Native Boarding Schools

In a major win for Native survivors and communities, Congress took an important step forward last week in the journey to reconciliation and healing from the harms of the Indian boarding schools era.

This week, Congress took an important step toward addressing the painful legacy of Indian boarding schools.

On Thursday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (H.R. 7227) with overwhelming bipartisan support.

We hope Congress will move swiftly to bring this bill to the floor and pass it so that we can begin the long overdue work of truth, justice, and healing for Native communities.

During Spring Lobby Weekend, March 16-19, 2024, we asked several participants why they lobby for The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (H.R. 7227/S. 1723).

The United States has never acknowledged the historic trauma and pain of the Indian boarding school era—a dark chapter in our history full of terror and cultural genocide against Native children, families, and their communities.

From the early 1800s through the 1960s, Christian churches collaborated with the federal government to create hundreds of boarding schools which Native American children were forced to attend. The conditions at these institutions were horrific—yet, the federal government has never conducted a full exploration of the harms and impacts of this federal policy. 

More than 300 young adults lobbied Congress this week supporting the bipartisan Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.

In 2021, the bodies of nine Native American children who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School were returned home, more than 100 years after U.S. government policies forcibly separated them from their families and communities. These children were members of the Rosebud Sioux (Sicangu Lakota) Nation in South Dakota.

FCNL welcomed the re-reintroduction of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Policies in the U.S. Act.

In this video, Paula discusses Friends’ role in the traumas inflicted on the indigenous peoples of North America since the arrival of European colonists—particularly in the administration of boarding schools where Native children were forced to abandon their heritage and embrace the ways of White Christian culture, where they would never be truly accepted as equals.

As a Quaker, I find it painful to face our history of participation in these schools. But we cannot live our faith with integrity if we do not.