Solidarity with Indian Country

Note: FCNL’s commitment to solidarity with Native American communities is rooted in the World We Seek, which is quoted below.

Native American communities were decimated by disease, genocidal episodes, and deprivation of lands on which their subsistence depended. The impacts of cultural genocide, structural racism, discrimination, and oppression continue. Federal policies and laws must conform to the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and recognize that Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Alaska Natives retain aboriginal rights.

Treaties and trust agreements contain solemn and binding promises that must be honored. The sanctity of land, water, air, and all forms of tribal lands should be respected. Tribal police and courts should have primary authority over all criminal activity on reservation lands.

Since 1976, FCNL’s Native American advocacy program has worked to hold the federal government accountable to tribes and to American Indian and Alaska Native people by advocating for legislation that will protect tribal sovereignty and treaty rights.

Truth and Healing for Indian Boarding Schools 

What is unique about these “schools” is not that they represented a departure from US policy on Native nations, but that they uniquely targeted the most vulnerable members of Native communities: children.

Indian Boarding Schools were one arm of the U.S. government’s centuries- long project to eradicate, dispossess, and assimilate Native peoples. What is unique about these “schools” is not that they represented a departure from US policy on Native nations, but that they uniquely targeted the most vulnerable members of Native communities: children.  

These schools replaced the U.S. policy of engaging in open warfare against any tribal nation that resisted settler attempts to encroach upon their land, welfare, and livelihoods. Instead of openly fighting Native people for their land, the U.S. endorsed a policy of assimilation. This was intended to undermine the cultural and community ties between Native peoples and make it harder for Native communities to resist the theft of their lands.  

From the mid 1800s through the 1960s, Christian churches collaborated with the federal government to force Native American children to attend Indian boarding schools. The boarding school system was pervasive—by 1926, at least 80% of Native children had attended a boarding school for at least some of their education. These schools were hotbeds of abuse, maltreatment, and disease. Often, they did not even attempt to provide a serious education for the children who lived there. Many children were permanently injured, traumatized, or killed while attending. The boarding school system did not formally end until the 1960s.  

FCNL, in keeping with our desire for true reconciliation between people of faith and Native communities, advocates for legislation that would investigate, document, and hear testimony related to the Indian Boarding School system. FNCL works closely with Native-led partner organizations to ensure that our advocacy includes Native voices at all levels.

Violence Against Native Women

Native American and Alaska Native women experience violence at disproportionate rates due the impacts of colonization and the jurisdictional challenges currently facing tribes. During the 2022 Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, FCNL worked hard to ensure that tribal communities would have the necessary jurisdiction on their land to combat domestic violence, stalking, and sexual violence. These provisions are crucial to addressing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) crisis.  

We have continued to advocate for legislation that supports, funds, and expands resources for tribal communities dealing with violence against Native women.