Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland made another visit to one of the most infamous Indian boarding school sites in the nation, one to which she has a family connection.

Haaland is the first Native person to lead the Department of the Interior, the federal agency with the most trust and treaty responsibilities in Indian Country. Her tenure stands in stark contrast to a dark era in U.S. history, during which tens of thousands of children were taken from their tribal communities and sent to boarding schools far away.

“Carlisle Indian Industrial School was a place where Native children — after being stolen from their families — were taken to become assimilated,” Haaland said in a post on social media on Wednesday.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School was a place where Native children — after being stolen from their families — were taken to become assimilated. Its military founder created what would become a model for others. pic.twitter.com/qR3vWHhOTz

— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) October 2, 2024

Haaland’s great-grandfather was among those impacted by the Indian boarding school era. In 1881, her ancestor was taken from his family at the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico and sent to Carlisle in Pennsylvania, nearly 2,000 miles away.

“Its military founder created what would become a model for others,” Haaland said of the the infamous “Kill the Indian … and save the man” motto at Carlisle.

But as the first Native person with a seat in a U.S. presidential cabinet, Haaland has been working to address the generations of harm caused by genocidal government policies. Her visit to Carlisle serves as a reminder of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative that she launched more than three years ago to investigate how the department she now leads played a role in the forced removal and assimilation of tribal children.

“In operation from 1879 through 1918, Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first off reservation boarding school in the continental United States,” Haaland’s department said in a news release on Wednesday. “Over four decades, approximately 7,800 Native American children attended the school, far from their families, homes and communities. The school was a model for the federal government’s boarding school policies aimed at stripping Indigenous children of their languages, religions and cultures.”

🧡 On this National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools, we honor the Native children who never returned and stand with the survivors, families, and communities still healing from this trauma.

Support our mission and donate to NABS today. #RememberSurvivors pic.twitter.com/qA1j26Plst

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

The journey to Carlisle, made along with other senior Interior officials, also coincides with ongoing efforts to hold the U.S. accountable for its actions. The National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools was just observed on Monday, September 30.

“On the National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian boarding schools, we honor the lives affected by this painful legacy, acknowledge the strength of Survivors and our Native communities and our shared responsibility to foster healing and understanding,” said Ruth Anna Buffalo, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation who serves as president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, or NABS.

NABS hosted its own observation for National Day of Remembrance at an event in Washington, D.C. last week. The non-profit has been working in the nation’s capitol on legislation that would expand on Secretary Haaland’s investigation by creating a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies.

One of the goals of the national body would to be take an even broader look at all of the institutions — from religious groups and private organizations to state and local governments — that have played a role in the removal of children from their tribes. With time running out in the current session of the U.S. Congress, advocates continue to push for passage of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act [S.1723 | H.R.7227] to start what is expected to be a long process.

“Congress must bring forward S.1723/H.R.7227 to the floor and pass this legislation,” Theresa Sheldon, the Secretary for the Tulalip Tribes, said in a September 20 post on NABS social media encouraging the public to contact members of Congress. “Our elders deserve for their stories to be told.”

The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act enjoys bipartisan backing on Capitol Hill. The administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, also supports the legislation.

But neither the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, nor the U.S. House of Representatives, which is in Republican hands, brought up the bill for passage. The lack of movement recently prompted a call to action by supporters of S.1723.

“For over 150 years, the U.S. government stole hundreds of thousands of Native children from their families and communities,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said during a round of speeches on the Senate floor on July 24.

“These institutions, by design, worked with efficient, brutal, systematic diligence to force Native children to abandon their culture, abandon their language, and abandon their very identity through unspeakably cruel punishment, abuse and neglect,” Schatz added.

In addition to collecting records from public and private parties, holding hearings to gather testimony from survivors, the commission would look into the number of children who were abused, died or went missing from Indian boarding schools. The Department of the Interior’s investigation has said at least 973 children who died and has documented at least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites where young people were laid to rest.

The burial sites include a cemetery at Carlisle, now under control of the U.S. military. In 2021, Haaland participated in the return of Lakota children who died at the school to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

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

With Volume II of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, the Biden administration for the first time put a dollar amount on the U.S. government resources that went into the system. An estimated $23.3 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars was spent between 1871 and 1969 — a figure that dwarfs the current levels of funding provided to all Indian Country programs.

“We are still uncovering the harm inflicted by these boarding schools,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-New Mexico), a sponsor of the House version of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, said at a crucial markup session in June. “But we must continue the work to uncover the truths of this tragic and shameful chapter in our country’s history.”

The 118th Congress concludes by the end of December so time is running out to pass S.1723 or H.R.227. And with the presidential election in November consuming significant resources and energy, lawmakers have even fewer days this year to approve the legislation.

“For generations, Native children were torn from their families and their communities, forced to change their names and cut their hair, forbidden to speak their language or practice their religion,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at the White House Tribal Nations Summit last year.

“In boarding schools, many Native children endured horrific physical, emotional, and sexual abuse,” added Harris, who is now running for president as the Democratic nominee following Biden’s exit from the race. “These acts were not only a violation of basic human rights but also an attack on the very existence of tribal nations, a systematic attempt to erase Native culture and Native identity.”

“For generations, Native children were torn from their families”: Vice President Kamala Harris calls attention to Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, an ongoing investigation by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to document the genocidal Indian boarding school era. @VP pic.twitter.com/M2ayZbtjAn

— indianz.com (@indianz) December 6, 2023

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and one-term former president, has not discussed Indian boarding schools during his campaigns or during his time in the White House.