Brad Brooks

(Reuters) – A Department of Interior investigation into Indian boarding school’s dark past revealed that 53 schools had “marked or unmarked grave sites,” Secretary Debhaaland announced on Wednesday.

Haaland was last year’s first Native American Cabinet member to announce the investigation.

Haaland was a New Mexico Congresswoman and the first Native American woman to become a Cabinet Secretary. In 2020, she introduced legislation calling on a Truth and Healing Commission. The legislation is currently pending.

Haaland stated that “the consequences of federal Indian Boarding School policies…are heartbreaking and uneniable.” It is my goal to speak out for survivors and descendents of federal Indian Indian boarding schools policies and to also address their lasting legacy so that Indigenous Peoples can grow and heal.

The conditions in former Indian boarding schools attracted international attention when Canadian tribe leaders announced last year that they had discovered the remains of 215 Indian schoolchildren at the former Kamloops residential school.

Canada, in contrast to the United States conducted an extensive investigation into its schools using a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The U.S. government has not provided any accounting on the legacy of these schools until Wednesday. This includes never acknowledging the number of children who attended, their deaths or disappearances, or the existence of other schools.

In an attempt to assimilate, Native American children were forced from their families and taken away by the government for over 150 years.

Schools were managed by either the U.S. government, or local churches. Researchers and activists claim that many children were subject to abuse at schools. Tens of thousands never saw again.