SALEM, Ore. — There is a dark history involving what began happening to Indigenous people in the 1800s. Children were taken from families and placed into federally sanctioned Indian boarding schools.
“They […] moved to exterminate eradicate and assimilate Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, the languages, cultures, religions, traditional practices and even the history of Native communities. All of it was targeted for destruction. Nowhere is that clearer than in the legacy of federal Indian boarding schools,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
Last summer, Haaland launched an investigation at the federal level into the history of Indian boarding schools in the United States.
On Wednesday, the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report was released. It is about 100 pages long, and it’s the first investigation into the Indian boarding school system conducted by the U.S. government.
It’s part of an effort to examine and recognize the dark history the U.S. has in its treatment of Indigenous people and the fallout that is still occurring.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior held a press conference to announce the completion of the first volume of the investigation.
“The fact I am standing here today as the first Indigenous cabinet secretary is a testament to the strength and determination of Native people,” said Haaland.
“For more than a century, tens of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their communities and forced into boarding schools run by the U.S. government,” Haaland continued.
“'Kill the Indian and spare the man' was the statement that was made,” said Representative Tawna Sanchez, who represents North and Northeast Portland. “The effort was to assimilate us into American society, to take away our language, to take away our culture and to take our land.”
She’s the second Native person to serve in the Oregon legislature and is also the director of family services at the Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland. She said the investigation is important for many reasons.
“It’s sort of, again, shining that light — but it might also be an answer to why things are the way they are,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez and others say the information helps inform many topics involving Indigenous people, from issues around education to incarceration. In some parts of the country, incarceration rates for Native Americans exceed their percentage of the population.
Sanchez said the information is also heavy and could potentially re-traumatize people. The hurt, for many, runs deep.
“This has left lasting scars for all Indigenous people,” said Bryan Newland, Department of Interior Assistant Secretary. “Our work shows that from 1819 to 1969 the United States operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states, or then territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and seven in Hawaii.”
Oregon had nine boarding schools, one of which still operates today in a much different capacity. But it still shares the same troubled past as other boarding schools.
Chemawa Indian School is located in Salem. The school has a cemetery nearby. Pacific University researchers have documented nearly 300 students buried there. Indigenous community members say while sickness did spread in schools, there were also abuses that occurred.
The federal investigation found that across the country, there were 53 marked and unmarked burial sites. It also found that about 19 boarding schools accounted for more than 500 child deaths. As research and investigation continues, that number is expected to rise.
“Many died, often far from their homes and families,” said Newland.
But many children also survived. One of them is James Labelle, Sr. who remembers his time at a boarding school in Alaska.
“I learned everything about the European-American culture, its history, language, civilizations, math, science, but I didn’t know anything about who I was as a Native person,” said Labelle, who is also the vice president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
The impact of Indian boarding schools is intergenerational and trickles down.
“I don’t speak my language and I have limited ability to engage in my own culture and that is a huge loss,” Sanchez said.
With the pain of discovering dark truths about our nation’s history, the hope is that there will be healing.
“Our children deserve to be found. Our children deserve to be brought home,” said Deborah Parker, CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
“Every worthwhile journey begins with its first step. This report is not an end to that journey, it’s a beginning,” Newland said.
“The work we will do with the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative will have a transformational impact on the generations who follow,” said Haaland.
Newland said Congress provided $7 million to the Department of the Interior to advance the investigation. Next, the investigation will focus on discovering more details, like the names, ages and tribal affiliations of children.
“After generations, we still do not know how many children attended, how many children died, or how many children were scarred for life because of these federal institutions,” said Parker.
Investigators will also be looking into the approximate amount of federal financial support given to boarding schools as well as identifying religious institutions that received federal funding to help operate the schools.
Newland said about 50% of federal Indian boarding schools may have received support or involvement from religious institutions.
For Sanchez, the completion of the first volume of the investigation underscores the importance of representation.
“If Deb Haaland was not there, [the investigation] would not likely happen, not to this degree. That is a sad reality,” said Sanchez.
During the press conference, Haaland said she plans to embark on a “Road to Healing” where the intention is to collect stories from Native Americans from across the country in order to create a collection of permanent oral history.
U.S. Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department. He released a statement Wednesday underlining the importance of the report and the troubling history it uncovered:
“The historic injustices committed against Native Americans in Oregon and across the U.S. have gone overlooked and undiscussed for far too long. The Interior Department’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative is a critical effort to shed light on the dark period in our country’s history that attempted to force Indigenous children to assimilate by separating them from their families, homes, and cultures. Many children died without their families ever knowing what happened. The trauma these policies of emotional and physical abuse have caused, and continue to cause for Tribal communities to this day, cannot be overstated.
“Oregon played a role in this painful history, with 10 different federal Indian boarding schools since statehood. By compiling the first official count of these schools and initial list of burial grounds, the federal government is finally taking a significant step to address the devastating consequences of its actions and help create a path forward for Indigenous people to recover from the pain and betrayal.
“Erasing the ugly parts of our history only extends those injustices. It is imperative that we acknowledge the wrongs we have committed as a nation not to cast shame on anyone, but to bring healing to the victims and to learn from them so we do not repeat the past. As Chair of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee in the Senate and as an American, I look forward to continuing to support this important work, grow my understanding of this history, take steps to right these historic wrongs, and do all we can to help Native communities heal and thrive.”