The Department of the Interior has released the long-awaited final volume of its investigation into the genocidal Indian boarding school era.

With Volume II of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, the federal agency led by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is taking a historic step. For the first time, a dollar figure has been put the resources the U.S. government spent in an attempt to destroy tribal nations by taking children away from their communities.

“The federal government – facilitated by the department I lead – took deliberate and strategic actions through federal Indian boarding school policies to isolate children from their families, deny them their identities, and steal from them the languages, cultures and connections that are foundational to Native people,” Haaland, whose own ancestors from the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico were sent to the infamous Carlisle institution in Pennsylvania, said in a news release on Tuesday.

According to the 105-page report, the U.S. appropriated an estimated $23.3 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars between 1871 and 1969 on Indian boarding schools and programs associated with the system. The figure dwarfs the current levels of funding provided to all Indian Country programs across the federal government.

“For the first time in the history of the United States, the federal government is accounting for its role in operating historical Indian boarding schools that forcibly confined and attempted to assimilate Indigenous children,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said in the department’s release. “This report further proves what Indigenous peoples across the country have known for generations – that federal policies were set out to break us, obtain our territories, and destroy our cultures and our lifeways.”

Still, the billion-dollar figure does not encompass all of the harms caused by Indian boarding school. The report notes that it does not account for the lands taken from tribes for nearly 100 years, nor does it account for trust funds that were taken from tribes to pay for the mistreatment of their own youth.

“It is undeniable that those policies failed, and now, we must bring every resource to bear to strengthen what they could not destroy,” said Newland, a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community. “It is critical that this work endures, and that federal, state and tribal governments build on the important work accomplished as part of the initiative.”

Vol II updates the official list of federal Indian Boarding Schools to 417 institutions in 37 states.

At least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native & Native Hawaiian children died at Indian boarding schools.

At least 74 marked & unmarked burial sites at 65 school sites are known.

— indianz.com (@indianz) July 30, 2024

By associating a dollar amount with the Indian boarding school era in the U.S., Volume II highlights how other colonial governments have addressed the forced education of Indigenous children. In neighboring Canada, the report points out that nearly $7 billion in settlements and payments have been made in connection with residential schools and day schools — a figure that doesn’t include an additional $43.34 billion that is being invested for health care, social services, child welfare and other programs benefiting First Nations and their people.

“The United States could invest in healing Indian tribes, the Native Hawaiian Community, and American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian individuals from the legacy impacts of forced assimilation on a scale that is, at a minimum, commensurate with the investments made in the federal Indian boarding school system between 1871 and 1969,” the report states.

Key members of Congress are hoping to continue the accounting with passage of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. The bipartisan bill establishes a national body that will look not just at the U.S. government but the religious institutions, charities and non-profits that also have played a role.

“Congress funded the majority of these schools, often using funds held in trust accounts that were legally designated for the benefit of tribal nations,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said in a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate last week. “Congress paid for the schools and then authorized law enforcement to take Indian children from their homes and their tribes.”

“It now comes to this Congress, to do everything we can to begin to heal the damage that this body inflicted,” said Warren, who is the lead sponsor of S.1723, the Senate version of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.

The Senate has yet to bring up S.1723 for passage despite Warren’s calls and those from four other lawmakers who also spoke on the floor last Thursday. The U.S. House of Representatives hasn’t taken up H.R.7227 either although the bill cleared a key committee last month.

But tribal leaders are sensing progress in the movement to address the impacts of Indian boarding schools, an issue that has finally risen to national prominence with the involvement of Secretary Haaland, who is the first Native person to serve in a presidential cabinet.

“The operation of federal Indian boarding schools in this country marked a troubling chapter in our history,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation said in a statement on Tuesday. “We have witnessed, in recent years, a renewed effort to have transparent and difficult discussions about this country’s history of operating Native American boarding schools, and much of this effort is a result of Secretary Haaland’s ongoing investigation into the government’s past oversight of these federally operated facilities.”

Principal Chief @ChuckHoskin_Jr statement on Federal Indian Boarding School Report Findings

🔗 Link to the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Report: https://t.co/icwe272k9t pic.twitter.com/x0akFw2Yue

— Cherokee Nation (@CherokeeNation) July 30, 2024

Volume II of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which was led by Assistant Secretary Newland, updates the official list of Indian boarding schools to 417 institutions in 37 states. Oklahoma, where the Cherokee Nation is headquartered, tops the list with 81 schools.

According to Volume II, at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died while attending Indian boarding schools. The largest number of deaths occurred during the 1920s, with nearly 80 deaths reported in 1926, the data shows.

The Navajo Nation was impacted the most in terms of deaths at Indian boarding schools. According to the report, 135 Navajo students are known to have died during the era. Children from various Apache tribes account for 91 known deaths, the data shows.

On 7/24/24, Senator @lisamurkowski spoke to the importance of passing S.1723. The time is now. Contact your Senators and tell them to vote YES on S.1723. Missed the livestream? Watch the session and advocate for the Truth & Healing Commission Bill at the link in our bio 🔗 pic.twitter.com/cYFiLKra5s

— NABS Healing Coalition (@NABSHC) July 30, 2024

At least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at 65 Indian boarding school sites have been identified so far. The list includes the cemetery at the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the institution where Haaland’s Pueblo ancestors were sent. The site is currently under the control of the U.S. military, whose refusal to follow federal repatriation law and return two children to the Winnebago Tribe is the subject of ongoing litigation.

In addition to the 105-page report, Volume II includes updated lists and maps of Indian boarding schools, along with 437 pages of profiles of each institution. The profiles indicate the tribes most often associated with a particular school, along with known deaths and burial sites.

Volume II also includes a list of the number of Indian children who died at boarding schools by year. Another list shows the known tribal identities of those who passed away — tribal affiliations are not yet known for 238 students.