Haaland: Report on Indigenous boarding schools expected soon

The Interior Department said it had no further details when contacted by The Associated Press.

The work on boarding schools will include compiling and reviewing records to identify past schools, locate known and possible burial sites at or near those schools, and uncover the names and tribal affiliations of students, Haaland said.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition signed an agreement with the Interior Department in December to share research but has noted that Interior’s authority is limited.

“We see it as a critical first step for this country to acknowledge and address the horrors and cultural genocide our Native children, families and tribal nations suffered through Indian boarding schools run by the federal government and churches,” said Deborah Parker, the coalitions’ chief executive and a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes.

The coalition is in Washington this week pushing for bills that would create a commission to expand on Interior’s findings, said spokeswoman Lora Horgen, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.

Haaland made her remarks on boarding schools in highlighting the work she and others in the Interior Department have done since she took over the agency a year ago. Haaland, of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, is the first Native American ever to hold the post — raising the hopes of Indian Country for significant changes in an agency that has broad oversight of tribal affairs.