Newly released federal report begins to document extent of Boarding School damage to Indian children

The U.S. Department of Interior this month released its first report documenting the historical and ongoing trauma the boarding school system inflicted on Indian children, their families, and their communities. It’s a first step in national efforts towards truth telling, education, and repair with Indigenous communities.

The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report:

• Confirms the United States created the boarding school system to force cultural assimilation and dispossession Indigenous peoples of their lands.
• Identifies 408 boarding schools across 37 states that the U.S. government operated or supported. Roughly half of them “may have received support or involvement from a religious institution or organization.”
• Identifies at least 53 burial sites for children who lived in boarding schools — with more discoveries expected. Approximately 19 boarding schools accounted for the deaths of more than 500 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children. That number is expected to rise.
• Identifies more than 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, mainly Indian children.”

Changing racist place names, including the s-word

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland declared the “s-word” (squaw) derogatory and began a process to remove it and other derogatory names from various geographic features around the county.

This is part of a growing effort to remove racist and derogatory place names.

For instance, a federal panel recently approved renaming S-word Mountain in Colorado to Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain, which honors Owl Woman, an influential translator who mediated between Native people and white colonists. Last fall, the S-word Valley Ski Resort in California renamed itself Palisades Tahoe.

Haaland, Dept. of Interior, launch review of ‘troubled legacy’ of U.S. Indian boarding schools

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced this week she has ordered a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding schools, which operated for much of the 19th and 20th centuries with the primary goal of assimilating Indian children into European culture.

Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and the first Native American person to hold a cabinet level position. She has directed her staff to research historical boarding school records, with an emphasis on cemeteries or potential burial sites, and publish a report, according to a Department media release.

The Twin Cities-based Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) applauded the news.

“NABS believes this investigation will provide critical resources to address the ongoing historical trauma of Indian boarding schools,” the organization said in a media release. “Our organization has been pursuing truth, justice, and healing for boarding school survivors, descendants, and tribal communities.”

Line 3 updates: Efforts to bring Interior Secretary Haaland to MN, connecting with frontline resistance camps, and more

In other news, Mendota Dakota apply for federal recognition

In this blog:

• Indigenous women leaders invite Interior Secretary Haaland to visit and Learn about Line 3
• Opportunities to connect with frontline Line 3 resistance camps
• MN House bill would block state funding for Line 3 court challenges
• DNR approves nearly ten-fold increase in Enbridge dewatering plans
• Decoding Line 3 language
• Mendota Dakota apply for federal recognition

News and Events: Biden to nix Keystone XL, remembering the 1898 overthrow of Wilmington, N.C. by white supremacists, and more

In this blog:

• President-elect Biden to cancel Keystone XL pipeline permit his first day in office, news reports say
• Tribes slam Minnesota U.S. Representative for trying to derail confirmation of first Native American to lead the U.S. Dept. of the Interior
• Remembering the 1898 white supremacist overthrow of Wilmington, N.C. city government
• Free online screening of Dawnland, a film on Maine’s truth and reconciliation effort with Native peoples, Jan. 28
• Direct action against Line 3 in Fond du Lac on MLK Day