Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report

Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report

May 2022

Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs
Bryan Newland
. . . 

1. Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative  

On June 22, 2021, the 54th Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, directing the Department of the Interior (Department) by Secretarial Memorandum, to undertake an investigation of the loss of human life and lasting consequences of the Federal Indian boarding school system. For nearly two centuries, the Federal Government was responsible for operating or overseeing Indian boarding schools across the United States and its territories. Today, the Department is therefore uniquely positioned to assist in the effort to recover the histories of these institutions.   

As described further below, the United States has unique treaty and trust responsibilities to Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, Alaska Native Corporations, and the Native Hawaiian Community, including to protect Indian treaty rights and land and other assets. To support these political and legal obligations, the Department protects and stores critical archival records and other information relating to Indian Affairs. Important goals of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative include: 

• Identifying Federal Indian boarding school facilities and sites; 
• Identifying names and Tribal identities of Indian children who were placed in Federal Indian boarding schools; 
• Identifying locations of marked and unmarked burial sites of remains of Indian children located at or near school facilities; and  
• Incorporating Tribal and individual viewpoints, including those of descendants, on the experiences in, and impacts of, the Federal Indian boarding school system. 

The Department conducted the initial investigative work in several phases. The first phase included the identification and collection of records and information related to the Department’s oversight and implementation of the Federal Indian boarding school system. The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Bryan Newland sought input from Tribal leaders on determining the nature and scope of any proposed sitework, addressing cultural concerns and the potential dissemination of sensitive information generated from the existing records or from future sitework activities, and for the future protection of burial sites and potential repatriation or disinterment of remains of children under Federal law, including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and in coordination with other Federal agencies. Assistant Secretary Newland held formal consultations with Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, Alaska Native Corporations, and the Native Hawaiian Community on November 17, 18, and 23, 2021. Under the supervision of Assistant Secretary Newland, the Department prepared this report on the initial investigation of the Federal Indian boarding school system.  

2. Executive Summary 

Pursuant to the Secretarial Memorandum issued on June 22, 2021, Assistant Secretary Newland is leading the Department’s first investigation of the Federal Indian boarding school system. Federal records affirm that the United States targeted Indian and Native Hawaiian children as part of U.S.-Indian relations and U.S.-Native Hawaiian relations to enter the Federal Indian boarding school system, coinciding with Indian and Native Hawaiian territorial dispossession.  

In analyzing records under its control, the Department developed an official list of Federal Indian boarding schools for the first time. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), in partnership via a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department, was instrumental in the sharing of information and records pertinent to Federal development of the list. The Department has also started to identify locations of marked and unmarked burial sites of remains of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children at or near school facilities. 

The Department found that between 1819 to 1969, the Federal Indian boarding school system consisted of 408 Federal schools across 37 states or then-territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii. Some individual Federal Indian boarding schools accounted for multiple sites. The 408 Federal Indian boarding schools accordingly comprised 431 specific sites. The list of the names and locations of these schools are included in this report at Appendix A. Summaries for each school are provided in Appendix B. Maps of each current state showing the schools are provided in Appendix C. 

While Federal Indian boarding schools were as varied as the Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community they impacted and the geographic areas they were built in, the Department identified several common Federal Indian boarding school system features, described below, which remain under investigation.  

For a school to qualify as a Federal Indian boarding school, for the purpose of this investigation, the institution must meet four criteria, as described in greater detail below, including whether the institution (1) provided on-site housing or overnight lodging; (2) was described in records as providing formal academic or vocational training and instruction; (3) was described in records as receiving Federal Government funds or other support; and (4) was operational before 1969. 

Outside the scope of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, the Department identified over 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. 

Initial results show that the earliest opening date of a Federal Indian boarding school in the system was 1801, and the latest opening date was 1969. However, the open date does not necessarily correspond to when the Federal Indian boarding school was first documented as receiving Federal support. The average number of Federal Indian boarding schools in current states with identified Federal Indian boarding schools was 11 schools. The greatest concentration of schools in the Federal Indian boarding school system was in present-day Oklahoma with 76 Federal Indian boarding schools (19 percent of total); Arizona with 47 schools (12 percent of total); and New Mexico with 43 schools (11 percent of total). Initial investigation results show that approximately 50 percent of Federal Indian boarding schools may have received support or involvement from a religious institution or organization, including funding, infrastructure, and personnel. As the U.S. Senate has recognized, funds from the 1819 Civilization Fund “were apportioned among those societies and individuals—usually missionary organizations—that had been prominent in the effort to ‘civilize’ the Indians.”13 The Federal Government at times paid religious institutions and organizations on a per capita basis for Indian children to enter the Federal Indian boarding schools that these institutions and organizations groups operated.   

The investigation shows that the United States may have used monies held in Tribal trust accounts, including those based on cessions of Indian territories to the United States, to fund Indian children to attend Federal Indian boarding schools. 

Based on initial data, the investigation shows that between 1820–1932 attendance, enrollment, and capacity of Federal institutions used for Indian education, including Federal Indian boarding schools, Federal Indian day schools, sanitariums, asylums, and orphanages was as follows: 

• Attendance ranged from one child to over 1,000 children; 
• Enrollment ranged from one child to over 1,200 children; and 
• Capacity ranged from one child to over 1,700 children. 

The Federal Indian boarding school system deployed systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies to attempt to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children through education, including but not limited to the following: (1) renaming Indian children from Indian to English names; (2) cutting hair of Indian children; (3) discouraging or preventing the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages, religions, and cultural practices; and (4) organizing Indian and Native Hawaiian children into units to perform military drills. 

The Federal Indian boarding school system predominately included manual labor of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children as part of school curricula, including but not limited to the following: livestock and poultry raising; dairying; western agriculture production; fertilizing; lumbering; brick-making; cooking; garment-making; irrigation system development; and working on the railroad system.  

The Federal Indian boarding school system focused on manual labor and vocational skills that left American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian graduates with employment options often irrelevant to the industrial U.S. economy, further disrupting Tribal economies.  

Federal Indian boarding school rules were often enforced through punishment, including corporal punishment such as solitary confinement; flogging; withholding food; whipping; slapping; and cuffing. The Federal Indian boarding school system at times made older Indian children punish younger Indian children. 

Of the 408 Federal Indian boarding schools, approximately 90 schools (22 percent) might still operate as educational facilities. However, not all 90 institutions still board children or are federally supported.  

The Department’s investigation has already identified marked or unmarked burial sites at approximately 53 different schools across the Federal Indian boarding school system. As the investigation continues, the Department expects the number of identified burial sites to increase. The composition of the approximate numbers of identified burial sites to date is as follows: 

• Marked burial sites – 33 
• Unmarked burial sites – 6 
• Both marked and unmarked burial sites present at a school location – 14 

The Department will not make public the specific locations of burial sites associated with the Federal Indian boarding school system in order to protect against well-documented grave-robbing, vandalism, and other disturbances to Indian burial sites. 

Based on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative investigation’s initial analysis, approximately 19 Federal Indian boarding schools accounted for over 500 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian child deaths. As the investigation continues, the Department expects the number of recorded deaths to increase. 

This report also includes Appendix D with a summary of the views that Tribal leaders and representatives expressed during a formal Nation-to-Nation consultation process. During those consultations, Tribal leaders and representatives discussed the importance of protecting burial sites and strengthening protections under NAGPRA. Other consultation participants expressed the importance of accounting for the experiences of individuals and their families within the Federal Indian boarding school system, and advocated for the Federal Government to provide an opportunity for them to share those experiences on the record.  

This report does not include an exhaustive list of all burial sites across the Federal Indian boarding school system, nor does this report identify the children who were placed in or attended Federal Indian boarding schools. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic limited the Department’s ability to access facilities containing important records relevant to this investigation. In addition, the Department was operating under a series of continuing resolutions from October 1, 2021, until the FY 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-103) was enacted on March 15, 2022. The absence of specific appropriations limited the scope of the Department’s ability to carry out some of the research needed for this investigation. Lastly, this report does not analyze the connection between the Federal Indian boarding school system and present-day experiences of people in Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community across the United States.   

Assistant Secretary Newland makes eight recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior to fulfill the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, including producing a list of marked and unmarked burial sites at Federal Indian boarding schools and an approximation of the total amount of Federal funding used to support the Federal Indian boarding school system, including any monies that may have come from Tribal and individual Indian trust accounts held in trust by the United States. Assistant Secretary Newland ultimately concludes that further investigation is required to determine the legacy impacts of the Federal Indian boarding school system on American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians today. 

. . . 

18. Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Findings and Conclusions 

The Assistant Secretary’s findings of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which remain under investigation, based on examination of records under its control, include the following: 

1. The Federal Indian boarding system was expansive, consisting of 408 Federal Indian boarding schools, comprised of 431 specific sites, across 37 states or then-territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii.  
    
2. Multiple generations of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were induced or compelled by the Federal Government to experience the Federal Indian boarding school system, given their political and legal status as Indians and Native Hawaiians. 
    
3. The twin Federal policy of Indian territorial dispossession and Indian assimilation through Indian education extended beyond the Federal Indian boarding school system, including an identified 1,000+ other Federal and non-Federal institutions, including Indian day schools, sanitariums, asylums, orphanages, and stand-alone dormitories that involved education of Indian people, mainly Indian children. 
    
4. Funding for the Federal Indian boarding school system included both Federal funds through congressional appropriations and funds obtained from Tribal trust accounts for the benefit of Indians and maintained by the United States. 
    
5. The Federal Indian boarding school system deployed militarized and identity-alteration methodologies to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people—primarily children—through education.  
    
6. The Federal Indian boarding school system predominately utilized manual labor of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children to compensate for the poor conditions of school facilities and lack of financial support from the Federal Government. 
    
7. The Federal Indian boarding school system discouraged or prevented the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages or cultural or religious practices through punishment, including corporal punishment. 
    
8. Tribal preferences for the possible disinterment or repatriation of remains of children discovered in marked or unmarked burial sites across the Federal Indian boarding school system vary widely. Depending on the religious and cultural practices of an Indian Tribe, Alaska Native Village, or the Native Hawaiian Community, it may prefer to disinter or repatriate any remains of a child discovered across the Federal Indian boarding school system for return to the child’s home territory or to leave the child’s remains undisturbed in its current burial site. Moreover, some burial sites contain human remains or parts of remains of multiple individuals or human remains that were relocated from other burial sites, thereby preventing Tribal and individual identification.   
    
9. The Federal Government has not provided a forum or opportunity for survivors or descendants of survivors of Federal Indian boarding schools, or their families, to voluntarily detail their experiences in the Federal Indian boarding school system. 

Based on the initial findings of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which remain under investigation, and despite factors outside the Department’s control, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and funding issues, the Assistant Secretary concludes that: 

1. The United States’ creation of the Federal Indian boarding school system was part of a broader policy aimed at acquiring collective territories from Indian Tribes, Alaska Natives, and the Native Hawaiian Community and lands from individuals therein. From the earliest days of the Republic, the United States’ official objective—based on Federal and other records—was to sever the cultural and economic connection between Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, the Native Hawaiian Community, and their territories. The assimilation of Indian children through the Federal Indian boarding school system was intentional and part of that broader goal of Indian territorial dispossession for the expansion of the United States.  
    
2. Assimilation of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people eventually became an objective of Federal policy in and of itself. The Federal Indian boarding school policies targeted Indian children as one method to accomplish this objective.  
    
3. The intentional targeting and removal of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children to achieve the goal of forced assimilation of Indian people was both traumatic and violent. Based on initial research, the Department finds that hundreds of Indian children died throughout the Federal Indian boarding school system. The Department expects that continued investigation will reveal the approximate number of Indian children who died at Federal Indian boarding schools to be in the thousands or tens of thousands. Many of those children were buried in unmarked or poorly maintained burial sites far from their Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, the Native Hawaiian Community, and families, often hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away. The Department’s research revealed at least 53 different burial sites across the Federal Indian boarding school system and leads to an expectation that there are many more burial sites that will be identified with further research. The deaths of Indian children while under the care of the Federal Government, or federally supported institutions, led to the breakup of Indian families and the erosion of Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community.  
    
4. Many more Indian children who survived the Federal Indian boarding school system live(d) with their experiences from the school(s). Moreover, several generations of Indian children experienced the Federal Indian boarding school system. The Federal Indian boarding school system directly disrupted Indian families, Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community for nearly two centuries.  
    
5. Further review is required to determine the reach and impact of the violence and trauma inflicted on Indian children through the Federal Indian boarding school system. The Department has recognized that targeting Indian children for the Federal policy of Indian assimilation contributed to the loss of the following: (1) life; (2) physical and mental health; (3) territories and wealth; (4) Tribal and family relations; and (5) use of Tribal languages. This policy also caused the erosion of Tribal religious and cultural practices for Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community, and over many generations.  

19. Recommendations of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Bryan Newland

For nearly two full centuries, the United States pursued, embraced, or permitted a policy of forced assimilation of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people. The Federal Indian boarding school system was developed to target Indian children to accomplish this policy objective for over 150 years and influence U.S.-Indian relations and U.S.-Native Hawaiian relations. The Department must fully account for its role in this effort and renounce forced assimilation of Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community as a legitimate policy objective. 

To begin the process of healing from the harm and violence caused by assimilation policy, the Department should affirm an express policy of cultural revitalization— supporting the work of Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community to revitalize their languages, cultural practices, and traditional food systems, and to protect and strengthen intra-Tribal relations.  

To complete the Secretary’s objectives of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, and to begin the pursuit of this express policy, the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs provides the following recommendations based on the current findings:  

1. Continue full investigation. Support Secretary Haaland to authorize further investigation of the Federal Indian boarding school system to complete a comprehensive review of records under the Department’s control. Congress appropriated $7 million in new funds through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law 117-103) to authorize action by the Department to expand its investigation of the Federal Indian boarding school system, with funds that are continued as part of the FY 2023 President’s request.
   
   Conduct several additional, critical research priorities including digitization, examination, and analysis of records from both AIRR and NARA. The BTFA identified 39,385 boxes in AIRR with potentially responsive documents (approximately 98.4 million sheets of paper).   
   
   Recognize that specific needs and priorities include, but are not limited to, identification and evaluation of available records, such as Indian boarding school facilities and planning documents, enrollment records and vital statistics, correspondence, maps, photographs, and administrative reports, that:  
   • Approximate the total number of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children that attended Federal Indian boarding schools;  
   • Approximate the total number of marked and unmarked burial sites associated with Federal Indian boarding schools;   
   • Locate marked and unmarked burial sites associated with a particular Indian boarding school facility or site, which may later be used to assist in locating unidentified remains of Indian children, Indian Prisoners of War, and Freedmen from the Five Civilized Tribes;   
   • Expand the summary profiles of individual Federal Indian boarding schools; 
   • Detail the health and mortality of Indian children who experienced the Federal Indian boarding school system, which may later be used to develop dataset(s) for analysis of health impacts of Indian boarding school attendance, including an approximate mortality rate for attendees, as the Department was responsible for the health care of American Indians and Alaska Natives until 1954;  
   • Identify documented methodologies and practices used in the Federal Indian boarding school system that discouraged or prevented the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages or cultural or religious practices;  
   • Approximate the amount of Federal support, including financial, property, livestock and animals, equipment, and personnel for the Federal Indian boarding school system, recognizing that some records are no longer available;   
   • Approximate the amount of Tribal or individual Indian trust funds held by the United States in trust that were used to support the Federal Indian boarding school system, including to non-Federal entities and, or individuals, recognizing that some records are no longer available;  
   • Identify religious institutions and organizations that have ever received Federal funding in support of the Federal Indian boarding school system;
   • Identify States that may have ever received Federal funding in support of the Federal Indian boarding school system;  
   • Identify nonprofits, associations, academic institutions, philanthropies, and other organizations that may have received Federal funding in support of the Federal Indian boarding school system;  
   • Confirm additional sites within the Federal Indian boarding school system; 
   • Examine the connection between the use of Federal Indian boarding schools and subsequent systematic foster care and adoption programs to remove Indian children, including the Indian Adoption Project established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Child Welfare League of America, that were not repudiated by Congress until the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.
      
   With additional investigation, produce a second report by the Department, including the following: (1) determining locations of marked or unmarked burial sites associated with the Federal Indian boarding school system; (2) identifying names, ages, and Tribal affiliations of children interred at such locations; and (3) approximating a full accounting of Federal support for the Federal Indian boarding school system, including a proactive approximate accounting of any Tribal and, or individual Indian trust funds held in trust by the United States used to support the Federal Indian boarding school system. The portions of that report that contain sensitive information such as individual names or locations of burial sites will not be released to the public. 
   
   Continue departmental engagement and support of relevant Federal agencies that have control or possession of records pertaining to the Federal Indian boarding school system.
    
2. Identify surviving Federal Indian boarding school attendees. Develop a system for voluntary identification of surviving now-adult attendees, including communication methodologies.    
    
3. Document Federal Indian boarding school attendee experiences. Develop a platform for now-adult Federal Indian boarding school attendees and their descendants to formally document their historical accounts and experiences, and understand current impacts such as health status, including substance abuse and violence.  
    
4. Support protection, preservation, reclamation, and co-management of sites across the Federal Indian boarding school system where the Federal Government has jurisdiction over a location. 
    
5. Develop a specific repository of Federal records involving the Federal Indian boarding school system at the Department of the Interior Library to preserve centralized Federal expertise on the Federal Indian boarding school system. 
    
6. Identify and engage other Federal agencies to support the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, including those with control of any records involving the Federal Indian boarding school system or that provide health care to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, including for the provision of mental health services to students attending Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) operated and funded schools. 
    
7. Support non-Federal entities that may independently release records under their control. To make the Federal investigation more thorough and accurate, support non-Federal entities, such as States and religious institutions and organizations, including those that have received Federal funding to operate Federal Indian boarding schools, that may independently release records relating to the Federal Indian boarding school system such as those that cover Indian child removal and provision of health care services to Indians, including at military installations.   
    
8. Support Congressional action involving the following policies:  
   • NAGPRA. Support exemptions from Freedom of Information Act requests to protect sensitive, specific information on burial locations across the Federal Indian boarding school system that contain remains of Indian children to prevent against well-documented grave-robbing, vandalism, and other disturbances to Indian burial sites. 
      
     • Support action to direct Federal agencies that control cemeteries to allow the reburial of remains of Indian children and funerary objects repatriated pursuant to NAGPRA, and consistent with specific Tribal practices. Amendment of the Recreation and Public Purposes Act may be needed to facilitate use of BLM lands for this purpose. 
        
     • Support action to increase appropriations and professional staffing for programs in Federal agencies that are responsible for agency compliance with NAGPRA. 
        
     • Support action to authorize the appropriate agencies to disinter or repatriate, under the direction of an Indian Tribe, Alaska Native Village, or the Native Hawaiian Community, or family with an identified interest, and consistent with specific Tribal practices, any remains of Indian children discovered in marked or unmarked burial sites associated with the Federal Indian boarding school system. 
        
   • Advance Native language revitalization. Support funding for the expansion and development of programs implementing or supporting Native language revitalization for Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) operated and funded schools, as well as non-BIE schools. Also work to seek funding for the expansion and development of programs outside BIE schools implementing or supporting Native language revitalization, including language immersion schools and community organizations. 
      
   • Promote Indian health research. Support scientific studies that turn discovery into health by appropriating specific funds to authorize Federally funded research on the Federal Indian boarding school system, including health impacts on Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community and individual American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. 
      
   • Recognize the generations of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children that experienced the Federal Indian boarding school system with a Federal memorial.