FLAGSTAFF, Arizona (AP) — The U.S. government has embarked on an effort to document the oral histories of boarding school survivors and descendants who sought to “civilize” Indigenous students through often abusive practices. I’m here.
The Department of the Interior on Wednesday announced a partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities to document the experiences of thousands of Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian students in federally funded schools across the country.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has donated $4 million to this project.
“The first step in addressing the intergenerational impact of these schools is to reinstate the history of federalism intended to separate families, erase Indigenous languages and cultures, and confiscate Indigenous lands. It’s about acknowledging it head-on and investigating it,” chairman Sherry Rowe said in a statement. Rowe is Navajo.
The fund supports other efforts, including a permanent boarding school exhibit at the Heard Museum in Phoenix and a records digitization and transcription project at the Genoa Indian School in Nebraska.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo, has made it a priority to publicly investigate trauma caused by schools. To point out, it published the first report of its kind. The religious and private institutions that run many schools have been partners willing to receive federal funding and assimilate Indigenous students.
The United States enacted laws and policies to support schools in 1819, but most of them closed long ago. Nothing yet exists to strip students of their identity.
Victims and survivors of government-backed boarding schools share emotional stories during a ‘Road to Healing’ tour hosted by the Home Office. I remembered having my hair cut to find out, and the physical and emotional abuse.
In the first volume of its investigation report on boarding schools, the Home Office found that at least 500 children had died in several schools, but that number is expected to rise dramatically as the investigation progresses. A second volume is due by the end of the year, according to the agency.
The tour included stops in Oklahoma, South Dakota, Michigan, Arizona, the Navajo Nation, and most recently, the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Washington.
Harland says the oral history collection is an extension of the tour and is offered at the request of the Indigenous community. Future generations will be sure to learn from those stories, she said in a statement. “It’s one of the many steps we’re taking to strengthen and rebuild,” Harland said.
