Native Boarding Schools

Significant progress has been made in Congress in recent weeks on legislation aimed at addressing the horrific legacy of Native boarding schools.

On May 11, the Department of the Interior released the first volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Report. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland first announced the creation of the Initiative last June, with a primary goal of investigating the loss of human life and the lasting consequences of these schools. The report was assembled with the input of tribal governments, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian communities.

FCNL welcomed the release of the first volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative’s long-awaited investigative report.

Many Quaker organizations, meetings, and churches are sharing their concern around Indigenous justice and Indian boarding schools.

Following FCNL’s tradition of witnessing in solidarity with Native Americans, we are amplifying the efforts of Native advocates to formalize this truth-telling process in current legislation.

FCNL welcomed important legislation to investigate and address the atrocities committed at Indian boarding schools throughout the US in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Quakers managed at least 30 of these schools, and conditions were brutal.