SUPPORT FOR THE TRUTH AND HEALING COMMISSION ON INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL POLICIES ACT AND ASSOCIATED EFFORTS

WHEREAS, the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report of May 2022 concluded that 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, severing the cultural and economic connection between Indian tribes, Alaska Native Villages, the Native Hawaiian community and their territories, and assimilating Indian children through the federal Indian boarding school system; and

WHEREAS, the federal Indian boarding school system was expansive, consisting of 408 federal Indian boarding schools, often church-run, comprising 431 specific sites, across 37 states or then-territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and seven schools in Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, 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; and 

WHEREAS, 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; and

WHEREAS, the federal Indian boarding school system predominantly 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; and

WHEREAS, 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; and

WHEREAS, 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, resulting in thousands of children dying at federal Indian boarding schools, many 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; and

WHEREAS, the federal Indian boarding school system directly disrupted Indian families, Indian tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian community for nearly two centuries; and the 2018 Broken Promises Report published by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reported that American Indian and Alaska Native communities continue to experience intergenerational trauma resulting from experiences in Indian boarding schools, which divided cultural family structures, damaged Indigenous identities, and inflicted chronic psychological ramifications on American Indian and Alaska Native children and families; and

WHEREAS, today over 90 percent of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students are enrolled in our public schools, and in schools operated or funded by the Bureau of Indian Education; and

WHEREAS, Congress introduced legislation to establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States, and for other purposes, cited as the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, on Sept. 30, 2021; and

WHEREAS, the purposes of this act are to establish a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy in the United States to fully investigate and document the scope and impact of such policies including identifying surviving Federal Indian boarding school attendees and documenting their experiences, advancing Native language revitalization, promoting Indian health research, and recognizing the generations of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children that experienced the federal Indian boarding school system with a federal memorial: 

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers will use its resources to advocate for the passage of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (H.R. 5444 and S. 2907) and similar initiatives to hold the federal government accountable for, and redress and heal, the historical and intergenerational trauma inflicted by the Indian boarding school policies; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will provide resources to inform and educate AFT members and the school community as a whole about the historical and intergenerational traumatic impact; and

RESOLVED, that as the process moves forward with the Department of the Interior, the AFT will advocate for AFT members to participate in future studies and commissions that support the goals of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (H.R. 5444 and S. 2907).

(July 17, 2022)