The following is a transcript of a video message delivered by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland about the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. Titled “Secretary Haaland Message to Indigenous Boarding School Survivors,” the video was posted online by the Department of the Interior on July 30, 2024.

[Greeting in the Keres language]

To my relatives and friends, today we had a big day. The Department of the Interior — the very cabinet agency created to assimilate indigenous peoples — released a historic investigative report detailing the impact, trauma and damage caused by federal Indian boarding schools from 1819 through the 1970s.

This trauma is not new to Indigenous people. One of the reasons I launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative was to ensure that this important story was told — that all of America knows of the intergenerational impacts of these policies and that we as a nation take steps to heal from them.

Today’s announcement reflects much of what we heard from Indigenous survivors as we traveled on the Road to Healing last year. To those of you who shared your stories, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Your experiences and those of your loved ones were not shared in vain. They are the foundation of our work. We think of you in everything that we do and we understand and appreciate your strength and courage.

As we continue to build out a permanent oral history collection, please know that we will care for these stories as if they were our own.

The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative has been one of the most important and meaningful things I have done as Secretary. It shows us that representation truly matters.

Using my platform to give voice to our people our struggles and our contributions to this nation as its original stewards has been the honor of my lifetime. Thank you for entrusting us to help tell our story because Native American history is American history.

[Thank you in the Keres language]