Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland delivers remarks upon release of the initial report of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative on May 11, 2022.

Volume 1 of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report provides initial findings of an ongoing review at the Department of the Interior. The investigation is overseen by Newland in his role as the political appointee in charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education.

“This report confirms that this boarding school system was part of a twin United States policy: the dispossession of Indian lands and the forced assimilation of Indian people,” Newland said in the nation’s capital. “The report explains that the federal government pursued this policy of forced assimilation by targeting Indian children.”

Newland spoke from the penthouse of the main Interior building in Washington, D.C.

The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative report details the U.S. law and policy framework of the federal Indian boarding school system and available historical records to develop the first official list of federal Indian boarding school sites. https://t.co/8hCi8L9xZA pic.twitter.com/NgG2a9cXR5

— Indian Affairs (@USIndianAffairs) May 11, 2022