[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1526 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1526
Recognizing the week of September 30th as ``National Orange Shirt
Week'' or ``National Week of Remembrance'', which aims to honor those
who were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to recognize the
experience of Indian boarding school victims and survivors.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 1, 2024
Ms. Davids of Kansas submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the week of September 30th as ``National Orange Shirt
Week'' or ``National Week of Remembrance'', which aims to honor those
who were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to recognize the
experience of Indian boarding school victims and survivors.
Whereas assimilation processes, such as the Indian Boarding School Policies,
were adopted by the United States Government to strip American Indian,
Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children of their Indigenous
identities, beliefs, and languages to assimilate them into non-Native
culture through federally funded and controlled Christian-run schools,
which had the intent and, in many cases, the effect, of termination,
with dire and intentional consequences on the cultures and languages of
Indigenous peoples;
Whereas assimilation processes can be traced back to--
(1) the enactment of the Act of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85)
(commonly known as the ``Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819''), which
created a fund to administer the education, healthcare, and rations
promised to Tribal nations under treaties those Tribal nations had with the
United States; and
(2) the Grant Administration's peace policy with Tribal nations in
1868, which, among other things, authorized amounts in the fund established
under the Act of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85) (commonly known as
the ``Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819''), to be used by churches;
Whereas, according to research from the National Native American Boarding School
Healing Coalition, the Federal Government funded church-run boarding
schools for Native Americans from 1819 through the 1960s under the Act
of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85), which authorized the forced
removal of hundreds of thousands of American Indian and Alaska Native
children as young as 3 years old, relocating them from their traditional
homelands to 1 of at least 526 known Indian boarding schools, of which
125 remain open today, across 38 States;
Whereas, beginning in 1820, missionaries from the United States arrived in
Hawai'i, bringing a similar desire to civilize Native Hawaiians and
convert ``Hawaiian heathens'' to Christians, establishing day schools
and boarding schools that followed models first imposed on Tribal
nations on the East Coast of the United States;
Whereas, as estimated by David Wallace Adams, professor emeritus of history and
education at Cleveland State University in Ohio, by 1926, nearly 83
percent of American Indian and Alaska Native school-age children were
enrolled in Indian boarding schools in the United States, but, the full
extent of the Indian Boarding School Policies has yet to be fully
examined by--
(1) the Federal Government or the churches who ran those schools; or
(2) other entities who profited from the existence of those schools;
Whereas, in 1878, General Pratt brought a group of American Indian warriors held
as prisoners of war to what was then known as the Hampton Agricultural
and Industrial School in Hampton, Virginia, for a residential experiment
in the education of Indigenous people;
Whereas, prior to arriving to the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School in
1878, the American Indian warriors held as prisoners of war had already
spent 3 years imprisoned, during which time they were forced to shave
their traditionally grown hair, dress in military uniforms, participate
in Christian worship services, and adopt an English name;
Whereas General Samuel C. Armstrong, founder and, in 1878, principal, of the
Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, was influenced by his
parents and other missionaries in the United States involved in the
education of Native Hawaiian children;
Whereas General Armstrong modeled the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School
after the Hilo Boarding School in Hawai'i, a missionary-run boarding
school that targeted high performing Native Hawaiians to become
indoctrinated in Protestant ideology, which was similar to boarding
schools led by missionaries in the similarly sovereign Five Tribes of
Oklahoma, including the Cherokee and Chickasaw;
Whereas, in addition to bringing a group of American Indian warriors held as
prisoners of war to the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School in
1878, General Pratt influenced Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian
missionary who, in 1885, was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior
to be a General Agent of Education in the Alaska Territory;
Whereas Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School continued as a boarding
school for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians until
1923;
Whereas, founded in 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School set the
precedent for government-funded, off-reservation Indian boarding schools
in the United States, where more than 10,000 American Indian and Alaska
Native children were enrolled from more than 140 Indian Tribes;
Whereas Indian boarding schools, and the policies that created, funded, and
fueled their existence, were designed to assimilate American Indian,
Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children into non-Native culture by
stripping them of their cultural identities, often through physical,
sexual, psychological, industrial, and spiritual abuse and neglect;
Whereas many of the children who were taken to Indian boarding schools did not
survive, and of those who did survive, many never returned to their
parents, extended families, and communities;
Whereas at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School alone, approximately 180
American Indian and Alaska Native children were buried;
Whereas, according to research from the National Native American Boarding School
Healing Coalition--
(1) while attending Indian boarding schools, American Indian, Alaska
Native, and Native Hawaiian children suffered additional physical, sexual,
psychological, industrial, and spiritual abuse and neglect as they were
sent to non-Native homes and businesses for involuntary and unpaid manual
labor work during the summers;
(2) many American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children
escaped from Indian boarding schools by running away, and then remained
missing or died of illnesses due to harsh living conditions, abuse, or
substandard health care provided by the Indian boarding schools;
(3) many American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children
died at hospitals neighboring Indian boarding schools, including the
Puyallup Indian School that opened in 1860, which was first renamed the
Cushman Indian School in 1910 and then the Cushman Hospital in 1918; and
(4) many of the American Indian and Alaska Native children who died
while attending Indian boarding schools or neighboring hospitals were
buried in unmarked graves or off-campus cemeteries;
Whereas, according to independent ground penetrating radar and magnetometry
research commissioned by the National Native American Boarding School
Healing Coalition, evidence of those unmarked graves and off-campus
cemeteries has been found, including--
(1) unmarked graves at Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon; and
(2) remains of children who were burned in incinerators at Indian
boarding schools;
Whereas, according to research from the National Native American Boarding School
Healing Coalition, inaccurate, scattered, and missing school records
make it difficult for families to locate their loved ones;
Whereas parents of the American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian
children who were forcibly removed from or coerced into leaving their
homes and placed in Indian boarding schools were prohibited from
visiting or engaging in correspondence with their children;
Whereas parental resistance to compliance with the harsh no-contact policy
resulted in the parents being incarcerated or losing access to basic
human rights, food rations, and clothing;
Whereas, in 2013, post-traumatic stress disorder rates among American Indian and
Alaska Native youth were 3-times the general public, the same rates for
post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans;
Whereas, in 2014, the White House Report on Native Youth declared a state of
emergency due to a suicide epidemic among American Indian and Alaska
Native youth;
Whereas the 2018 Broken Promises Report published by the United States
Commission on Civil Rights reported that American Indian and Alaska
Native communities continue to experience intergenerational trauma
resulting from experiences in Indian boarding schools, which divided
cultural family structures, damaged Indigenous identities, and inflicted
chronic psychological ramifications on American Indian and Alaska Native
children and families;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Kaiser Permanente Adverse
Childhood Experiences Study shows that adverse or traumatic childhood
experiences disrupt brain development, leading to a higher likelihood of
negative health outcomes as adults, including heart disease, obesity,
diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and early death;
Whereas American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians suffer from
disproportional rates of each of the diseases compared to the national
average;
Whereas the longstanding intended consequences and ramifications of the
treatment of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian
children, families, and communities because of Federal policies and the
funding of Indian boarding schools continue to impact Native communities
through intergenerational trauma, cycles of violence and abuse,
disappearance, health disparities, substance abuse, premature deaths,
additional undocumented physical, sexual, psychological, industrial, and
spiritual abuse and neglect, and trauma;
Whereas, according to the Child Removal Survey conducted by the National Native
American Boarding School Healing Coalition, the First Nations
Repatriation Institute, and the University of Minnesota, 75 percent of
Indian boarding school survivors who responded to the survey had
attempted suicide, and nearly half of respondents to the survey reported
being diagnosed with a mental health condition;
Whereas the continuing lasting implications of the Indian Boarding School
Policies and the physical, sexual, psychological, industrial, and
spiritual abuse and neglect of American Indian and Alaska Native
children and families influenced the present-day operation of Bureau of
Indian Education-operated schools;
Whereas Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools have often failed to meet
the many needs of nearly 50,000 American Indian and Alaska Native
students across 23 States;
Whereas, in Alaska, where there are no Bureau of Indian Education-funded
elementary and secondary schools, the State public education system
often fails to meet the needs of Alaska Native students, families, and
communities;
Whereas the assimilation policies imposed on American Indians, Alaska Natives,
and Native Hawaiians during the Indian boarding school era have been
replicated through other Federal actions and programs, including the
Indian Adoption Project in effect from 1958 to 1967, which placed
American Indian and Alaska Native children in non-Indian households and
institutions for foster care or adoption;
Whereas the Association on American Indian Affairs reported that the
continuation of assimilation policies through Federal American Indian
and Alaska Native adoption and foster care programs between 1941 to 1967
separated as many as one-third of American Indian and Alaska Native
children from their families in Tribal communities;
Whereas, in some States, greater than 50 percent of foster care children in
State adoption systems are American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native
Hawaiian children, including in Alaska, where over 60 percent of
children in foster care are Alaska Native;
Whereas the general lack of public awareness, accountability, education,
information, and acknowledgment of the ongoing and direct impacts of the
Indian Boarding School Policies and related intergenerational trauma
persists, signaling the overdue need for an investigative Federal
commission to further document and expose assimilation and termination
efforts to eradicate the cultures and languages of Indigenous peoples
implemented under Indian Boarding School Policies; and
Whereas, in the secretarial memorandum entitled ``Federal Indian Boarding School
Initiative'' and dated June 22, 2021, Secretary of the Interior Debra
Haaland stated the following: ``The assimilationist policies of the past
are contrary to the doctrine of trust responsibility, under which the
Federal Government must promote Tribal self-governance and cultural
integrity. Nevertheless, the legacy of Indian boarding schools remains,
manifesting itself in Indigenous communities through intergenerational
trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, premature deaths,
and other undocumented bodily and mental impacts.'': Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives recognizes ``National
Orange Shirt Week'' or ``National Week of Remembrance'', which aims to
honor those who were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to
recognize the experience of Indian boarding school victims and
survivors.
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