Washington, D.C. – Today, the Senate unanimously passed the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act, legislation Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) cosponsored. This bill would establish a formal commission to investigate, document, and acknowledge past injustices of the federal government’s Indian Boarding School Policies. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.
“For too long, the grave abuses of the Indian Boarding School system in the United States have been ignored or set aside,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Passing this legislation is an important step in addressing this historic wrong. I will continue fighting to ensure our Tribal communities in Nevada and across the country get the truth, justice, and healing they deserve.”
The Indian Boarding School Policies were implemented by the federal government to strip American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children of their Indigenous identities, beliefs, and languages by forcibly removing children from their Tribal lands and families. According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, it is estimated that by 1926, nearly 83 percent of AI/AN children, some as young as three years old, were enrolled in one of 367 currently known Indian boarding schools across 30 states, including the Stewart Indian School in Nevada. The full effects of the Indian Boarding School Policies have never been appropriately addressed, resulting in long-standing historical and intergenerational trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, premature deaths, and additional undocumented psychological trauma. The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act will address this disgraceful chapter in history and begin healing for Tribal communities.
Senator Cortez Masto has long been a champion for Tribal communities. This month, the Senate passed both her legislation to make it easier for Indian Health Services to recruit and retain doctors and her legislation to strengthen Tribal public safety. She has repeatedly called on the administration to do more to address the epidemic of violence against Native women and girls, including securing federal funding to protect Native communities, urging the administration to draft a plan to address this issue, and requesting the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the federal response to this crisis. She also helped secure over $1 billion in coronavirus relief funding for the Indian Health Service to combat the pandemic and $125 million in additional funding for Tribes and urban Indian health organizations within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to address the mental health needs of Native communities.
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