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- By Native News Online Staff
We’re compiling questions that our readers are asking us about Indian Boarding Schools and offering answers as reported by our team.
My mother went to boarding school. She has passed. How will this investigation and legislation help the children of those who attended these schools? It is generational.
Based on the findings from the initial investigative report, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland have begun a yearlong tour to hear directly from survivors and their descendants on the impact of boarding school on their families and communities.
The so-called Road the Healing Tour began last month in Caddo County, Oklahoma. In the coming months, Haaland will travel to Hawai’i, Michigan, Arizona, and South Dakota as part of The Road to Healing tour in 2022. Additional states will be announced for 2023.
The idea is that, once the government documents the scope of the impact boarding school has caused in Native communities today, they will be better equipped to address the spiritual, economic, and physical health outcomes.
For example, paraphrasing the words of New Mexican Senator Ben Ray Luján during a Senate Committee hearing on the boarding school investigative report last month, the government needs to find out how much money it spent on Indian Boarding Schools so it knows the cost of investment into revitalizing Native languages, traditions, and culture it tried to erase.
How can I get a copy of the report, which I am certain answers many questions I have. Thank you.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs published the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report on its website on May 11, 2022, including profiles and maps of each school.
Read previous Q & As on Indian Boarding Schools
Readers Ask Us 1, June 7th
Readers Ask Us 2, June 10
If you have a question about Indian Boarding Schools, please submit them to [email protected] or use the online form that can be found at the bottom of stories such as this one. Want to help us shine a light on the dark era of Indian Boarding Schools and their continued impact on Native families and communities today? Become a recurring donor for $5 or $10 a month, or make a one-time donation.
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