Faith Statement Supporting the Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Mark 9:37  

As faith-based organizations, including representatives of religious denominations and congregations that operated many boarding schools for Indigenous children, we applaud the reintroduction of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act in the 119th Congress. We urge all members of Congress to support this important legislation, and we hope for its passage and enactment this year.  

From the 1860s through as late as the 1960s, U.S. federal boarding school policies sought to assimilate Native children into white American culture. Because we recognize that the Indian boarding school policy, while perhaps undertaken with good intent, was morally wrong and contrary to the teachings of our own faiths, many denominations and religious groups have begun facing our own histories of harm with respect to Indian boarding schools. However, the faith community cannot do this work alone. The reach of the Indian Boarding School system extends far beyond the ability of one denomination to address.  

Our faith traditions emphasize the importance of the family, especially the right of families to raise their children how they see fit. The Indian Boarding School system undermined the institution of the family in Native communities by willfully preventing Native parents, grandparents, and relatives from raising their children. For over a hundred years, the U.S. federal government and faith groups engaged in gross, repeated, and targeted interference with Native families and children.  

Existing research from Native academics, researchers, tribal leaders, boarding school survivors and descendants, our own religious institutions, and others documents an intense focus on cultural assimilation. These policies taught Indigenous children that their traditional lifeways were inferior. Additional horrors included:  

• children separated from their families and communities, in many cases against the wishes of their parents, and sent far away from their homes;  
• children punished for speaking their Native language or practicing their traditional spirituality or culture; and  
• children physically, sexually, and/or emotionally abused.

Many children never returned home. We know now that some of them died, either from disease or from abuse and lack of care, without having communication with their parents or their Tribal community. Numerous Native communities today do not know what became of their children who were taken away, including where children may be buried.  

Much remains unknown about the Indian Boarding School Era. The Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative began a necessary oversight investigation, but significant work lies ahead. The Washington Post’s reporting from December of 2024 emphasizes how little the government knows about its own involvement in these schools. The magnitude of the task and the federal government’s central role in Indian boarding school policies necessitate the establishment of a formal commission to investigate, document, and acknowledge these past injustices.

Facing these sins, committed in the name of Christianity, has been challenging, but it is also proven to be a tremendous blessing. Confronting the truth is a crucial first step toward laying a new foundation for right relationships with Native communities. We recognize that any federal investigation must be undertaken with the full and willing participation of faith communities. We are committed to the establishment of an effective, truth-finding Commission and will support this work in good faith.

We ask you to bring the federal government into this process by establishing a federal Commission to rigorously examine U.S. Indian boarding school policies. In consultation with Indigenous communities and faith groups, the Commission should examine the harms caused by these policies and make recommendations to Congress to address historic and lasting imprints.  

We look forward to working with Congress, the federal government, and Native communities in all these efforts.

Signed,  

Alliance of Baptists  
American Friends Service Committee  
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces  
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF)  
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington, DC  
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America  
Franciscan Action Network  
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Hindus for Human Rights  
Mennonite Central Committee U.S.  
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd  
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice  
The Episcopal Church  
The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society  
United Church of Christ  
United Women in Faith
Washington State Partners for Social Change