The Biden administration is fully supporting bipartisan efforts to study the Indian boarding school era amid an ongoing investigation into the genocidal policies that were once supported by the U.S. government.

In her first appearance before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Secretary Deb Haaland said she viewed the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act as “complementary” to the investigation being undertaken at the Department of the Interior. The bill would authorize a comprehensive review of the educational institutions in which Indian children were taken from their families, with some being sent thousands of miles away, and where they were discouraged from maintaining their tribal traditions, languages and cultures.

“The administration strongly supports this legislation, especially the development of national survivor resources to address the intergenerational trauma and the inclusion of the commission’s formal investigation and documentation practices,” Haaland told the committee at an oversight and legislative hearing last Wednesday.

“Federal Indian boarding school policy is a part of America’s story that we must tell,” said Haaland, who is the first Native person to serve in a presidential cabinet.

“While we cannot change that history, I believe that our nation will benefit from a full understanding of the truth of what took place and a focus on healing the wounds of the past,” added Haaland, whose ancestors were among those sent far away from their Pueblo communities in New Mexico.

Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna, introduced the first version of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act when she served in the U.S. Congress. It was a highly significant act for one of the first two Native women to serve in the legislative branch of the U.S. government.

Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas), a citizen of the Ho-Chunk Nation who also made history as one of the first two Native women in Congress, is now championing the cause as the sponsor of H.R.5444. The bill, which enjoys Republican as well as Democratic support, is making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives, having been approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources on June 15, a key step in the process.

The U.S. Senate version of the boarding school bill is S.2907. While it is not as far along as the companion in the House, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) vowed to use his position as chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to move the measure forward — while being mindful of the investigation that Haaland is overseeing within the executive branch of the federal government.

“Like I said, we’re gonna pass this thing, certainly out of committee and hopefully out of the whole Senate, but we want to make sure that it’s aligned with what you’re already doing,” Schatz told Haaland.

“And then we need to resource it,” Schatz said, addressing an issue of funding that has been raised repeatedly during consideration of the House version.

🧵This afternoon, @AsstSecNewland and I testified in front of @IndianCommittee on the Department's Federal Boarding School Initiative and Volume 1 of @Interior’s investigation.

Photo: Michael Inacay pic.twitter.com/kWPjycSfac

— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) June 22, 2022

But money isn’t the only concern on Capitol Hill. Republicans in the House have strongly objected to the investigative powers that would be granted to the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States — taking issue with subpoenas that could be issued to churches and religious institutions, for instance.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is a co-sponsor of the bill that would create the commission and she has encouraged Interior’s investigation into Indian boarding schools. Still, she used the hearing to ask Haaland if the Department of the Interior supports the subpoena power provisions, or whether there are alternatives that could be drafted in order to address Republican opposition.

“Some of my colleagues have raised this,” said Murkwoski, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. “They want to understand better why we need to provide the authority to the commission.”

“Is it fair to assume that the department sees the subpoena power as necessary for the commission? Is that something that you want to see included?” Murkowski asked. “Or are there perhaps other options that could be used to gain needed information, absent subpoena authority.”

Haaland’s answer was brief, though it represented the first official comment from the Biden administration about the contested subpoena powers of the proposed commission. At the hearing on H.R.5444 in early May, no federal officials had testified.

“We support the bill as it is written,” Haaland told Murkowski.

Murkowski pointed out that Native people from Alaska are among those impacted by Indian boarding schools. In one heartbreaking case, a student named Sophia Tetoff died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, more than 4,000 miles from her Aleut community on the remote St. Paul Island. Sophia was finally brought home to her family last year, some 120 years after being sent to Carlisle as the age of 12.

But since Carlisle is now home to a U.S. Army facility, tribes and families have faced unique obstacles in repatriating loved ones who died there, as the U.S. military does not follow the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and instead has its own regulations governing burials. When asked by Murkowski what resources are available in these situations, Haaland said she would continue to advocate for comprehensive solutions.

“The point is that we want to make this a healing process and if that is what the tribes and the families want, we will find a way to do what we can,” Haaland said after Murkowski noted that families might need services or other forms of assistance to help them navigate the federal bureaucracy.

The next step in the legislative process would be a business meeting for S.2907. Schatz did not indicate when the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs would schedule one as he asked the Biden administration to recommend any “friendly amendments” for the bill.

“We’re gonna mark this up, and we’re gonna try to move it through the Congress,” said Schatz.

From 1819-1969, our govt used Indian boarding schools to perpetrate horrific injustices against Native children. I’m speaking on the Senate floor about this dark period & how we must acknowledge this history & undertake a path toward healing. Watch here: https://t.co/NOucXgl8oe

— Senator Brian Schatz (@SenBrianSchatz) June 22, 2022

During consideration of H.R.5444 by the House Committee on Natural Resources earlier this month, Republicans offered a handful of amendments that were far from friendly. One proposal would have removed the subpoena power altogether from the 10-member Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies.

“The current text of the bill is written such that it would establish an independent commission of appointed citizen with unchecked power to subpoena the federal government schools, churches and individuals and it would also be funded by an unlimited taxpayer dollars,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas), the top Republican on the committee.

Westerman’s colleagues on the committee rejected his subpoena proposal by a party-line vote on June 15. But related amendment he offered, one to address federal appropriations for the Truth and Healing Commission, was accepted after Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) explained why his concerns about “unlimited taxpayer dollars” were unfounded.

“Trust me, there is no blank check in the Appropriations Committee that deals with the Department of the Interior,” said McCollum, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, the panel that writes Indian Country’s main funding bill.

Separately, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) tried to downplay the financial impacts of the Indian boarding school era. During the markup on H.R.5444, she offered an amendment that would bar the commission, as well as a separate advisory group, from recommending the “provision of reparations, with federal or private funds, to address the effects of Indian Boarding School Policies.”

“Insisting on reparations will not bring people together. It will not serve the goal of reconciliation. Reparations have only ever been used as a talking point by Democrat politicians to move a political agenda,” asserted Boebert, who is a new member of Congress and a new member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, where she serves on the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States

The committee voted down Boebert’s amendment along party lines. Another GOP amendment, offered by Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-California) to address how much members of the Truth and Healing Commission would be paid, was rejected as well thanks to the Democratic majority.

Despite movement on the boarding school bill on Capitol Hill, time is running out in the 117th Congress, both of whose chambers are controlled by Democrats. Lawmakers have until the end of the year to pass the legislation and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature.

“Native children were subjected to harrowing human rights violations, including spiritual, physical, industrial, psychological and sexual abuse,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), the sponsor of S.2907, said at the hearing last Wednesday. “They were neglected and they were traumatized. Many, never returned to their families.”

“The Department of the Interior has already identified more than 50 burial sites at these schools, many of them unmarked, and that number is expected to rise,” Warren said in reference to the ongoing investigation at the federal agency with the most trust and treaty responsibilities in Indian Country.

The Indian Boarding School Policies forcibly removed Native children from their families to eradicate their identities, beliefs, & languages. Yesterday's @IndianCommittee hearing was an important step in advancing my bill to reckon with this disgraceful history & its legacy. pic.twitter.com/jnIdg9SALB

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 24, 2022

Secretary Haaland announced her department’s review of boarding schools a year ago, during the mid-year meeting of the National Congress of American Indians. The effort so far has produced an investigative report that has identified 408 schools where American Indian, Alaska Native and even Native Hawaiian youth were sent between 1819 and 1969.

In the initial report, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said the department discovered that money was taken from tribal trust fund accounts to pay for the operation of boarding schools. These funds were in addition to federal appropriations that were given to churches, religious institutions and other entities during the harmful period.

“The Bureau of Trust Funds Administration has been central to putting together the report that we published earlier this year because of their record keeping function,” Newland said of the federal agency that was formerly known as the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians.

“They have millions of pages of federal records in their possession that are going to be important to this work,” Newland told the Senate committee at the hearing. He also said the National Archives and Records Administration has been an important partner in the ongoing review.

As part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, Interior has launched the “The Road to Healing,” a year-long outreach to Native communities. Haaland said the first stop on the tour will be in Oklahoma, though she did not provide additional details.

Oversight Hearing on “Volume 1 of the Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report” & Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on S. 2907 (June 22, 2022) Arne Vainio: We all have an opportunity to redeem (August 12, 2021)
Native America Calling: Welcoming home children who died at Carlisle Indian School (July 29, 2021)
Rosebud Sioux Tribe hosts funeral services Indian boarding school students (July 19, 2021)
Photos: Lakota children spend final morning away from homelands (July 19, 2021)
Lakota youth return home after more than a century away at Indian boarding school (July 19, 2021)
Rosebud Sioux Tribe hosts prayer services in South Dakota for return of Indian boarding school students (July 16, 2021)
Rosebud Sioux Tribe hosts prayer services in Iowa for return of Indian boarding school students (July 16, 2021)
‘We are bringing them home’: Lakota youth on long overdue journey from Indian boarding school (July 15, 2021)
Cronkite News: Indian boarding school era under investigation (July 8, 2021)
City pledges action to honor lives lost at Indian boarding school (July 1, 2021)
Chuck Hoskin: Cherokee Nation acquires boarding school site (June 30, 2021)
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition supports federal review of Indian boarding school era (June 25, 2021)
Navajo Nation hails federal investigation into Indian boarding school era (June 23, 2021)
National Congress of American Indians welcomes boarding school initiative (June 23, 2021)
Secretary Deb Haaland: Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative (June 22, 2021)
‘Our communities are still mourning’: Secretary Haaland announces federal Indian boarding school initiative (June 22, 2021)
‘I know that this process will be painful’: Secretary Haaland announces Indian boarding school review (June 22, 2021)
Secretary Haaland addresses National Congress of American Indians (June 22, 2021)