U.S. investigation finds Indigenous burial sites at 53 boarding schools – National

An Inside Division investigation into the darkish historical past of Indian boarding colleges has discovered “marked or unmarked burial websites” at some 53 colleges, Secretary Deb Haaland stated on Wednesday.

Haaland, the primary Native American cupboard member, final yr introduced the investigation.

A former congresswoman from New Mexico and the primary Native American to function a cupboard secretary, Haaland in 2020 launched laws calling for a Reality and Therapeutic Fee into situations at former Indian boarding colleges. That laws remains to be pending.

“The results of federal Indian boarding faculty insurance policies … are heartbreaking and simple,” Haaland stated in a press release. “It’s my precedence to not solely give voice to the survivors and descendants of federal Indian boarding faculty insurance policies, but additionally to handle the lasting legacies of those insurance policies so Indigenous Peoples can proceed to develop and heal.”

Situations at former Indian boarding colleges gained international consideration final yr when tribal leaders in canada introduced the invention of the unmarked graves of 215 youngsters on the website of the previous Kamloops residential faculty for indigenous youngsters, as such establishments are recognized in canada.

Not like the USA, canada carried out a full investigation into its colleges by way of a Reality and Reconciliation Fee.

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Till Wednesday, the U.S. authorities had but to supply any true accounting of the legacy of such colleges, together with by no means acknowledging what number of youngsters attended them, what number of youngsters died or went lacking from them and even what number of colleges existed.

For over 150 years, Native American youngsters in the USA had been forcibly faraway from their tribes and despatched to such colleges starting in 1819 in an effort at pressured assimilation.

Faculties had been run by the U.S. authorities or by church buildings in shut connection to the federal government. Many youngsters had been abused on the colleges, and tens of hundreds had been by no means heard from once more, activists and researchers say.