JAKARTA - A Department of Home Affairs investigation into the dark history of Native American boarding schools in the United States has uncovered marked and unmarked burial sites in about 53 schools, Home Secretary Deb Haaland said.
Secretary Haaland, who is the first Native American in the cabinet, announced the investigation last year. In releasing initial findings Wednesday during a press conference in Washington, speaking in a choked voice and shedding tears.
"Federal policies seeking to erase indigenous identities, language,s and cultures continue to manifest in the suffering that tribal communities face today," Haaland said.
"We have to explain the unspoken trauma of the past," she said.
As of Wednesday, the U.S. Government had not provided true accountability for the legacy of schools, which use education to change culture, so that tribal lands can be taken. Families are forced to send their children to school.
To compile the Haaland report, the researchers found records at 408 schools that received federal funding from 1819 to 1969, and another 89 schools that did not receive government money.
About half the schools are run for the government by or supported by churches of various denominations. Many children are abused at school, while tens of thousands are never heard from again, activists and researchers say.
The report notes that "rampant physical, sexual and emotional abuse" occurs in schools and is well documented. So far investigations have found more than 500 children who died while in school custody. Investigators say they hope to uncover more deaths.
Haaland said she embarked on a year-long "road to healing" tour to listen to survivors of the boarding school system. The aim of the investigation is to further estimate the number of children attending school, find more burial sites and identify how much federal money goes to churches that take part in the school system, among other issues.
She said Congress had provided $7 million to continue research this year, which he said was critical to helping Native Americans recover.
Former congressman from New Mexico, Haaland in 2020 introduced legislation calling for a Truth and Healing Commission into conditions in former Native American boarding schools. The regulation is still in process.
Separately, Deborah Parker, head of the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition which is assisting the Department of the Interior with its investigation, said the report only scratched the surface of the trauma.
"Our children have names. Our children have families. Our children have their own language," she told a news conference.
"Our children had their own mark of greatness, prayer, and religion before Indian boarding schools ruthlessly took them away," she said.
Furthermore, the researchers examined government records and spoke with Native Americans to prepare reports. The results detail the history of at least 1801, when the first schools opened, and where education was used as a weapon.
Native American affairs, including education, were the responsibility of the War Department until 1849 and the military remained involved even after civilians took over, the report noted.
The schools are described as resembling military academies in their setting and strictness and emphasizing vocational skills. Police were asked to force families to send their children to school. Food is not given to families as another way to force them to give up their children.
"This includes the methodology of militarization and identity change in children!" said Bryan Newland, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of Home Affairs, who headed the investigation.
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The conditions at India's former boarding school received global attention last year, when tribal leaders in Canada announced the discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 children at the site of the former Kamloops housing school for indigenous children, as such institutions are known in Canada.
Unlike the United States, Canada conducts a full investigation of its schools through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The US government has never acknowledged how many children attend such schools, how many children die or are missing from them or even how many schools exist.
The report released Wednesday includes recommendations to fund programs to preserve Native American languages that schools are trying to eliminate and erect a federal memorial.
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