
In addition to the investigative report, three appendices were released. Appendices A and B include lists of federal boarding schools, and outline how the Department of the Interior chose which schools to place on the list. Schools had to meet the following four criteria for inclusion:
· The school had to provide “overnight lodging” for students;
· The school had to provide formal academic or vocational training;
· The school had to receive federal financial support; and
· The school had to be open prior to 1969.
The general list of schools (Appendix A) catalogues each of the boarding schools that met the above criteria, includes alternate names used while the institution was open, and notes the city and state in which a school operated. Each school also has an individual page (Appendix B) that includes the above information, as well as “General Notes” about the history of the school. Details in this section may include the opening and closing dates of the school, its religious affiliation, if any, grade levels available for student enrollment, and the Indigenous populations the school served.
Appendix C includes a map of the United States that details the location of all 408 federal boarding schools. This document notes that there are actually 431 points on this map, because 23 of the schools changed locations. Each state with at least one Native American boarding school also has its own map in this document.
Recommendations For the Future
Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Newland ends the report with eight recommendations designed, in his words, to allow the Department of the Interior to “fully account for its role” in managing boarding schools and to “renounce the forced assimilation” of Indigenous nations. These recommendations are also intended to “begin the process of healing from the harm and violence caused by assimilation policy.” These recommendations call for the Department to:
1. Continue (and fully fund) the investigation of boarding schools in the U.S.;
2. Identify surviving boarding school alumni;
3. Formally document the experiences of boarding school alumni;
4. Support the reclamation and preservation of former boarding school sites;
5. Develop a federal collection of boarding school records in the Department of the Interior library to preserve and centralize these materials;
6. Work with other federal agencies that maintain records connected to boarding schools;
7. Engage state and religious institutions to release their boarding school records; and
8. Pursue Congressional support in these areas:
a. Indigenous language revitalization;
b. Developing exemptions from Freedom of Information Act requests on topics related to boarding school burial locations;
c. Supporting scientific studies connected with health and the boarding school system; and to
d. “Recognize the generations of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children that experienced the Federal Indian boarding school system with a Federal memorial.”
Additionally, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will conduct a yearlong tour, referred to as “The Road to Healing,” in which she will travel across the country meeting with boarding school survivors. Secretary Haaland will further encourage alumni to engage with “trauma-informed support, and facilitate collection of a permanent oral history.”
Sources:
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report
https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/inline-files/bsi_investigative_report_may_2022_508.pdf
Combined Appendix A and Appendix B Indian Schools
Appendix C Federal Indian Boarding School Maps
https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/inline-files/appendix_c_school_maps_508.pdf
Department of the Interior Releases Investigative Report, Outlines Next Steps in Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative (5/11/2022)
Memo from Secretary Haaland Regarding the Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative (June 22, 2021)