[Senate Hearing 117-534]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





                                                        S. Hrg. 117-534
 
                   VOLUME 1 OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE 
  INTERIOR'S FEDERAL INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL INITIATIVE INVESTIGATIVE 
                           REPORT AND S. 2907

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               before the

                      COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                             JUNE 22, 2022

                               __________

         Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs
         
         
         
         
         
         [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
         
         
         
         
         
                           ______
 
              U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
 50-193PDF              WASHINGTON : 2023
      
         
         


                      0COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

                     BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii, Chairman
                 LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Vice Chairman
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington           JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
JON TESTER, Montana                  JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada       STEVE DAINES, Montana
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            JERRY MORAN, Kansas
       Jennifer Romero, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
        Lucy Murfitt, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
        
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on June 22, 2022....................................     1
Statement of Senator Cortez Masto................................     4
Statement of Senator Daines......................................    20
Statement of Senator Hoeven......................................    48
Statement of Senator Lujan.......................................     4
Statement of Senator Murkowski...................................     2
Statement of Senator Schatz......................................     1
Statement of Senator Smith.......................................    14
Statement of Senator Tester......................................    17
Statement of Senator Warren......................................     5

                               Witnesses

Francis, Hon. Kirk, Chief, Penobscot Indian Nation...............    22
    Prepared statement...........................................    24
Haaland, Hon. Deb, Secretary of the Interior, Department of the 
  Interior; accompanied by Hon. Bryan Newland, Assistant 
  Secretary......................................................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
Medicine Crow, La quen naay Liz, President/CEO, First Alaskans 
  Institute......................................................    37
    Prepared statement...........................................    38
White Hawk, Sandra, President, National Native American Boarding 
  School Healing Coalition.......................................    27
    Prepared statement...........................................    29
Wong, Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Roshi, Native Hawaiian Policy Lead, 
  Office Of Former Hawai'i Governor John Waihe'e.................    32
    Prepared statement...........................................    33

                                Appendix

Association on American Indian Affairs, prepared statement.......    65
Casey Family Programs, prepared statement........................    53
Dropik, Jason, President, National Indian Education Association 
  (NIEA), prepared statement.....................................    58
Letters submitted for the record 


National Indian Child Welfare Association, prepared statement....    60
Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Ben Ray Lujan to:
    Hon. Kirk Francis............................................   122
    Hon. Deb Haaland.............................................   119
    Sandra White Hawk............................................   121
    Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong....................................   115
Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Brian Schatz to:
    Hon. Kirk Francis............................................   109
    Hon. Deb Haaland.............................................   116
    Sandra White Hawk............................................   112
    Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong....................................   113
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, prepared statement....................    56
United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund, 
  prepared statement.............................................    49


                   VOLUME 1 OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE 
  INTERIOR'S FEDERAL INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL INITIATIVE INVESTIGATIVE 
                           REPORT AND S. 2907

                              ----------                              


                        WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2022


                                       U.S. Senate,
                               Committee on Indian Affairs,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:35 p.m. in room 
628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Brian Schatz, 
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BRIAN SCHATZ, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII

    The Chairman. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Committee's 
oversight hearing on Volume 1 of the Department of Interior's 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report 
and a Legislative hearing on S. 2907, a bill to establish a 
Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 
in the United States.
    The Indian Boarding School era was a dark period in our 
Nation's history, and a painful example of how past Federal 
policy failed American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native 
Hawaiians. As the department report lays out, the Federal 
Government supported boarding schools with a primary goal in 
mind: the forcible assimilation of Native children into western 
ways of life. These schools were key tools for suppressing 
Native cultures and languages, separating Native children from 
their families and their homelands, and indoctrinating them to, 
as the founder of the Carlisle School ominously said, ``Kill 
the Indian and save the man.''
    That was not an empty promise. The brutality with which the 
Federal Government attempted to assimilate children, some as 
young as four years old, at these boarding schools, is gut-
wrenching. Forced labor, whippings, solitary confinement, 
withholding food, making older children punish younger children 
with corporal punishment, unsanitary, and overcrowded living 
conditions, the shameful list goes on.
    We can't undo history. But we must acknowledge it. We have 
to look at the full scope of these failures unflinchingly and 
with clear minds and fresh eyes. Most importantly, we must work 
directly with Native communities on forging a path toward 
healing.
    Recognizing the significance of this work to Native 
communities, Lance Fisher of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe is 
here to provide us with an opening to help us set the tone for 
this important discussion. Please rise if you are able.
    [Prayer Song for Native Children.]
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Fisher.
    As indigenous peoples of the United States, American 
Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians were subject to 
the same cruel intent of Federal assimilation policies and 
practices, and they continue to share in the impact and lasting 
inequities of the Federal Government's centuries-long drive to 
try to erase Native cultures. We must do all we can to right 
this wrong. The Department of Interior's report, S. 2907, and 
Congress' long-term investment in the Native American language 
revitalization efforts are important steps to moving the 
reconciliation process forward.
    But we must work hand in hand with the impacted communities 
and the families. That is why today's hearing will focus on 
Native perspectives as a guide for the Federal Government's 
path toward achieving truth and reconciliation, not in the 
abstract, but in a meaningful and real way.
    Our approach must also be respectful of survivors, their 
families, and their communities. The Committee welcomes 
survivor testimony, should they choose to share their stories. 
Written comments for the record may be submitted to 
[email protected]. That is 
[email protected].
    I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here today. 
I would like to recognize Vice Chair Murkowski for an opening 
statement.

               STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

    Senator Murkowski. Gunalcheesh, Chairman Schatz. Thank you 
for convening this hearing.
    As you have mentioned, it is long, long past time for the 
United States to come to terms with the dark and very terrible 
legacy of Indian boarding schools. From 1819 to about 1969, 
thousands of Native children across the Country, including in 
my home State of Alaska and your home State of Hawaii, were 
taken from their families and communities, often without 
consent, and relocated to boarding schools thousands of miles 
from their homes.
    These boarding schools attempted to ``break'' Native 
children in order to quickly assimilate them into the dominant 
white culture. As part of this breaking process, Native 
children were stripped of their identity, their language, their 
culture, and often forcibly. Many of these students never 
returned home.
    Federal Government policy during this time was to use 
education as ``a weapon against Native people'' to accomplish 
the goals of replacing Native cultures and dispossessing Native 
peoples of their lands.
    Mr. Chairman, you mentioned the words that came from 
Richard Henry Pratt. He was the one who was credited with 
founding the boarding school movement. He claimed the need to 
``kill the Indian, save the man.'' Unfortunately, American 
history is full of such individuals who somehow believed that 
they were helping at the time, when they were actually 
committing extreme acts that devastated Native people.
    We so appreciate that we have in front of us now the first 
volume on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative 
Investigative Report. It covers the 408 Federal Government 
supported Indian boarding schools that operated across 37 
States and territories. Twenty-one of those schools were 
located in Alaska. The sexual abuse, violence, malnutrition, 
solitary confinement, forced manual labor, untreated diseases, 
unreported deaths, and disappearances documented in this report 
make it very difficult to read. And we know it just scratches 
the surface, unfortunately, of what actually happened.
    Secretary Haaland, I want to acknowledge your work and that 
of the Committee, and you as well, Assistant Secretary Newland, 
for your work on this painful issue, and for your commitment to 
ensuring the Department provides Indigenous people with access 
to what you have called trauma-informed support. There is deep 
appreciation for that.
    I had an opportunity, just last year, on the National Day 
of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, to speak of some of 
the children who had been impacted by these policies. I spoke 
of Sophia Teatoff, a young Unungax girl who was taken from 
Alaska as an orphan, and brought to the Carlisle Indian 
Industrial School in Pennsylvania. I spoke also of Anastasia 
Ashouwak, from Kodiak, who was taken to an orphanage after her 
mother passed away, of her story, and the effort for her family 
in Alaska to finally return the remains of young Anastasia to 
Kodiak for reburial.
    These are hard stories, and of course, they not isolated to 
Alaska. They are so similar, unfortunately, to many Native 
children's stories that are just beginning to be recounted.
    I think we recognize that repatriation of Native remains to 
their homelands is part of the healing process associated with 
these atrocities. I am interested to hear more about how the 
Department will comply with and enforce NAGPRA, the Native 
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
    We know that our neighbor to the east, Canada, is dealing 
with its own history and legacy of Indian boarding schools and 
has established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. There 
is a lot to be learned from that. Senator Warren and I have 
been working on this. We are working on the Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Board School Policy, S. 2907. These are, 
again, efforts for the United States to step up, to address and 
acknowledge the dark history that we face, but also to go 
further than that, to help bring healing to Native people.
    We have a great panel here this afternoon. I am looking 
forward to, at the appropriate time, in the second panel, Mr. 
Chairman, I would like to be the one to introduce and welcome 
Ms. Liz La Quen N ay Medicine Crow. Liz is the President and 
CEO of First Alaskans Institute, and has been instrumental in 
so many of these issues. I will speak to that at the 
appropriate time.
    Know that I appreciate the interest of the full Committee 
in this very, very, very important issue.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Vice Chair Murkowski.
    And now, Senator Cortez Masto for an opening statement.

           STATEMENT OF HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA

    Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you, Chairman Schatz and Vice 
Chair Murkowski, for holding this important hearing. I welcome 
Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland for joining 
us here. This hearing could not be more relevant for our tribal 
communities in Nevada.
    I want to take a moment to highlight the recent work done 
in our State, the opening of the Stewart Indian School Cultural 
Center and Museum. Not far from the Nevada State capital of 
Carson City sits the Stewart Indian School. It was open by the 
Federal Government from 1890 to 1980, one of three such schools 
in Nevada. The Stewart Indian School opened with the stated 
purpose of addressing indigenous education. In reality, the 
school was meant to erase Native culture and identity.
    Today, we learned that thousands of students who were 
enrolled at the Stewart School were forced to forget their 
languages and were often prevented from seeing family members. 
Alumni that I have talked to have recalled being kidnapped by 
government officials and taken to the school, where their hair 
was cut off by school staff.
    Letters from the school's archives make it clear that 
families were not informed when their children were sick or had 
even passed away. In fact, nearly 100 unmarked graves have been 
identified in the school cemetery. These stories show only a 
sliver of the cruelty and abuse Native children had at the 
Stewart Indian School and what they endured. But they highlight 
how important it is for us to continue to learn more about this 
painful chapter in our history and to give space for 
acknowledgement and for healing.
    I commend the alumni and their descendants, as well as the 
Native Indian Cultural Commission for their hard work in 
opening this cultural center, and dedication to working in 
partnership with Interior on the Secretary's Federal Indian 
Boarding School Initiative.
    I look forward to hearing the testimony today on this 
important issue. I thank each and every one of you for being 
here. Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto.
    Senator Lujan.

               STATEMENT OF HON. BEN RAY LUJAN, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO

    Senator Lujan. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much, Vice 
Chair Murkowski, thank you both for holding this important 
hearing today to examine the legacy of Federal Indian boarding 
school policies and to support legislation that moves us in the 
right direction.
    I also want to say thank you and welcome to our friend, 
Secretary Deb Haaland. It is an honor to call you a friend and 
a mentor and to see the tremendous work that you are doing. I 
will be forever moved by you, Deb.
    I also want to welcome some students from New Mexico that I 
had the honor of meeting with earlier, and I believe the 
Secretary did as well, from the Santa Fe Indian School and 
Princeton University's Summer Policy Academy. They are led by a 
dear friend of mine, the former governor of Cochiti Pueblo, 
Regis Pecos, Preston Sanchez, who is the co-counsel and also 
the Justice Director and has also been involved with many 
issues and titles, by Taryn Aguilar, Amber Garcia, Leah 
Mountain.
    I want to thank each and every one of you for being with us 
today. I understand that Mikayla Suina might also be a part of 
the leadership group that is here.
    Mr. Chairman, I would like to enter a letter of the 
students into the record that recommends Congress introduce 
legislation to formally apologize for the generational harms 
resulting from the Federal Indian boarding schools and 
policies. I urge my colleagues to support this call for a 
formal apology and thank these young leaders for their 
advocacy, for their voices, for the past, for the future, and 
for current generations.
    And with your permission I would just like to read a 
paragraph from here before consideration for adoption. A 
general principal we are taught early on is to apologize for 
our wrongdoings and to take responsibility for our actions. 
Since the recent release of the boarding school report, one 
might think that the U.S. would seek to undo the long-term 
trauma and harm inflicted upon Native children by boarding 
schools.
    As of today, however, that is not the case. For that 
reason, my colleagues and I seek a formal apology in the form 
of legislation to restore balance among our communities and 
enable positive opportunities for indigenous people to heal.
    By doing so, Congressional leaders would signify that our 
education, language, culture and traditions are important. It 
would also signify that indigenous people will never again be 
subjected to a school system that seeks to erase our cultural 
identity.
    I would ask for unanimous consent that that be entered into 
the record.
    The Chairman. Without objection.
    Senator Lujan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    The Chairman. We are pleased to have the author of the 
legislation in question as a guest of our Committee. It gives 
us pleasure to introduce Senator Elizabeth Warren from 
Massachusetts.

              STATEMENT OF HON. ELIZABETH WARREN, 
                U.S. SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS

    Senator Warren. Thank you very much, Chairman Schatz. It is 
a privilege to be here with the Senate Committee on Indian 
Affairs. I want to say a very special thank you to you and to 
Vice Chair Murkowski for your leadership and your support on 
this issue.
    I am here today to discuss my bill that is a focus of 
today's hearing, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act. I thank the many cosponsors of 
this bill, including Vice Chair Murkowski, thank you for your 
work on this, and Chairman Schatz, thank you for your work on 
this, and a majority of this Committee.
    This bill would establish a Truth and Healing Commission to 
formally investigate what are known as the Indian Boarding 
School Policies. These were horrifying practices, carried out 
by the Federal Government to strip Native children of their 
indigenous identities, beliefs, and languages. Between 1819 and 
1969, these policies formally removed children from their 
tribal lands and their families, and placed them in over 400 
boarding schools.
    It has been estimated that by 1926, nearly 83 percent of 
American Indian and Alaska Native children were in one of the 
currently known Indian boarding schools. Native children were 
subjected to harrowing human rights violations including 
spiritual, physical, industrial, psychological, and sexual 
abuse. They were neglected and they were traumatized. Many 
never returned to their families.
    The Department of Interior has already identified more than 
50 burial sites at these schools. Many of them are unmarked. 
That number is expected to rise.
    These policies also affected Native Hawaiian children. For 
over a century, the United States supported several boarding 
schools across the Hawaiian Islands and repressed Hawaiian 
culture.
    The full effects of these policies have never before been 
appropriately addressed by the Federal Government. In 2020, I 
worked with the Committee's first witness, my friend, Secretary 
Deb Haaland. While she was serving in Congress, we introduced 
this legislation to formally investigate these policies and to 
respond to ongoing historical and intergenerational trauma 
afflicting tribal communities today.
    I reintroduced this bill last year with Representatives 
Sharice Davids and Tom Cole, the co-chairs of the Congressional 
Native American Caucus. I also wish to acknowledge the 
invaluable partnership of the National Native American Boarding 
School Healing Coalition and many other extraordinary 
stakeholders who are here with us today.
    When Secretary Haaland assumed her current role, she 
continued her outstanding work by launching the Federal Indian 
Boarding School Initiative and working with Assistant Secretary 
Newland to make this happen. I am glad that this hearing will 
address the first volume of the Department of the Interior's 
report, because it contains many important findings and 
recommendations.
    In particular, I would like to highlight the report's 
conclusion that ``The Federal Government has not provided a 
forum or opportunity for survivors of descendants of survivors 
of Federal Indian boarding schools or their families to 
voluntarily detail their experiences in the Federal Indian 
boarding school system.'' My legislation would address this gap 
by establishing a commission that would have five years to 
formally investigate boarding schools and to document their 
enduring impacts.
    The commission would hold culturally respectful and 
meaningful hearings for victims, for survivors, and for other 
community members to share their stories. Throughout the 
process, the commission would develop recommendations to the 
Federal Government to acknowledge and to heal trauma caused by 
these policies, including the establishment of a support 
hotline for survivors and for affected communities.
    This work will be painful. But it is long overdue.
    To the witnesses and the survivors who are sharing their 
experiences and the impact of these policies, thank you. Thank 
you for being here. Thank you for raising your voices. Your 
voices are vital to this undertaking.
    I look forward to working with the Committee to advance 
this legislation and to address the disgraceful legacy of the 
Indian boarding school policies. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, 
for inviting me to be with you today.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much.
    We will now move to our first panel. We are pleased to have 
the Honorable Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Department of 
Interior, accompanied by the Assistant Secretary, the Honorable 
Bryan Newland. As you know, Madam Secretary, your full 
testimony will be made part of the official hearing record. 
Please keep your statement to no more than five minutes, so 
that members may have time for questions.
    For the information of the audience, there are a couple of 
ongoing votes on the Floor, so you will see members shuffling 
in and out of this room, not for a lack of interest, but just 
because we have to cast a couple of votes.
    Secretary Haaland, please proceed.

        STATEMENT OF HON. DEB HAALAND, SECRETARY OF THE 
             INTERIOR, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR; 
         ACCOMPANIED BY: HON. BRYAN NEWLAND, ASSISTANT 
                           SECRETARY

    Ms. Haaland. Hello, and good afternoon, Chairman Schatz, 
Vice Chair Murkowski and members of the Committee. [Greeting in 
Native tongue.]
    It is deeply meaningful to me to speak to you from the 
ancestral homelands of the Anacostan and Piscataway people. 
Thank you for the opportunity to present the department's 
testimony at this important oversight hearing on the Federal 
Indian Boarding School initiative and S. 2907, a bill to 
establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding 
School Policies in the United States.
    The Biden-Harris Administration is determined to make a 
lasting positive difference in response to the trauma that 
Federal Indian Boarding School policies have caused. I would 
also like to thank my dear friends, Senator Warren and the co-
chairs of the Congressional Native American Caucus, 
Representatives Sharice Davids and Tom Cole, for prioritizing 
legislation to address these policies.
    For over a century and a half, the Federal Government, 
including the Department of the Interior, forcibly removed 
indigenous children from their families and communities, and 
many never returned home. This intentional targeting and 
removal of Native children to achieve the goal of forced 
assimilation was both traumatic and violent. The consequences 
of Federal Indian Boarding School policies were inflicted on 
generations of children, some as young as four.
    As the head of the Department of the Interior and as the 
first Native American cabinet secretary, I am in a unique 
position to address the lasting impacts of these policies. I 
now have direct oversight over the very department that 
operated and oversaw the implementation of the Federal Indian 
Boarding School system. I am a product of these horrific 
assimilation-era policies. My grandparents were removed from 
their families to Federal Indian Boarding Schools when they 
were only eight years old, and forced to live away from their 
parents, culture, and pueblos until the age of 13.
    My family's story is similar to many indigenous families' 
stories in this Country, which is why on June 22nd, 2021, I 
announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a 
comprehensive effort to address the troubled legacy of Federal 
Indian Boarding School policies. I am incredibly proud of the 
work by Assistant Secretary Newland and his entire team on 
Volume 1 of the Investigative Report that is a critical part of 
this initiative. It lays the groundwork for the continued 
efforts of the department to address the intergenerational 
trauma created by this Federal policy.
    I want to note that the vast majority of the work was done 
by indigenous staff, who worked through their own trauma and 
pain to meet this moment. This marks the first time in our over 
200 years since the Indian boarding school policies were 
implemented that the United States has formally reviewed or 
acknowledged the extensive scope and breadth of this piece of 
our history.
    The Department's investigation focuses on the historical 
Indian boarding school system and cultural assimilation and 
removal policies. The initial investigation shows that between 
1819 and 1969, the Federal Indian boarding school system 
consisted of 408 Federal Indian boarding schools across 37 
States, or then territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 
7 schools in Hawaii.
    Volume 1 also identifies approximately 53 different schools 
that contained marked or unmarked burial sites. As the 
investigation continues, we expect the number of identified 
burial sites to increase along with more definite numbers of 
identified Indian boarding school sites, children, and 
operating dates of the facilities.
    Our obligations to Native communities mean that Federal 
policies should fully support and revitalize Native health 
care, education, languages, and cultural practices that prior 
Federal Indian policies sought to destroy. The department, 
working with relevant sister Federal agencies, will also work 
to expand tribal communities' access to mental health 
resources.
    I recently announced that we will embark on The Road to 
Healing, a tour throughout the Nation, to hear directly from 
survivors and descendants about their experiences. A necessary 
part of this journey will be to connect survivors and their 
families with mental health support and to create a permanent 
collection of oral histories.
    We know this won't be easy. But it is a history that we 
must learn from if we are to heal from this tragic era in our 
Country. I am proud of the work the department is accomplishing 
to confront its role in these assimilation policies through 
education. I am also deeply grateful to Congress for their 
support.
    Funding for our initiative will enable the department to 
help expand existing school profiles following Volume 1 of the 
report, including detailing the number of children who attended 
Federal Indian boarding schools, identifying marked and 
unmarked burial sites, identifying interred children and 
detailing the amount of Federal support for the system.
    I am grateful for the Committee's leadership in also 
considering S. 2907 as part of this hearing, which I led with 
my colleagues when I served in Congress. The Administration 
strongly supports this legislation, especially the development 
of the National Survivor Resources, to address the 
intergenerational trauma, and the inclusion of the commission's 
formal investigation and documentation practices.
    Federal Indian boarding school policy is a part of 
America's story that we must tell. 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.
    Thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am confident 
that together we can strengthen Indian Country and the Native 
Hawaiian community now and for future generations. Assistant 
Secretary Bryan Newland and I are pleased to answer any 
questions that you may have.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Haaland follows:]

  Prepared Statement of Hon. Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior, 
                       Department of the Interior
    Hello and good afternoon, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairman Murkowski, 
and members of the Committee. My name is Deb Haaland, and I serve as 
the Secretary of the Interior. It is an honor and privilege for me to 
be here with you today to represent the Department of the Interior 
(Department) and our tens of thousands of dedicated professionals. It 
is deeply meaningful for me to speak to you from the ancestral 
homelands of the Anacostan and Piscataway people. Thank you for the 
opportunity to present the Department's testimony at this important 
oversight hearing on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative and 
S. 2907, a bill to establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies in the United States.
    The Biden-Harris administration is determined to make a lasting 
positive difference in response to the trauma that these policies have 
caused, not just in the past but for current generations. I would also 
like to thank Senator Warren and the Co-chairs of the Congressional 
Native American Caucus, Representatives Sharice Davids and Tom Cole, 
for prioritizing legislation to address the federal Indian boarding 
school policies for the first time in United States history and find 
solutions to further shed light on its ongoing impacts on Native 
American and Native Hawaiian people.
    Starting in 1819, and lasting for over a century and a half, the 
federal government, including the Department of the Interior, forcibly 
removed and assimilated tens of thousands of American Indian, Alaska 
Native, and Native Hawaiian children from tribal communities across the 
United States. Many children who entered the boarding schools were 
involuntarily removed from their communities and never returned home. 
This intentional targeting and removal of American Indian, Alaska 
Native, and Native Hawaiian children to achieve the goal of forced 
assimilation of Native people was both traumatic and violent.
    The consequences of federal Indian boarding school policies--
including the intergenerational trauma caused by forced family 
separation and cultural eradication--were inflicted on generations of 
children as young as 4 years old and are heartbreaking and undeniable. 
As the head of the Department of the Interior and as the first Native 
American cabinet secretary, I am in a unique position to address the 
lasting impacts of these policies. I now have direct oversight over the 
very Department that operated and oversaw the implementation of the 
federal Indian boarding school system.
    Like all Native people, I am a product of these horrific 
assimilation era policies, as my grandparents were removed from their 
families to federal Indian boarding schools when they were only 8 years 
old and forced to live away from their parents, culture, and Pueblos 
until they were 13 years old. My family's story is similar to many 
Indigenous families' stories in this country, which is why, on June 22, 
2021, I announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a 
comprehensive effort to address the troubled legacy of federal Indian 
boarding school policies. On that same date, through a memorandum, I 
directed the Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs to lead the first-ever 
departmental investigation into the federal Indian boarding school 
system.
    I am incredibly proud of the work that Assistant Secretary Newland 
and his entire team did on the first volume of this report. I 
particularly want to acknowledge the staff at the Bureau of Trust Funds 
Administration, which is managing the document collection, review, and 
records management of this Initiative. The vast majority of the work 
being released today was done by Indigenous staff in this department 
who worked through their own trauma and pain.
    The Department released Volume 1 of the investigative report on May 
11, 2022. This report lays the groundwork for the continued efforts of 
the Department to address the intergenerational trauma created by 
historical federal policy. It marks the first time in over two hundred 
years, since the Indian boarding school policies were implemented, that 
the United States has formally reviewed or acknowledged the extensive 
scope and breadth of these policies. The Department welcomes Congress' 
and this Committee's engagement in this important and continuing 
effort.
    The Department's investigation focuses on the historical Indian 
boarding school system, which was implemented to further cultural 
assimilation and removal policies. The Department fully recognizes that 
unlike the federal Indian boarding school system we are investigating, 
contemporary Native residential schools are vital to advancing modern, 
culturally sensitive education.
    Some key highlights of Volume 1 of the Department's investigation 
of our federal records include evidence that the United States targeted 
American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children through 
forced removal to Indian boarding schools in furtherance of territorial 
dispossession of Indigenous lands in the United States. The initial 
investigation shows that, between 1819 and 1969, the federal Indian 
boarding school system consisted of 408 federal Indian boarding schools 
across 37 states or then-territories, including 21 schools in Alaska 
and 7 schools in Hawai`i. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Some individual federal Indian boarding schools accounted for 
multiple sites. The 408 federal Indian boarding schools includes 431 
separate sites.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Additionally, the Department's initial investigation results show 
that approximately 50 percent of federal Indian boarding schools may 
have received support or involvement from a religious institution or 
organization, including funding, \2\ infrastructure, and personnel. 
Further, the federal government at times paid religious institutions 
and organizations for Native children to enter federal Indian boarding 
schools that these institutions and organizations operated.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ As the U.S. Senate has recognized, funds from the 1819 
Civilization Fund ``were apportioned among those societies and 
individuals--usually missionary organizations--that had been prominent 
in the effort to `civilize' the Indians.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Another important finding published in Volume 1 identifies 
approximately 53 different schools that contain marked or unmarked 
burial sites. While this report lays the groundwork for the efforts of 
the Department to address the full scope of the federal Indian boarding 
school policies and the intergenerational trauma endured by Indigenous 
peoples in this country, the Department is moving forward to develop 
Volume 2 to further expand on these preliminary report findings. As the 
investigation continues, we expect the number of identified burial 
sites to increase, along with the potential expansion or more definite 
numbers of identified Indian boarding school sites, children, and 
operating dates of facilities.
    As we add to the list of burial sites, the Department, working with 
relevant sister federal agencies, will expand our collaborative work, 
including increasing Tribal communities' access to mental health 
resources. These healing actions will help strengthen Native 
communities in a manner that I hope will be pursuant to each of the 
various traditional and religious protocols and beliefs. This effort 
may include disinterment, repatriation, documentation, and memorial 
efforts, where appropriate, in consultation with Indian Tribes, Alaska 
Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community.
    The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative constitutes the first 
time the federal government has reviewed the scope of these policies. 
This is an important step for intergenerational healing from the 
ongoing effects these policies caused, and we will take an all-of-
government approach. I believe that our obligations to Native 
communities mean that federal policies should fully support and 
revitalize Native health care, education, Native languages, and 
cultural practices that prior federal Indian policies, like those 
supporting Indian boarding schools, sought to destroy. We can heal from 
the harm and violence caused by Indian assimilation by effecting 
government-wide policies of revitalization for the Indigenous people of 
our country.
    I recently announced that we will embark on the ``Road to 
Healing,'' a tour throughout the nation to hear directly from survivors 
of federal Indian boarding schools and their descendants about their 
experiences. A necessary part of this journey will be to connect 
survivors and their families with mental health support, and to create 
a permanent collection of oral histories. We know this won't be easy, 
but it is a history that we must learn from if we are to heal from this 
tragic era in our country.
    As part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, I look 
forward to continuing our work alongside sister federal agencies that 
administer the sites of former Indian boarding schools or possess or 
control records pertaining to the federal Indian boarding school system 
and those that currently provide medical and mental health services for 
Native communities. I am confident that, together, we can support the 
individuals and communities that have been shaped by detrimental 
federal Indian boarding school policies.
    I am proud of the work the Department is accomplishing to confront 
its role in these assimilation policies through education and am deeply 
grateful to Congress for its support as well. In particular, the 
Department appreciates the $7 million in funding provided for this work 
in Fiscal Year 2022, and we look forward to working with Congress on 
our Fiscal Year 2023 request of an additional $7 million. These funds 
are crucial in order for this work to be thorough and effective, in 
particular the labor-intensive work of gathering and examining records 
and identifying and characterizing various sites.
    This funding will enable the Department to help expand existing 
school profiles following Volume 1 of the report, including detailing 
the number of children that attended federal Indian boarding schools; 
identifying marked and unmarked burial sites; identifying interred 
children, where possible; and detailing the amount of federal support 
for the system including support to non-federal entities.
S. 2907--A Bill to Establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
        Boarding School Policies in the United States
    I am grateful for the Committee's leadership in also considering S. 
2907 as part of this hearing. This legislation, which I led with my 
colleagues when I served in the U.S. House of Representatives, would 
establish a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies in the United States. The Commission would be required to 
investigate the impacts and ongoing effects of the Indian Boarding 
School Policies where Native children were forcibly removed from their 
homes. The Commission would be directed to develop recommendations on: 
(1) how to protect unmarked graves and accompanying land protections; 
(2) support repatriation and identify the Tribal Nations from which 
children were taken; and (3) to prevent the continued removal of 
American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their 
families and Native communities under modern-day assimilation practices 
carried out by State social service departments, foster care agencies, 
and adoption services.
    The Administration strongly supports this legislation, especially 
the development of national survivor resources to address 
intergenerational trauma, and the inclusion of the Commission's formal 
investigation and documentation practices. In addition to our support, 
we would welcome an opportunity to work with the Committee, especially 
on access to records pertaining to the federal Indian boarding school 
system under the control of non-federal entities as set forth in the 
legislation to supplement the Department's Initiative.
Conclusion
    Some of the most influential decisions by the Department on the 
lives of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children 
involve those related to federal Indian boarding schools. That is part 
of America's story that we must tell. 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.
    I am grateful for your work to help address the atrocities that 
Indian boarding school survivors and families have endured for decades.
    Thank you again for your focus on the Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative and consideration of S. 2907. I am confident that, 
together, we can start to help Tribal communities to heal and 
strengthen Indian Country and the Native Hawaiian Community now and for 
future generations.

    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Secretary.
    I will start with a couple of questions about these 
listening sessions. Can you talk about how you are going to 
conduct them, and how you are going to integrate the mental 
health services piece?
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you so much for the question, Chairman. 
Yes, the primary goal of the Road to Healing is for me and 
Assistant Secretary Newland to hear directly from survivors, as 
I stated in my remarks. We are working, first of all, with 
tribes to make sure that we are reaching out. That will help us 
to decide where we should have these sessions.
    We want to make sure that we are documenting those. There 
will be a part where if folks want to share publicly, they can. 
We will close it off to the public and to any press so that if 
people don't want to share their story with the public, they 
have that opportunity as well.
    We are working in coordination with the Department of 
Health and Human Services to direct the mental health resources 
for medical providers at the actual locations. We will start 
with the first session in Oklahoma.
    The Chairman. Thank you. Can you consider this a formal 
request, that you get back to us on what resources you may need 
in the coming appropriations cycle? A lot of SCIA members are 
also on Appropriations and would be pleased to help. Decisions 
are getting made over the next, I would say, three to four 
weeks. So as soon as you can get us a wish list, the more 
likely we will be able to be of assistance.
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you, Chairman.
    The Chairman. On the bill itself, we are going to mark this 
up, and we are going to try to move it through the Congress. Do 
you have any recommendations for any friendly amendments to 
make sure that it hits the mark in the ways that we want it to?
    Ms. Haaland. I appreciate your asking that. Of course, I 
just want to say how strongly we feel that this bill is 
actually complementary to the work that we are doing, one of 
the reasons why we are wholeheartedly supporting it. We are 
happy to, of course, happy to share with you our feelings about 
that legislation. If I could turn it over to Assistant 
Secretary Newland to detail that out, I would appreciate it.
    The Chairman. Sure. Secretary Newland?
    Mr. Newland. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Thanks, Mr. 
Chairman, for the question.
    Some of the changes, to the extent that the Committee and 
Congress are considering any, would relate to the composition 
of the advisory committee. For example, the legislation points 
to the Bureau of Indian Education. The Bureau of Trust Funds 
Administration has been central to putting together the report 
that we published earlier this year, because of their 
recordkeeping function.
    So we would want to make sure that the Bureau of Trust 
Funds Administration is included in the commission and the 
advisory committee structure as well as the National Archives, 
which we have partnered with for getting information. They have 
millions of pages of Federal records in their possession that 
are going to be important in this work. Those are two examples.
    The Chairman. And just consider this a request for TA, to 
make sure that, as I said, we are going to pass this thing, 
certainly out of Committee, and hopefully out of the full 
Senate. We want to make sure it is aligned with what you are 
already doing and we are not tripping over a new statute that 
is not exactly what you already have underway. Then we need to 
resource it.
    My final question, and I talked to you about this, Madam 
Secretary, is the role of Native language in restoration. I am 
wondering if you can speak to that.
    Ms. Haaland. Yes, of course. It comes up a lot, because 
during the terrible Federal Indian boarding school era, 
children were cut off from their language. It happened in 
public school as well as the boarding schools. My mother had 
her hands hit with a piece of rubber hose every time she spoke 
Keres. It is one of the reasons why she didn't want to teach us 
Keres, our Native language, because she was worried and scared.
    So you can see how easy it would be to have generations of 
non-Native speakers because their parents are worried about the 
future of their children.
    We are wholeheartedly in support and this Administration is 
in support of language revitalization. First Lady Dr. Jill 
Biden and I got to travel to Oklahoma to visit the Cherokee 
Immersion School, a very fine example of how tribes are taking 
charge of teaching their languages. We feel that is one way to 
gain culture back for so many of the children in 2022 who have 
lost it because of the history of what happened.
    The Chairman. Thank you. Senator Murkowski?
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Secretary Haaland, as we have looked at this report, as you 
have noted in your opening remarks, there are some 53 marked or 
unmarked burial sites that we know of right now, of students 
who died at these schools. There was an article about a month 
ago in the Anchorage Daily News detailing about the family of 
Mary Kininnook, she was a Tlingit girl who attended Carlisle 
Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. She died at the 
school, apparently shortly after her 14th birthday. Her family 
thinks her remains could be at one of those unmarked graves in 
the school cemetery.
    So to the Kininnook family, and to others who are trying to 
bring their children home, what resources or services, if any, 
does the department have to provide to the families that are 
seeking repatriation of family remains from any of these former 
Indian boarding school sites? Is there assistance to the 
families?
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you, Vice Chairman.
    Carlisle in particular, it is now an Army war college, so I 
actually went to Carlisle to help some tribes repatriate 
children from that cemetery back to their Native homeland in 
South Dakota. The Army was incredibly helpful. They took the 
responsibility on to help the families go through the entire 
process. Of course, we are there to make sure that the tribe's 
wishes and the family's wishes are met.
    So we would welcome the opportunity to help that particular 
family with finding the answers that they need. Certainly, we 
would be happy to work with your office to reach out to them.
    Senator Murkowski. So I understand from the answer, though, 
it is not necessarily an opportunity where you can go directly 
for resources to help your family from Alaska traveling to 
Pennsylvania to research records, it is working with Army, it 
is working with a department on a case-by-case basis.
    Do you think there will be anything more formally 
structured where families might be able to turn for some level 
of assistance?
    Ms. Haaland. As you know, tribal consultation is incredibly 
important to us. It is the most important thing in this work 
that we are doing. When we consult with tribes, if that is an 
issue they would like for us to move forward on, we absolutely 
will move it forward. Of course, it is hard to know a budget 
for something like that.
    But certainly, those are things that we, we need to 
consider everything and we need to consider every tool in the 
toolbox when we are working with people. The point is that we 
want to make this a healing process. If that is what the tribes 
and the families want, we will find a way to do what we can.
    Senator Murkowski. I will add to that, we had a hearing 
earlier this year in this Committee to discuss, again, the 
NAGPRA Act and how it is applied to protect tribal funerary 
objects, patrimony and remains. At that hearing, we had another 
Alaskan testify, Dr. Rosita Worl, who shared the unique 
institutional arrangements that govern the administration of 
services and certain Federal laws that impact Alaska Native 
communities.
    As we are moving forward, and you in the department are 
identifying additional burial sites as the investigation 
continues, I would ask that you take into consideration the 
unique tribal government structures that we have in Alaska, 
invite the relevant tribes, the Alaska Native Corporations, to 
do exactly what you are talking about, which is to consult and 
be able to provide input to the department regarding NAGPRA and 
other relevant Federal laws that are out there as we are 
working through this boarding school initiative.
    Ms. Haaland. Absolutely, yes.
    Senator Murkowski. And very briefly, because the Chairman 
had raised this with regard to the legislation itself, in S. 
2907, I understand you have identified, this is legislation you 
want to work with us to pass, one of the authorities that is 
granted to the commission in the bill is subpoena authority. 
Some of my colleagues have raised this, 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 you 
want to see included, or are there perhaps other options that 
could be used to gain needed information absent subpoena 
authority?
    Ms. Haaland. We support the bill as it is written, Vice 
Chairman.
    Senator Murkowski. [Presiding.] Okay, good.
    Since Senator Schatz is at the vote, we will turn to 
Senator Smith.

                 STATEMENT OF HON. TINA SMITH, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA

    Senator Smith. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, Vice 
Chair Murkowski.
    Secretary Haaland, it is so wonderful to welcome you to the 
Committee. I also just want to send greetings to 
representatives and leaders, the NNABS leaders that are here 
today. I see Sandy there, and all of you. It feels very 
meaningful to have you all in this Committee room, since the 
last time I saw you was when Secretary Haaland was coming to 
visit in Minnesota and we went to the National Native American 
Boarding School Healing Coalition. It was a powerful meeting.
    So I am very grateful to be able to have you all here today 
to address the tragic history of this Federal policy.
    The Federal Indian boarding school policy created deep 
intergenerational harm to Native communities across the United 
States. So many of the issues that we talk about in this 
Committee, health challenges, educational disparities, loss of 
Native languages, mental and behavioral and physical health 
challenges, all are tied directly to the Indian boarding school 
policy.
    Secretary Haaland, I know that you are committed to 
addressing this issue in a holistic way. After all, people are 
people. They are not divided up into different policy areas.
    Could you expound on your opening statement, and talk a 
little bit about how you see bringing a holistic approach to 
this issue, across the work of the department, as we move 
forward? I am a strong supporter of Senator Warren's bill, the 
Truth and Healing Commission bill. I think that will be an 
important tool to support the work that you are doing at the 
agency.
    Could you expound a little bit on how you see that kind of 
holistic approach fulfilling itself in the department?
    Ms. Haaland. Absolutely. Thank you for the question, and 
yes, thank you for hosting us when we were in Minnesota.
    First of all, what I will say is that with respect to the 
work we are doing, and the priority of this Administration, it 
is using an all-of-government approach to ensure that we are 
addressing the needs of Indian Country. We have trust 
obligations to Indian tribes. What I mentioned, the fact of 
Health and Human Services figuring out to make sure we are 
providing trauma-related support, language revitalization comes 
under our department.
    With respect to our department, we also have the American 
Indian Records Repository, for example. It is based near Kansas 
City, Kansas, with hundreds of thousands of documents that we 
will be researching to make sure that we are not leaving 
anything out of the future reporting that we have to do.
    With respect to Indian affairs, as I said, we have a trust 
responsibility to tribes. That is for health care, education, 
economic development, housing, all those things. That will also 
include the entire Administration. We will absolutely work to 
make sure that everyone is a part of this in fulfilling our 
mission. The bottom line is that that trust responsibility is 
real. Those are obligations that the Federal Government has to 
Indian tribes. Past administrations going back hundreds of 
years didn't always understand that obligation as it was meant 
to be.
    So we feel confident that we can make that a reality.
    Senator Smith. Thank you. Thank you very much for that.
    I hear in your comments that this is an understanding of 
the obligation, and also, I would say, the opportunity to make 
real progress that is shared by, as you said, it is a whole-of-
government approach, it is shared by the entire Administration. 
It is not the Department of Interior fighting against the 
machine.
    Ms. Haaland. Exactly.
    Senator Smith. Yes, that is great.
    I know that I am just about out of time. I want to say to 
the Committee that the work that is being done by the NNABS 
organization in Minnesota is national work. The incredible 
effort that is being made to bring the story of the impacts of 
the boarding school era, bring all those stories together, is 
really powerful. It gives individuals a way to connect into 
their part of the story at the same time they are understanding 
the broader implications of that policy across whole 
populations. It is really impressive.
    It reminds me that if you really want to understand a 
story, you have to know it first. Then the next step is to take 
action to repair the damage that is done. It gives me great 
hope to know that work is happening. I want to thank you for 
that.
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you.
    Senator Murkowski. Senator Cortez Masto.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you, Vice Chair Murkowski. I am 
so pleased we are having this hearing as well.
    Secretary Haaland, thank you. I want to go back to your 
testimony. You noted in your testimony that you would welcome 
the Committee's assistance in access to records that are not 
under Federal control. Could you address that?
    Also, does S. 2907, which I support, would that help 
address accessing or obtaining those records?
    Ms. Haaland. Absolutely. With the subpoena power, it would 
mean everything. I think there have been a lot of folks for 
decades who have tried to get records. It is difficult doing 
that as an individual. I also understand that some entities may 
need a subpoena before they are allowed to release certain 
records. So I think that portion of the bill is incredibly 
important.
    I would really appreciate it if Assistant Secretary Newland 
could expound on that a little bit.
    Mr. Newland. Thank you, Madam Secretary. And thank you, 
Senator. It is great to see you and be back in front of the 
Committee.
    Secretary Haaland said that the bill is broader in scope 
than our work has been to date. Establishing the commission and 
providing the mission and objectives for the commission, along 
with the subpoena authority, would give the commission the 
ability to seek out that information from non-Federal entities, 
and to do a deeper dive over a longer period of time.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Would that be State entities, local 
government entities, private entities, or a combination of all 
three?
    Mr. Newland. Yes.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Okay. That is helpful. That is why I 
do think some of them require that subpoena. They want to turn 
it over, but they also require some sort of Federal subpoena to 
be able to do so. So thank you. That is why I think it is 
important we have that ability to obtain those records.
    I am so pleased we have the Nevada Indian Cultural 
Commission. They have done an incredible job in our State. I 
know they are working in partnership with you, Madam Secretary, 
and your Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    In Volume 1 of the report, the section on identifying and 
cataloging unmarked and marked burial sites at boarding schools 
notes that the department faced several limitations to complete 
this aspect of the investigation, including budget and 
appropriations restrictions. If you could elaborate now on 
that, I would like to hear that. If not, we can put it in 
writing.
    But I am curious. What do we need to do to make sure we 
give you the tools you need and resources you need to address 
this?
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you. That is actually a great question 
for Assistant Secretary Newland as well.
    Mr. Newland. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Senator, thanks 
for that question.
    In addition to the pandemic limiting our physical access to 
some of these records, we were working within our existing 
appropriations authority and our existing appropriations 
amounts with the team that we had in place. So it really 
limited the scope of the work that we could do with our 
existing staff.
    So the appropriation that Congress provided for Fiscal Year 
2022 has been very important for allowing us to continue this 
work and build out the profiles for each of the schools listed 
in the report. Also related to that, it will allow us to do a 
closer look at each school that we have on our list and do a 
better job of understanding where these cemeteries and burial 
sites are located, and also begin the work of trying to put 
together a plan to work with Indian Country to protect those 
sites.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you. So what I am hearing is, 
you need additional appropriations, additional dollars than the 
current appropriations, or you have enough?
    Mr. Newland. The President has requested an additional $7 
million in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.
    Senator Cortez Masto. And that is what you are referring 
to, that would help you further with your investigation?
    Mr. Newland. Yes.
    Senator Cortez Masto. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam 
Secretary. Mr. Secretary, thank you.
    The Chairman. [Presiding.] Senator Tester.

                 STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA

    Senator Tester. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking 
Member, for holding this hearing. It is great to have Secretary 
Haaland here today, and her left-hand man, only because he is 
sitting to your left, Secretary Haaland, Bryan Newland. It is 
always good to have you with the Committee, too, Bryan.
    I want to start by thanking the Secretary for coming to 
Montana. We met with the tribal leaders in Montana and we heard 
from every one of them about the boarding school situation and 
its impacts on each one of their tribes. There is no doubt that 
the impacts of what happened are real, and that we need to do 
something about it.
    The conversation around Native languages is an interesting 
one, because it is something that we have been talking about on 
this Committee for a decade or longer. The benefits, and you 
know this, Madam Secretary, the benefits of reconnection with 
the culture, the benefits of improving self-esteem for 
students, the benefits of better grades, staying in school, 
lower dropout rates, better attendance, better graduation 
rates, all that makes a big difference.
    Could you, Madam Secretary, tell me what existing programs 
in BIA could help in the goal of cultural and language 
revitalization in Native communities? How do you envision them 
fitting into the recommendations that are outlined in this 
report?
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you, Senator, for that important 
question. I will just say right off the bat that that depends 
on what the tribes want for their communities. I mentioned 
earlier that the Cherokee Nation started an immersion school, 
the Cherokee Immersion School, for their students starting from 
elementary school up to high school. That is ideal for them.
    That is the reason we are doing tribal consultation on 
these issues. We want to make sure that whatever we are doing 
is supporting what the tribe wants for their own communities, 
and of course, we have the tremendous support of President 
Biden in this effort. We look forward to moving it forward.
    Senator Tester. Very good. How is the Department of the 
Interior working with tribes and organizations that have 
already become some aspects of the work, such as the State of 
Maine's Truth and Reconciliation Commission?
    Ms. Haaland. Senator, I apologize, could you ask the 
question again? I had a little bit of trouble hearing you.
    Senator Tester. How is the Department of Interior working 
with tribes and organizations that have already begun some of 
the aspects of this work, such as the State of Maine's Truth 
and Reconciliation Commission?
    Ms. Haaland. I think it is really our job to make sure we 
are supporting tribes in whatever way is the best way possible 
for them. Of course, that is always helped by a budget that is 
kind and supportive of those efforts that tribes want to make.
    But we are working with tribes every single day. As you 
know, they are all different. They see truth, they see healing, 
they see justice in different ways. So it is up to us to make 
sure we are consulting and supporting, whether it is technical 
support or monetary support, programmatic support, however we 
can do that, that is what we will do.
    Senator Tester. Thank you.
    In the minute I have left, I want to move away from the 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, and talk a little 
bit about consultation. The BIA and Indian Health Service does 
consultation, and they do a pretty good job of it, in most 
cases. Other departments, other agencies either aren't aware of 
the necessity for consultation or just don't think they have 
the time to do it.
    Since you are a Native American Secretary of the Department 
of Interior, you have a unique insight into the value of 
consultation. Have you been able to do anything within the 
Administration to educate other agencies, other cabinet level 
officials, about the importance of consultation? If you have, 
has it shown any results that are positive?
    Ms. Haaland. Absolutely. Thank you, Senator. As you know, 
we convened, President Biden and we convened a White House 
Council on Native American Affairs. It has been incredibly 
important. All my colleagues, we meet regularly to make sure 
that we are moving the issues for Indian Country forward.
    I think not only has this new era of Indian Country yielded 
tribal consultations that are incredibly meaningful, but it has 
also translated into the various departments hiring Native 
people at high levels, advisors and senior level department 
employees that can help move their departments forward in the 
ways that are best suited to move that trust obligations 
forward.
    So I think everyone, all of my colleagues have been 
extremely optimistic and amenable to moving all of these issues 
forward.
    Senator Tester. Thank you, Madam Secretary, and thank you, 
Mr. Newland, for being in front of the Committee.
    Thank you, Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Tester.
    I have a quick couple of questions for the Secretary. This 
work is necessarily going to involve more departments, a fair 
amount of interdepartmental cooperation.
    My first question is, have you run into any bureaucratic, 
administrative roadblocks? The second question is, can I have 
your assurance that if you do, you will come right to us? You 
can go right to the White House; I know you have that option as 
well. But we are pleased to be of assistance here.
    I want to make sure that, you know, the Department of 
Defense had a role here, the Department of War. They are 
capable of being pretty slow in responding to something that 
they don't consider to be core to their mission. I want to make 
sure that we are on top of all the other agencies. I have no 
doubt you will move with great alacrity.
    But I want to make sure that we have that interdepartmental 
cooperation that we need.
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you, Chairman. I will give Assistant 
Secretary Newland an opportunity to address this also.
    But from the time I wrote my op-ed about this issue, which 
was over a year ago, we have had really incredible support from 
my colleagues across the Administration. I think everyone sees 
this as part of America's story. It is not just Indian history; 
it is American history. It affects all of us in the way we go 
about our lives.
    So I feel confident that we will be able to find the 
support across the departments that we need. Certainly, we 
would absolutely come to you if we had some issues you could 
help us with.
    The Chairman. Let me try to get one more question in before 
I move on to Senator Daines. How do you see the department 
working with your counterparts in Canada? I think they are at 
least chronologically a little bit ahead. I am wondering what 
there is to learn there, and maybe what differentiates us from 
our friends, I call them our friends to the north, Lisa called 
them our friends to the east.
    [Laughter.]
    Ms. Haaland. You had to get a mental map in your head.
    The Chairman. Yes.
    Ms. Haaland. Well, of course we haven't been in contact 
with our counterparts in Canada regarding this particular 
issue, although I have read quite a bit about what they are 
going through as well. Before colonization, there was no 
Canadian American border. There were tribes living on this 
continent, and we are all relatives. We all share a history 
together, and we all care and love one another.
    So I will just say that however I can be helpful to any 
indigenous people, I will absolutely be honored to be of 
assistance in that way. I think the reason we have experienced 
some of the same history is because we are essentially the same 
people.
    So I will be ready to help whenever I can. Certainly I 
think we always have something to learn from each other.
    The Chairman. I think that was my point, is let's find out 
what they are doing, let's find out if they stubbed their toe 
in some way that looks obvious in retrospect, so we can avoid 
making any mistakes that they made in the first instance, and 
just sort of coordinate our efforts.
    Obviously, they are not going to be the same, but they are 
our friends to the north. This is at least conceptually the 
same effort, and to your point, for the same people. So we want 
to know what they are learning as they go along, and make sure 
that we are learning from each other.
    Senator Daines?

                STATEMENT OF HON. STEVE DAINES, 
                   U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA

    Senator Daines. Chairman Schatz, thank you. Secretary 
Haaland, thank you for being here.
    Before we get to the topics at hand, I want to thank you 
and your team for your leadership and your help on what is 
happening with the Yellowstone floods. It has been an all-
hands-on deck moment. I am hearing really good things on the 
ground from Cam Sholly about your leadership, Director Sams' 
leadership, on the response and support that they are 
receiving. They are working 24-hour days right now to get back 
on their feet.
    So just a heartfelt thank you from the people of Montana, 
from Idaho, from Wyoming, who all share boundaries around that 
amazing treasure of Yellowstone National Park. We will rebuild 
it stronger than it was before.
    Ms. Haaland. Yes.
    Senator Daines. Thank you.
    I also want to thank you for being here for this important 
conversation, and thank you for the department's work so far to 
bring light to the atrocities that occurred under the Federal 
Indian Boarding School program. This issue strikes deep into 
the hearts of Montanans. It is not something we should take 
lightly or halfheartedly, but it is something we need to put 
our effort behind so that the truth and the stories can be 
uncovered.
    Montana was home to 18 known boarding schools located 
across the State, affecting many of our tribal communities. 
Each community will have different experiences and needs. It is 
important that as the department continues its investigation 
and work that you and we, we all work closely with each and 
every tribe and tribal community that was subject to the 
boarding school program.
    My question, Secretary Haaland, will you commit to working 
with all Montana tribes to ensure their voices and stories are 
heard as the department moves forward with the investigation?
    Ms. Haaland. Absolutely. Absolutely, Senator. We are 
committed to working with each and every tribe. They suffered 
right along with so many other tribes, so yes.
    Senator Daines. Thank you. My follow-up on that would be, 
how will the department ensure that there are detailed 
investigations into the specific ramifications that each 
individual tribe has had to deal with?
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you for that question. Of course, you 
know that we have Volume 1 of this report, we are going on a 
healing journey across the Country, and we will be able to 
speak to individuals from individual tribes. Then of course our 
research will continue to move forward.
    A second volume of course would have more details about 
children, about each school, about each tribe. So we hope to 
get with incredible specificity, so the tribes have 
opportunities to decide what they would like to do with that 
information.
    Senator Daines. Thank you, Secretary Haaland. I know there 
will be a lot of focus on what has happened in the past. That 
is part of the healing process, as you just described. But as 
we continue to bring light to what happened in the past, I 
think it is important we must ensure that we use these findings 
to guide our actions in the present as well as looking into the 
future.
    How can the Department ensure that we are promoting tribal 
sovereignty, the tribal culture, the language, and history at 
existing BIE schools across Montana?
    Ms. Haaland. Well, thankfully, that is happening now. We 
are, every BIA school that we operate, and Secretary Newland 
can speak to this in more specificity, but in a lot of those 
schools, they have Native teachers, Native principals, Native 
superintendents. There is a culturally relevant education for 
every Native student at every single one of those schools. And 
that will absolutely continue.
    Senator Daines. Secretary Haaland, thank you. Thanks for 
being here. Again, thanks for your support on this issue as 
well as helping us out west in Yellowstone.
    Ms. Haaland. Senator, if I could just say, thank you for 
the Yellowstone comments. I am happy that you recognize it is 
the career staff who live, eat, and breathe their jobs and we 
are incredibly grateful for the hard work they are doing to 
make sure that this crown jewel of our Country returns to its 
original glory. Thank you for recognizing that. I will pass on 
those comments.
    Senator Daines. Please do. And I will tell you, your 
leadership and the leadership from Director Sams is being 
noticed and felt, as I chatted again with our superintendent on 
the ground there, and career staff. They know they have the 
support from the team back here. It is very important.
    Ms. Haaland. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Daines.
    Secretary Haaland, Assistant Secretary Newland, we will now 
move on to our second panel. We thank you. You are excused.
    As you are moving out, in the interest of time, I will 
begin to introduce our second panelists who can take their 
seats as they are able.
    The first is the Honorable Kirk Francis, the Chief of 
thePenobscot Indian Nation, in Indian Island, Maine. Next, 
Sandra White Hawk, President, National Native American Boarding 
School Healing Coalition in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And my 
friend, Norma Wong, Native Hawaiian Policy Lead, Office of the 
former Hawai'i Governor John Waihe'e in Honolulu, Hawaii.
    I will turn to Senator Murkowski to introduce her witness.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I mentioned Liz before but I would like to officially 
welcome Liz La Quen Naay Medicine Crow. She is the President 
and CEO of First Alaskans Institute. I know she traveled from 
Anchorage to be here. Thank you, Liz, for that.
    Ms. Medicine Crow is Haida and Tlingit from Kake in 
southeastern Alaska. She is an enrolled tribal citizen of the 
Organized Village of Kake. She has a strong background with a 
Juris Doctorate, J.D., from Arizona State and Certificate in 
Indian Law. She not only has extensive knowledge and experience 
in Federal Indian policy, but also with reconciling trauma, 
including the trauma associated with boarding and residential 
schools.
    Liz, thank you for not only your advocacy on behalf of so 
many, but in assisting us with the discussion and consideration 
of the legislation. I think perhaps this is the first time you 
have testified before the Committee. We are delighted to have 
you back here. Thank you for making the journey.
    The Chairman. Your full written testimony will be made part 
of the official hearing record. We would appreciate your 
confining your remarks to five minutes.
    Mr. Francis, please proceed.

 STATEMENT OF HON. KIRK FRANCIS, CHIEF, PENOBSCOT INDIAN NATION

    Mr. Francis. Thank you, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chair 
Murkowski and members of the Committee. My name is Kirk 
Francis. I am from the Penobscot Indian Nation in the State of 
Maine
    I want to begin my testimony by thanking Secretary Deb 
Haaland for beginning the Federal Indian Boarding School 
Initiative and elevating the need to compile some facts and 
humanity around this issue.
    One of the main benefits to compiling this information is 
that Native Americans who were impacted by these schools get 
more educated about the facts and learn they are not alone in 
this experience. At one point in time over 100 of our children 
were in boarding schools, in particular the Carlisle Indian 
School. The impacts of that on our community are still being 
felt today.
    As Chief of the Penobscot Nation, I was involved in two 
significant commission efforts. One was the Maine Wabanaki-
State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The 
other was the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission. I share my 
experiences with those commissions with you to help inform your 
views of the commission being established by S. 2907.
    The Maine Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a 
temporary commission intended to investigate and compile 
information about the child welfare system in Maine. The effort 
was grassroots, driven by tribal and State child welfare 
workers who agreed that the existing system was flawed.
    Their efforts began in 2008. The five-person commission was 
seated in early 2013 and released its report in June 2015. 
Overall, the commission, in my opinion, was a success. The 
commission process allowed for both sides to get educated about 
the issues, to share their experiences and perspectives, and 
better understand each other. Since the commission's report, 
changes have been made to the State child welfare system to 
ensure that each Wabanaki government is able to fully 
participate in decisions that impact Wabanaki children.
    What I think made the commission successful was, one, the 
tribal and State child welfare workers wanted to make the 
change; there was buy-in from the State Governor and all 
Wabanaki governments; the commission's focus was narrowly 
tailored to one topic; and the commission focused its work on 
compiling factual information but allowed the voices of those 
impacted by the system to be heard. The commission did a good 
job of describing its work as a conversation versus an 
investigation that placed blame on any person or entity.
    The other commission I have experience with is the Maine 
Indian Tribal State Commission which is an intergovernmental 
entity created by the Maine Implementing Act of 1980 which is 
the State law that implements the Federal Maine Indian land 
claims. This Commission is comprised of 13 members, 6 of which 
are appointed by the tribes, 6 by the State, and those 12 
choose a chair. The primary purpose of this commission is to 
continually review the effectiveness of the Settlement Act and 
the social, economic, and legal relationship between the State 
of Maine and three of the Wabanaki Nations. This commission is 
permanent and does not expire.
    Unfortunately, this commission has not been as effective in 
improving the relationship between the Wabanaki Nations and the 
State. This is not the fault of the individual members of the 
commission, but more about the structure of the commission.
    At times, the State has failed to fill its six spots which 
impairs the ability of the commission to get its work done. 
Additionally, very few recommendations of the commission 
actually get implemented by the State or Congress. Because of 
this, individual members of the commission and the tribes 
become frustrated and question the purpose of the commission.
    Based on these experiences, I have several suggested edits 
for the Committee to consider in making S. 2907, but seeing my 
time is short, I just want to mention a couple.
    The language of S. 2907 should be reviewed to make sure 
that it encompasses all the schools identified in Volume 1 of 
Interior's report. The bill seems to only include schools that 
were directly operated by the Federal Government or churches, 
versus schools that meet the four criteria used by Interior.
    The members of the commission are all appointed by the 
Federal Government which will likely minimize trust in the 
commission's work. I recommend revising the bill to require 
that the Federal Government select their appointees from people 
nominated by national and regional tribal organizations.
    Lastly, there are no next steps for what happens to the 
report that the commission develops. I recommend the bill 
include language that requires the Secretaries of Education, 
Interior, and Health and Human Services to conduct 
consultations about the findings and recommendations in the 
report and that the Committee on Indian Affairs conduct a 
hearing on the report in the future.
    I think that is about my time. I thank you for allowing me 
to be here and I am happy to answer any questions, Mr. Chair.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Francis follows:]

Prepared Statement of Hon. Kirk Francis, Chief, Penobscot Indian Nation
    Good afternoon Chairman Schatz, Vice Chair Murkowski and Members of 
the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today on the issue 
of Indian Boarding Schools.
    My name is Kirk E. Francis and I am the elected Chief of the 
Penobscot Nation. We are one of four federally recognized Wabanaki 
Nations located within the borders of the State of Maine.
    I want to begin my testimony by thanking Interior Secretary Deb 
Haaland and the sponsors of Senate bill 2907 for elevating the issue of 
Indian Boarding Schools and the need to fully examine the history and 
impacts these institutions had and continue to have on Tribal 
communities. As you already know, many Tribal communities struggle to 
deal with the longstanding effects of intergenerational trauma. I have 
been in elected office for my Tribal government for 26 years, with 16 
of those years serving as Chief. I first ran for office wanting to work 
on policy and programmatic issues, such as health care, education, law 
enforcement, and natural resource protection. I did not realize how 
much of my time would be spent listening to elders, youth and most 
other Tribal citizens about the issues they struggle with because of 
intergenerational trauma, much of which is the result of failed federal 
policies towards Indian Country over the past two hundred years. The 
Penobscot Nation has made significant progress in investments in our 
physical infrastructure and economic development, but we continue to 
struggle with addressing the impacts of intergenerational trauma.
    Much of this trauma has its roots in the piece-meal federal 
policies that occurred between the mid-1800s until the 1970s. The 
United States started its relationship with Tribal nations on a 
government-to-government basis. In fact, many Tribal nations in the 
Northeast fought on the side of the Americans during the Revolutionary 
War. The initial Federal policy towards Tribal nations focused on 
treaty making, but then turned to assimilation, and then to 
termination. Realizing that the assimilation and termination policies 
were failing, President Richard Nixon in a Special Message to Congress 
on Indian Affairs in 1970 denounced the termination policy and 
announced a new Federal policy under which ``the Indian future is 
determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions.'' As President Nixon 
further explained, ``we have turned from the question of whether the 
Federal government has a responsibility to Indians to the question of 
how that responsibility can best be furthered.'' This new Federal 
policy of Tribal self-determination remains the Federal policy today. 
It is largely seen as the most successful of the Federal policies 
towards Indian Country.
    Although self-determination is working as a policy, the Federal 
government failed to mitigate the harms caused to Tribal nations by the 
previous series of piece-meal policies that tore down Tribal 
communities during the previous 150 years. The Federal government 
merely changed its policy moving forward without making adequate 
investments into rebuilding the Tribal nations that were broken apart. 
The intergenerational trauma that many Native American people and 
communities continue to struggle with today has its roots in the failed 
Federal policies of assimilation and termination that existed prior to 
the era of self-determination.
    One of these failed Federal policies were the Indian Boarding 
Schools. As described in Volume 1 of Interior's investigative report, 
these schools were focused on removing Native American youth from their 
families and assimilating them into non-Native culture. Essentially, 
the goal was to eradicate the Native culture by extinguishing it in the 
children. As Interior's report indicates, hundreds of schools were 
either directly operated or funded or supported by the Federal 
government with the goal of assimilating Native American children. 
Hindsight has shown that this effort was flawed and it resulted in 
separating Native children from families, communities and culture. Some 
Native American individuals were able to successfully reconnect with 
their Tribal communities, but many individuals never fully assimilated 
and were not able to reconnect with their communities. So they lived 
their lives in limbo, having lost their Tribal identity but never 
gained any mainstream identity either. Those individuals who were able 
to reconnect with their communities still suffered trauma and struggled 
to relearn their Native identity. These boarding schools played a 
significant part in the rise of alcoholism, substance abuse, and mental 
health problems amongst Native American individuals and within our 
communities.
    There has never been a comprehensive compilation of the history of 
Federal Indian Boarding Schools, their policies and practices, their 
locations, and their impacts on Native American individuals and 
communities. It is good that the Interior Department and Congress is 
looking to compile this information but also allow Native individuals 
an opportunity to share their individual and family experiences. As I 
will describe later, one of the main benefits to compiling this 
information and getting out into Tribal communities is that Native 
American individuals who either were directly or indirectly impacted by 
these schools get more educated about the facts surrounding the schools 
and learn that they and their families are not alone in their 
experience. In my experience, there is a healing aspect to 
understanding that you as a Native American individual were a part of a 
larger policy and system, and that your experience is shared with other 
Native American individuals.
Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission
    As Chief of the Penobscot Nation, I have been involved in two 
significant commission efforts that are similar to what is contemplated 
in Senate bill 2907. One was the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare 
Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The other is the Maine Indian 
Tribal-State Commission. I describe my experience with each below.
    The Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation 
Commission was a temporary commission intended to investigate and 
compile information about the child-welfare system in Maine as it 
affected Native people, create opportunities for learning and healing, 
and develop recommendations for improving the child-welfare practices 
within the State. The effort was grass roots driven by Tribal and State 
child-welfare workers who agreed that the existing system was flawed. 
Their efforts began in 2008, the 5-person Commission was seated in 
early 2013, and it concluded its investigation and released its report 
in June 2015. The Commission traveled the State, going into 
communities, and recorded interviews of more than 150 people, 95 from 
Native Americans and 64 from non-Native people. From those interviews 
and independent research, the Commission developed its report.
    The Governor and Chiefs of the Wabanaki Nations each nominated 
individuals to serve on the Commission, and consensus was reached on 
who would serve on the Commission. The governments authorized the 
Commission to investigate whether or not the removal of Wabanaki 
children from their communities has continued to be disproportionate to 
non-Native children and to make recommendations that promote 
individual, relational, systemic and cultural reconciliation. The State 
legislature was not involved in the creation of the Commission, but the 
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap served on the Commission. It was 
decided that no Wabanaki people would serve on the Commission. This 
decision had mixed reviews by participants, but the goal was to have 
Commissioners who were unbiased so that participants could trust the 
process was objective.
    Overall, the Commission was a success. Soon after the report was 
released, productive dialogue took place between the Wabanaki people 
and State officials to make fundamental changes to the child-welfare 
system in the State. The most fundamental change was to ensure that 
there is full participation by every Wabanaki government in the 
decisionmaking process impacting any Wabanaki child who found 
themselves in the State child-welfare system. More importantly, the 
relationship between the Wabanaki governments and people with the State 
improved. The Commission process allowed for an opportunity for both 
sides to get educated about the issues, share their experiences and 
perspectives, and better understand each other. Although painful at 
times, the process resulted in an improved dialogue and respect on 
child-welfare issues between the State and Wabanaki nations, and shared 
accountability moving forward to make the best decisions for Wabanaki 
children. As the Commission's report noted, some State workers learned 
``to see not only the individual Wabanaki child but to recognize that 
the child was connected to a larger, collective culture.''
    What I think made the Commission successful was: (1) the Tribal and 
State workers who work on child-welfare issues wanted to make change; 
(2) there was buy-in from the Governor and Wabanaki governments; (3) 
the Commission's focus was narrowly tailored to one topic; and (4) the 
Commission focused its work on compiling factual information about the 
child-welfare system but allowed the voices of those impacted by the 
system to be heard and recorded. The Commission did a good job of 
describing its work as a conversation versus an investigation that 
placed blame on any person or entity.
    One of the indirect effects of the Commission was that its work re-
opened wounds for many people. And, while many found it healing to 
finally be able to share their experience and trauma, the Commission 
process itself was traumatic for some. The Penobscot Nation found it 
important to have resources, including counselors, on the ground during 
the Commission process, but also afterwards.
The Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission
    The other Commission I have experienced is the Maine Indian Tribal-
State Commission, which is an inter-governmental entity created by the 
Maine Implementing Act of 1980, which is the State law that implements 
the Federal Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. This Commission is 
comprised of 13 members: six appointed by the State, two by the Houlton 
Band of Maliseet Indians, two by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, two by the 
Penobscot Nation, and the Chair of the Commission is selected by the 
other 12 members.
    The primary purpose of this Commission is to continually review the 
effectiveness of the settlement act and the social, economic, and legal 
relationship between the State of Maine and the Houlton Band of 
Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Penobscot Nation. 
Additionally, the Commission is charged with making recommendations 
about the acquisition of land to be included in Indian Territory, 
communicate rules for fishing in certain ponds, rivers and streams 
adjacent to or within Indian Territory, and conduct studies about fish 
and wildlife management policies on non-Indian lands. This Commission 
is permanent and does not expire.
    Unfortunately, the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission has not 
been as effective in improving the relationship between the Wabanaki 
Nations and State. This is not the fault of the individual members of 
the Commission, but more about the structure of the Commission. At 
times, the State has failed to fill its six spots on the Commission, 
which impairs the ability of the Commission to get its work done. 
Additionally, the Commission has conducted some thorough studies and 
made concrete recommendations for changes in State-Tribal policies, but 
very few actually get implemented. Individual members of the Commission 
get frustrated with the structure of the Commission and lack of 
authority to implement its findings. And, the Wabanaki Nations also get 
frustrated with the inability to modernize the settlement act that 
governs our relationship with the State. Although well-intended, the 
Commission has not been able to meet its purpose.
Comments on S. 2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
        Boarding School Policies Act
    Based on my experiences with other commissions, I offer the 
following comments on Senate bill 2907 for the Committee to consider as 
you move this bill forward:

   I absolutely believe that a Commission focused on Indian 
        Boarding Schools is needed. There is significant value that can 
        be achieved by having a commission that focuses on compiling 
        factual information and experiences of those impacted by these 
        schools and policies. Additionally, there has not been any real 
        effort to mitigate the harms caused by these schools, and that 
        needs to be done so that our Tribal communities can continue to 
        progress.

   The language of S. 2907 should be reviewed to make sure that 
        it encompasses all of the schools identified in volume 1 of 
        Interior's report. The Interior Department used four criteria 
        in identifying whether a school was a Federal Indian boarding 
        school, which included whether the institution: (1) provided 
        on-site housing or overnight lodging; (2) was described in 
        records as providing formal academic or vocational training and 
        instruction; (3) was described in records as receiving Federal 
        government funds or other support; and (4) was operational 
        before 1969. The language of S. 2907 seems narrower and only 
        includes schools that were directly operated by the Federal 
        government or churches. Interior's report includes schools that 
        were operated by states and which received Federal funds or 
        support. I recommend that a definition for ``Indian Boarding 
        School'' be added to S. 2907 that mirrors the definition used 
        by the Interior Department.

   The members of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
        Boarding School Policies are all appointed by the Federal 
        government, either by the President or Congress. This does not 
        allow for maximum buy in from Indian Country for the work of 
        the Commission. It is important that there be trust in the 
        Commission's membership in order for there to be trust in the 
        Commission's work. One change that could improve the bill is to 
        have the President and/or Congress make their selections from 
        individuals nominated by national and regional Tribal 
        organizations, such as the United South and Eastern Tribes.

   Section 5(b)(5)(B) of the bill describes how vacancies on 
        the Commission will be filled, but does not provide for a 
        timeframe in which to fill such vacancies. I recommend that 
        language be added that any vacancy be filled within 120 days.

   Section 5(c) of the bill says that the initial meeting of 
        the Commission shall occur ``as soon as practicable.'' I 
        recommend that language be added to indicate that the initial 
        meeting shall occur ``as soon as practicable once a majority of 
        Commission members have been appointed.'' Although Section 
        5(b)(4) indicates that Congress and the President shall appoint 
        their members no later than 120 days after the date of 
        enactment of the Act, there is nothing that enforces this 
        provision. I have seen other federal commissions and committees 
        not be able to begin their work because 1 or 2 members were 
        still waiting to be appointed. Given the short timeframe for 
        the Commission to get its work done, it would be best for it to 
        be able to begin operations once a quorum of its members, which 
        is a majority, have been appointed.

   The timeframe for the Commission's work seems short. This 
        Federal Commission has approximately 2.5 years to conduct their 
        research, hold hearings, and draft their initial report. Based 
        on my experience in Maine, this seems too short a time to 
        conduct these activities at a national level. I recommend that 
        the Commission's timeframe be extended by at least one year.

   The bill contains no requirement that the Commission travel 
        to each region of Indian Country to hear from people. During 
        the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation 
        Commission process in Maine, individuals found it valuable that 
        the Commission came to their communities to hear directly from 
        them. I recommend that S. 2907 be amended to require that the 
        Commission travel to each Bureau of Indian Affairs region to 
        take testimonies from individuals.

   Concerns were expressed by some Members of the House of 
        Representatives about the power of the Commission to issue 
        subpoenas. I understand the concerns, but I do believe there 
        needs to be some requirement that any entity, including state 
        governments and churches, who operated boarding schools and 
        received Federal funding or support must make any relevant 
        documentation available to the Commission. Maybe an alternative 
        option is for the Commission to request the Committee on Indian 
        Affairs to issue any subpoenas.

   Lastly, there are no next steps for what happens to the 
        report that the Commission develops. S. 2907 identifies which 
        Federal entities must receive the report, but provides no steps 
        after that. I recommend that the bill include language that 
        requires the Secretaries of Education, Interior and Health and 
        Human Services conduct consultation with tribal nations about 
        the findings and recommendations in the report, and that the 
        Committee on Indian Affairs conduct a hearing on the report. 
        There needs to be provisions in the bill that ensure that the 
        conversation continues after the report is completed.

    Thank you for allowing me to provide testimony on this important 
matter.

    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Chief Francis.
    Now, we will hear from Sandra White Hawk, President, 
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

          STATEMENT OF SANDRA WHITE HAWK, PRESIDENT, 
           NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN BOARDING SCHOOL 
                       HEALING COALITION

    Ms. White Hawk. [Greeting in Native tongue.] My name is 
Sandy White Hawk. [Phrase in Native tongue.] I am from the 
Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
    I would first like to say thank you to our relative who 
opened our time with the prayer song and his companion who sang 
with him. I was really moved by that because it is only my 
second time in these halls. To hear our songs and our language 
spoken, I can only think of our relatives who survived those 
horrible experiences and here we are still today.
    We are told that if all you can say is who you are and 
where you come from, you will know where you are going to go in 
life and what you are going to do. This is what our children 
were not given in those institutions. It is truly an honor to 
be here. Thank you, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairman Murkowski, 
and the Committee members for this time.
    I am flooded with all kinds of emotions fighting that are 
against my words. My throat is almost beginning to close for 
our Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland, and me 
as well because we can't speak on their behalf without seeing 
our own relatives' faces, how we can hear our brothers and our 
sisters, our aunts, uncles and grandmothers share their stories 
within our circles and our homes.
    The Truth and Healing Commission will give us the 
opportunity to have a public opportunity, to have it validated 
by the public. It is one thing to share your story within your 
home or in your community, but it is another place to share it 
where it is going to be validated by the outside entities that 
brought this on. It brings a healing in itself and addresses 
what we call disenfranchised grief in our communities, a grief 
that has not been acknowledged or brought to any healing.
    I have witnessed this as a commissioner for the Maine 
Wabanaki Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation. I was one of 
the five commissioners. I have also witnessed a commission in 
Canada, as I was invited to be an honorary witness for the 
truth and reconciliation for residential schools. I have much 
confidence in our CEO of NNABS because she too worked within 
those entities and has much experience in helping our 
communities develop that.
    It is exceptionally important and it is time. It is so 
encouraging to hear you speak so fervently in support of us. 
That in itself, is healing, to sit and hear in the halls that 
there are representatives who understand this history and 
understand the importance of hearing from us. I want to thank 
you for that support.
    I can't wait to go back and tell my community what I heard. 
They will go ``really'' and I will go ``yeah, they did, I 
swear. It happened.'' Right now I am kind of stunned at that 
acknowledgment and to hear you say not just, our hair was cut, 
which is vital, and our clothes were taken, but you understand 
the corporal punishment and the psychological torture. You have 
spoken to that. I want to thank you for that acknowledgment.
    One last thing I want to say about our language is the 
importance of it, is to remember those of our communities who 
were forced to not say anything about who they were or where 
they came from. Yet, our languages were used, not just the 
Navajo language, but Dakota languages, the Cheyenne language, 
many languages were used in World War II. The very people who 
were to be eradicated through wars and schools stood and they 
and were boarding school survivors as well.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. White Hawk follows:]

  Prepared Statement of Sandra White Hawk, President, National Native 
               American Boarding School Healing Coalition
    Good afternoon, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairman Murkowski, and 
members of the Committee. My name is Sandra White Hawk, citizen of the 
Sicangu Lakota Nation from the Rosebud Reservation. I serve as 
President of the Board of Directors of the National Native American 
Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS). It is an honor for provide 
testimony today. I am here to express my unequivocal support for S. 
2907, the ``Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies Act.''
    As the members of this Committee well know, the history of the 
United States and its relations with Native Peoples is a troubled one. 
The 150 years that the federal government either directly forced or 
coerced Native families into boarding schools, or outsourced Indian 
boarding schools to religious institutions, caused enormous loss to 
Native communities. The United States targeted tribal languages and 
tribal cultures for extermination to carry out a federal policy of 
assimilation and tribal land dispossession. As a consequence of these 
policies and actions, Native children suffered physical and sexual 
abuse, cultural reprogramming, and even death. Today, our Tribal 
Nations and communities continue to fight our way back from this era of 
genocide.
    Sadly, neither the Federal Government nor Indian country really 
know what happened at the boarding schools during this era. We have 
bits and pieces of information collected from some elders who survived 
their boarding schools. We now have the important Volume I of the 
Department of the Interior Report. We commend Secretary Haaland, 
Assistant Secretary Newland, and the team at the Department of the 
Interior for this important work. But there is so much more to learn. 
So much information that has not been gathered. So many stories of 
living people that have not been told.
    S. 2907, the Trust and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies Act, is the right way to gather information, learn, and begin 
to heal from a century-and-a-half of harmful policies and conduct. The 
bill would create a Commission with authority to gather information 
from state, private, and religious institutions that possess 
information about the boarding schools but have not opened their doors 
to allow access to that information. The Commissioners and the Advisory 
Committee would represent a broad array of tribal people, experts, and 
institutional authorities. This Commission would have a singular 
mission of gathering and interpreting information with a five-year 
lifespan to carry out this important work.
    This bill is the culmination of years of work, relying on lessons 
learned from the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission that 
studied the residential schools that similarly forced First Nations 
children into its doors. We know that this Commission had elements that 
worked and did not work. This bill considers those lessons with the 
expectation of creating an efficient, effective Commission. As a result 
of this Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work, the Pope 
has apologized for the role of the Catholic Church in implementing 
Canada's genocidal policies on First Nation's children. In July, the 
Pope will be traveling to First Nations territory for further dialogue 
and hopefully action on his apology.
    We are often asked why we want to bill enacted to create a Truth 
and Healing Commission when the Department of the Interior has started 
this work. The answer to us is simple. First, the Interior work has a 
limited scope. Interior officials have many obligations to carry out 
its trust obligations to Tribal Nations. If properly constituted, a 
Commission that is closest to the people and is of the people has the 
best chance to earn the credibility of the people. While we certainly 
applaud the work of Secretary Haaland and the Department of the 
Interior, another federal inquiry with limited powers is far less 
likely to gain the trust of the boarding school survivors and their 
descendants that hold the stories of this horrific era in American 
history. A Commission of Native people, with the imprimatur of the 
United States Congress, has a far more likely chance of achieving 
knowledge and healing.
    NABS, an organization that I am honored to Chair, has worked in 
this area for over ten years. We were formed as a non-profit in 2011 
following public outcry about the lasting impacts of the boarding 
school era. Shortly after Canada launched the Canadian Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission, leaders from the United States and Canada 
came together to discuss the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and 
the need for such a process in the United States.
    The vision of NABS is to lead in the pursuit of understanding and 
addressing the ongoing trauma created by the U.S. Indian Boarding 
School policy. In practice, NABS is a coalition of people who support 
the healing of boarding school survivors and descendants by using our 
network to advocate, engage in research, and offer healing resources. 
NABS uses its voice to educate about the truth, the full scope of the 
federal Indian boarding school policies and the lasting legacy felt in 
Indian Country and throughout the nation. The experiences of our 
relatives are still with us, and the U.S. government has never 
meaningfully addressed these impacts. This is why we stand before you 
today.
    Our recent collaborative work with the US Department of the 
Interior has identified 408 federally-funded and supported U.S. Indian 
boarding schools, as well as 89 additional boarding schools that 
received no federal funding at all. Over nearly two centuries, these 
497 boarding schools operated as a broad system with a singular goal 
aimed at our children.
    Between the 1800s and the 1970s, the federal government removed 
thousands of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian 
children from our homes and families, and placed them in assimilative 
institutions designed to strip us of our languages, identities, and 
cultures--these lifeways that have connected us to the land since time 
immemorial. The stated purpose of the U.S. Indian Boarding School 
policy was to destroy Indian culture by using education as a weapon. 
This purpose was expounded upon by the likes of General Richard Henry 
Pratt, who stated:

        A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead 
        one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an 
        enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I 
        agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian 
        there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, 
        and save the man.

    In fierce commitment to an agenda of assimilation, Pratt's motto to 
``Kill the Indian in him, and save the man'', became a standard for the 
operation of these institutions. Nearly 500 U.S. Indian boarding 
schools carried out this ideology. They sought to destroy Indian 
language, culture, and ultimately to dismantle Indian nations, enabling 
the federal government to acquire more Indian land. To achieve this 
end, Indian children were forcibly abducted and sent to schools often 
hundreds of miles away, under the pretense that replacing the child's 
home and cultural influences through boarding school would be the most 
effective means to ``civilize'' Native people and to dispossess them of 
their lands.
    Upon arrival, our children had their hair chopped, their clothes 
stripped, and their names were replaced with English ones or often, 
just a number. Children frequently received corporal punishment for 
speaking their language, practicing traditional songs and ceremonies, 
and resisting contradictory instructions that their languages and 
cultures were wrong. Methods of punishment included: solitary 
confinement, flogging, whipping, slapping, cuffing, and devising 
methods to engage children to administer punishments to each other, 
such as the gauntlet or the strap line. Other methods of dehumanization 
routinely observed were forced labor, neglect, malnourishment, and 
physical and sexual abuse. Children were beaten to death. This happened 
routinely enough to compel school operators to have cemeteries on the 
school grounds, often in unmarked graves.
    Indian Boarding School methods are rooted in the Doctrine of 
Discovery and Manifest Destiny--all of which meant genocide for Native 
American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian peoples. The Doctrine of 
Discovery, specifically, provided sanction and justification for the 
invasion and colonization of land inhabited by non-Christians. One of 
the lasting legacies of this doctrine is the legal and cultural belief 
that Indigenous people do not have the right to our own cultures, 
lands, practices, and even how we raise our own children. The Boarding 
School Era, seen as an effective alternative to extermination, was 
ushered in by the U.S. ``Education for Assimilation'' Policy. Beginning 
with the Indian Civilization Act Fund of 1819, the U.S. authorized and 
financed religious missions to weaponize education as a ``civilizing 
process''. This policy was further enacted through the creation of the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1824, created under the War 
Department, primarily to administer these monies to churches. This 
would also be seen in President Grant's Peace Policy, lasting from 1868 
to 1881, which endeavored to replace corrupt ``Federal Agents'' with 
Christian missionaries.
    The effects of Colonialism and the Federal boarding school policies 
are clear. They are measured in stolen land, stolen lives, and 
widespread denial of sovereignty; through the systemic delegitimization 
of Indigenous ways of living, knowing, and being; through the 
destruction of language, culture, and knowledge. In sum, the effects 
are seen as Indigenous erasure, rooted in the boarding school policy 
era.
    The trauma of family and community separation, as well as the 
violently assimilative strategies of boarding schools and adoption, 
affected hundreds of thousands of children, their families, and their 
communities so deeply that these effects of trauma can be seen 
intergenerationally. In light of this, NABS, First Nations Repatriation 
Institute, and the University of Minnesota are conducting a research 
study to learn more about experiences and impacts of child removal 
related to the United States' federal Indian boarding school policy. 
The survey has seen 900 respondents to date, including 211 boarding 
school survivors and 791 descendants of boarding school survivors. Of 
the respondents, nearly half reported being diagnosed with a mental 
health condition; 77 percent reported struggling with depression; 
approximately one third of respondents reported symptoms of PTSD; 75 
percent of respondents reported having attempted suicide. Additionally, 
87 percent of respondents believed their experience affected their 
parenting, 81 percent believe they still need to heal from their 
experiences, and 73 percent have sought therapy or counseling.
    The intergenerational trauma of Indian Boarding Schools continues 
to be particularly harsh among Native youth. The 2014 White House 
Report on Native youth found major disparities in health and education, 
with more than one in three American Indian and Alaska Native children 
living in poverty and a graduation rate of 67 percent--the lowest of 
any racial/ethnic demographic group across all schools. Those students 
who survived their boarding school experience, suffered traumatic 
alienation when they returned home, finding themselves unable to 
connect with their families and communities. The report also 
established a state of emergency regarding Native youth suicide--the 
second leading cause of death for Native youth in the 15- to 24-year-
old age group--and PTSD, with rates three times the general public--the 
same rate as Iraqi war veterans.
    Given nearly 500 boarding schools throughout a timespan of nearly 
two centuries, it is essential to recognize that boarding school 
experiences cannot be seen as monolithic. There are nuanced histories 
that need to be understood and examined further. US boarding schools 
provoked deep traumas and unresolved grief, while also accompanying a 
complex history of resistance and resilience. Many individuals found 
solace in friendships and relationships that would sustain them 
throughout their lifetimes. Some resolved to learn settler ways in 
order to better prepare their Tribes to negotiate with an expanding 
American society. What cannot go ignored is that the spectrum of 
boarding school history and experiences are unequivocally and 
inescapably tied to the legacy of forced removal; dispossession of 
land; physical, psychological and sexual abuse; mass deaths and 
unmarked graves; and the extermination of Native ways of living, 
knowing, and genocide.
    NABS is not alone in recognizing the cultural genocide carried out 
through Indian Boarding Schools. In 2007, the United Nations General 
Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 
(UNDRIP), which holds that ``Indigenous peoples have the right to 
establish and control their educational systems and institutions 
providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to 
their cultural methods of teaching and learning.'' The United States 
government responded that UNDRIP advanced ``a new and distinct 
international concept of self-determination specific to Indigenous 
peoples,'' which is not the same as the existing concept in 
international law. The statement also interprets free, prior, and 
informed consent, ``which the United States understands to call for a 
process of meaningful consultation with tribal leaders.''
    Today, NABS is focused on hope, healing, and resiliency. Our goal 
is to provide this through the five-year Truth Commission, which aims 
to examine the location of children, document ongoing impacts from 
boarding schools, locate church and government records, hold 
culturallyappropriate public hearings to collect testimony from 
survivors and descendants, gather institutional knowledge from subject 
matter experts, share findings publicly, and provide a final report 
with a list of recommendations for justice and healing.
    It has taken generations for us to get to this point of public 
truth and accountability; For the voices of those that never had the 
chance to return home; for those that were forever changed by this 
extreme cruelty; for those that were chained to basement radiators, 
prison cells, and dark closets; For those that were sexually abused, 
told to wash up, and to return to their marching lines; For those that 
were told that they and their families would be forgotten;
    We have not forgotten. We ask you to hear their voices.
    The time for action is now. We must pass, S. 2907, the Truth and 
Healing Commission Bill on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.
    Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

    The Chairman. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Norma Wong.

         STATEMENT OF NORMA RYUKO KAWELOKU WONG ROSHI, 
         NATIVE HAWAIIAN POLICY LEAD, OFFICE OF FORMER 
                 HAWAI'I GOVERNOR JOHN WAIHE'E

    Ms. Wong. Aloha. [Phrase in Native tongue.]
    Aloha. My name is Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong. I was born in 
Kalihi near the mountains, where I now live.
    Mr. Chairman, I apologize for not being with you in person. 
Instead, I am here in Kalihi from time to time. You have proof 
of that because you will hear roosters in the background.
    My grandmother was banned from the language in her youth 
and she did not speak it again until two weeks before she 
passed. She did not tell us her story and I did not grow up in 
the language. So these few words that I have spoken here, that 
I wrote in my formal testimony, I sent to younger Hawaiians to 
correct, younger Hawaiians who benefitted from my generation's 
political fight for language revitalization here in Hawaii.
    I know that my story is common among the many Native 
peoples. We all experienced forced learning, the stripping of 
language and ways, separation from land, family, and peoples. 
The boarding schools were focused delivery agents for this 
national policy and for the peoples who lived and governed in 
this Country at those moments in time for their descendants, 
there is very specific pain. To account for and acknowledge is 
a consequential precipice, and how to guide and participate in 
this particular moment.
    In my introduction, the reconnection to language just three 
generations later is one small example of mending the arc, a 
seven generations arc, the seven generations that are before us 
and the seven generations after.
    This is the world view, the ethos and the plumbline for all 
indigenous peoples. At the center of the arc is the current 
generation. All the peoples, whether you are Native peoples or 
not, who live in this particular moment and what is our 
kuleana, our responsibility to mend the arc and pivot the 
trajectory for future generations. So while justice is moral, 
it is a hollow victory if it is not accompanied by thriving.
    Moving forward from the investigative report, it is 
critical to reach back and to cast forward. How do past actions 
impact us today? What is the imagined and hoped-for future? 
What would need to happen to make that possible?
    To mend the arc is to contemporaneously restore that which 
was cut off, not as a reparation but in reconnecting to a 
fruitful path. Three areas of repair come to mind: language 
revitalization; connection of people to place; and worthiness.
    Language contains values and ways. It must be taught orally 
and reconnects the relationship between generations. Language 
contains the wisdom of stewardship between peoples and the land 
and reconnecting to the responsibilities of land and place, 
even in urban areas. This is critical to the reconnection of 
the arc.
    Indigenous peoples are intended to be stewards of peoples 
and place, not only their own but of the entirety. It is part 
of our worthiness across the span of time. In mending the arc, 
we must interrupt the habit of transactional repair, in its 
stead to be creative and generous in our investment and 
partnership.
    Resources will be needed for grieving and therapeutic 
healing and guidance. The energy of what happened in these 
spaces and places needs tending to if repair is to be had. 
Ritual ceremony and repurposing, that is the indigenous way and 
making it possible for peoples to have the time, the space and 
the support to figure this out and implement hopes and dreams.
    This is a generational journey. It is not a one and done. 
[Phrase in Native tongue.], observing the horizon clouds of the 
land. What took hundreds of years to tear to the point of 
breaking cannot be repaired let alone propel us toward a more 
thriving future over the course of a few studies, reports, and 
hearings. There is work to be done and it can be fruitful.
    I leave with this wise saying of our peoples. [Phrase in 
Native tongue.]. One's child, a garland, that is never cast 
aside.
    Mahalo nui. Thank you so much.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Wong follows:]

Prepared Statement of Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong Roshi, Native Hawaiian 
      Policy Lead, Office Of Former Hawai'i Governor John Waihe'e
    Aloha. `O Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong ko`u inoa. Ua hanau `ia au ma 
Kalihi mauka ma O`ahu nei. Noho wau ma`ane`i i keia manawa.
    Aloha. My name is Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong. I was born in Kalihi 
near the mountains, where I now live. \1\ This I cautiously wrote in 
the language of my ancestors, and then sent to people younger than me 
to review and correct--descendants who are near fluent, who benefitted 
from the language revitalization efforts that I politically supported 
30-35 years ago, having grown up in a time when the `olelo--the 
language--was slipping away. I am the granddaughter of a woman who was 
considered fortunate to have attended what was known as normal school 
where the native language was forbidden, thus able to be an elementary 
school teacher for 40 years which allowed her to support her son as a 
single parent. She never spoke Hawaiian until the last two weeks of her 
life, at which time only `olelo Hawai`i left her lips--to the 
astonishment of her son and grandchildren--until she passed and became 
my ancestor in truth and fact.
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    \1\ Norma Wong was born in 1956 in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii 
and is of Native Hawaiian and Hakka Chinese ancestry. She is a 1974 
graduate of the Kamehameha Schools, a school for Native Hawaiian 
children founded by Bernice Pauahi Bishop, one of the last native 
ruling class. As a young adult, she assisted in the first comprehensive 
field family survey of Native Hawaiian needs conducted by Alu Like, 
Inc, and in community organizing efforts for political action leading 
up to the 1978 Hawai`i Constitutional Convention in which landmark 
amendments were approved that imbed native rights and values. She was a 
State legislator, and a policy director for former Governor John 
Waihe`e, the State's only Native Hawaiian governor. Her portfolio 
included the most high profile native issues of that time--ceded lands 
revenues, addressing breaches of the Hawaiian Home Lands trust, 
restoring lands into the HHL trust, returning the island of Kaho`olawe 
and negotiating its munitions cleanup. She is a teacher and strategist 
that brings forward indigenous, spirit-based, and transformative 
practices and worldviews for contemporary conditions and issues. She is 
currently part of a hui (group formed for a purpose) shepherding a 
fundamental policy pivot for Maunakea, also known as Mauna a Wakea, out 
of the clash between culture and science into a more thriving future 
based on mutual stewardship. Ryuko is the name given to her when she 
became a Rinzai Zen priest in 2000. Kaweloku is the name given to her 
by two descendants on the occasion of her 60th birthday, having no 
Hawaiian name given at birth. Roshi is the title given to a Zen master.
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    My story is a common one. If you are a descendant of an indigenous 
ancestor of the continental U.S., Alaska, and the Hawaiian Islands 
then, by definition, you are living in the wake of hundreds of years of 
government policies that sought to norm, even if it meant erasure. You 
need not have had an ancestor who was sent to a boarding school to have 
been subjected to the beliefs and therefore the institutions and 
programs of a country that had a profound misunderstanding of their 
superiority and indigenous inferiority. If you are a boarding school 
survivor, the descendant of a survivor, the descendant of peoples who 
did not survive, the descendant of peoples who buried the pain and did 
not speak of such things as if you no longer existed, then there is 
very specific trauma.
What this moment is about--The missed opportunity and potential harm of 
        the usual reactive ways
    Aia no i ke ko a ke au. Which ever way the current goes, time will 
tell. \2\
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    \2\ This is the first of four italicized quotes of `olelo no`eau--
wise sayings of the Native Hawaiian people, as recorded by scholar and 
cultural elder Mary Kawena Pukui (1895-1986)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In many spirit practice ways, it is believed that the truth that 
has been buried will arise above the ground when the people are ready 
to see it, and not a moment before.
    Many generations of individuals and clans may need to hold the dark 
secrets before the night turns to day, and their burden imprints every 
generation in between. Here we are now, in the purposeful uncovering, 
revealing, what people call truth-telling. Although we are more than 
ready to see it and it is more than past the time to do so, there will 
still be ways that the truth will be hard to bear and misunderstandings 
will reactively flow. The social justice practice is to center truth 
and healing in action. There is truth, there is healing, there is 
``and''. The ``and'' is frequently given short shrift, or abbreviated 
in ways that people have come to believe that truth is all that is 
needed for there to be healing. The truth--once unpacked beyond the 
data and the analysis and into the stories, one by one by thousands--is 
and will be painful, hard, beyond belief and understanding. It will 
reveal the underbelly of who and what the country was and in some ways 
still is. The truth is a prerequisite that will be revealed not once 
but over time. Truth is not the same as healing.
    Here we are now. The investigative report merely places us on the 
precipice--a consequential precipice. How will we guide and participate 
in this moment? If there is a revealing and a political 
acknowledgement, but not much more, then there is the very real risk 
that we will have wasted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by moving on 
too quickly. The reversal of systematic erasure--not just an 
acknowledgement of it--would be a consequential pivot for the entire 
nation, a true mending of the arc or at the least a significant leap 
toward that horizon.
Elements of mending the arc
    There is an arc and it has been interrupted. ``The arc of the moral 
universe is long, but it bends toward justice''--Martin Luther King. 
From the indigenous perspective, the arc exists within the context of 
seven generations--the seven generations that came before, and the 
seven generations that follow, a span of 120 to 150 years in each 
direction. While justice is moral, it is a hollow victory if not 
accompanied by thriving. A seven generations arc exists because of the 
intentionality of each generation to tend to current conditions while 
working toward more fruitful futures, passing that responsibility and 
the wisdom of experience from one generation to another. The bend 
toward a just thriving is dreamt and cultivated, fought for and worked 
for.
    The policies and willful intent of a country and its peoples can 
and have interrupted and nearly severed the seven generations arc by 
forced norming; displacement from land, people, and family; erasure of 
language and practices and therefore values and ways. Many of these 
tools of severing are embedded within the institution of policy known 
as the federal Indian boarding school. In spite of the determined 
actions to erase, followed by appeasement and neglect, there are still 
vestiges of the seven generations arc, which is how we may know that 
indigeneity still exists and isn't just a historical or political 
frame. But we may have forgotten how to act, how to be, how to make 
choices as consequential participants in the arc. When a seven 
generations arc isn't operational and healthy in all respects including 
being our worldview, then we are severed from agency and our present 
and future are at effect of others. A severing of the arc is a severing 
of self-sufficiency and sovereignty.
    It is important to understand that a seven generations arc isn't 
the thin line of blood lineage. The three parts--ancestors, the current 
generations, and descendants--are all of the peoples, \3\ not just the 
ones that are named in a given report, not just the ones who were 
harmed whether we know their names or not, and not just the ones who 
caused harm. It is true as it has always been that not all of the 
peoples of a generation will accept the fact let alone step into the 
responsibility within a seven generations context. The more that do so 
the more that can be accomplished. The more that can be prevented and 
interrupted, the more that can be put into motion toward the 
generations of descendants. A non-indigenous person or institution or 
government can look at itself as having nothing to do with what 
happened in the past. Alternatively, it can begin to understand the 
world as mutually interdependent including the past as it may be 
connected to the future. At one level, our mending of the arc is in the 
self-interest of all of our sakes--indigenous and not.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ In addition to the peoples who lived in a given time and place, 
there are the non-human beings including animals, plants, mountains, 
water, the entirety of the living universe.
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    The current generation--by definition--are stewards, sitting at the 
midpoint of the arc that is seven generations in the past, seven 
generations in the future. We can think of ourselves as sole stewards--
i.e., the government, or the agency, or the advocates for and on behalf 
of the peoples, past, present and future--or we can think of the 
current generation as the midpoint of the arc acting as mutual 
stewards, taking up the responsibility together in a multitude of 
roles. Doing so in mutuality in of itself mends the arc, interrupting 
the habits of hierarchy and assumptions of power.
    What are we mutual stewards for? The kuleana--the responsibility--
of the current generation is to bring forward the unseen and unhealed 
with sacred care while persistently and creatively shaping the future 
story. Understanding that the current generation includes as many of 
the ``all of us'' as may be possible, it is the kuleana of this 
generation to make visible and to see many deeds and peoples who have 
been otherwise hidden and forgotten both in their pain and in their 
joy. He `onipa`a ka `oia`i`o. Truth is not changeable. This is an 
unearthing that must be done with determination, sensitivity and care, 
taking the time that may be needed, sometimes slowly and sometimes 
swiftly, but not stopping once having begun. But to mend the arc, the 
trajectory of the past needs to be interrupted, which means that it 
isn't enough to just lay bare the painful truths of the past. Continue 
the arc. This is most fruitfully done by coming into the mutual 
stewardship of the future story, and working backwards to the actions 
that need to happen today to seed the future.
    This kuleana is a consequential midpoint, a pivot point that is 
taken or not, for better or for worse. Every midpoint in a seven 
generation arc is a pivot point, but this one seems more potent than 
most.
    What would the pivot be towards? In a long arc, seven generations 
in the past and seven generations in the future, the potential of the 
pivot into the long arc is to bring the peoples into more mutuality, 
harmony, and core strength for whatever it is that may need to be 
faced.
Potential ways forward consistent with mending the arc
   Iteratively reaching back and casting forward is critical. 
        In the past, there is an accounting of what happened, but also 
        a telling and understanding of why. In the present, there is 
        the connectivity with the past on meta and micro scales with 
        present-day impacts, including the accumulation of impacts over 
        time. Toward the future, there is the imagining of what it 
        would mean, what it looks like, and what it will take to hold 
        the thriving of children at the center, collectively, to mend 
        the arc. It is about the education of children, the safety of 
        children, the transition from childhood to adulthood, the 
        societal role of children. In the present, there is the 
        organizing for future results including pivots and course 
        adjustments. In the present, there is individual and collective 
        revealing, grieving, and coming to terms.

   For this journey of making right and mending, there is 
        strength and possibility in mutuality which will look like, 
        especially at the beginning, as parallel efforts.

          -- There is the work within native communities, including 
        native peoples who live in the diaspora outside of native 
        communities. This is the work of revealing and digesting what 
        has happened. This may be in the form of stories, including the 
        use of storytelling to chronicle and to therapeutically 
        process. In many places and among many peoples there will be 
        specific rituals, some in community, and some that may be 
        guided in community for individuals. These rituals include the 
        clearing of peoples, spaces, and places. There is the work of 
        bringing ancestral children home, wherever home may be 
        determined to be. There is the work of reconnection of 
        ancestors and the living with places and peoples that they have 
        been separated from. There is the creative wondering about the 
        world that native peoples hope for, a robust description of 
        what it would mean to not only acknowledge and to reverse the 
        damage but to also leap forward. This may be community by 
        community, peoples by peoples. There may also be the 
        possibility of exploring the beginnings of a pivot of 
        indigenous peoples as a whole across the continent, Alaska and 
        Hawai`i in relationship to a national policy.

          -- There is emergent work that may be possible between native 
        peoples and communities with non-native allies, co-workers, 
        neighbors and friends. This includes the respectful sharing and 
        the respectful listening of what has happened. There is the 
        processing and perhaps a developmental path between people and 
        between institutions, making and strengthening true 
        relationships, and making plans together toward more mutually 
        beneficial futures.

          -- There is the work of bringing awareness into the 
        understanding of the American public with the aspiration of 
        pivoting the relationship that Americans have with the 
        indigenous peoples of this land. Against the backdrop of 
        polarization and othering, this is the most challenging of the 
        parallel work.

   To repair in the ways of mending the arc is to 
        contemporaneously restore that which was intentionally cut off, 
        not as a reparation \4\ but in reconnecting the severed path. 
        Three areas of repair come to mind: the revitalization of 
        language; the reconnection of peoples to place; and renewed 
        worthiness.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ Definition: the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by 
paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.

           Language contains the values and ways of a people, teachings 
        that lose their meaning in translation. The learning of once-
        only-oral languages must be done person to person, thus 
        restoring teacher-student relationships, the value and ways of 
        mastery. Indigenous languages contain wisdom of the stewardship 
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        between people and land.

           Reconnecting peoples to place is critical to repairing the 
        arc. Most indigenous peoples in this country have been 
        displaced and dispossessed. Beyond the multitude of issues of 
        land rights, there is the fundamental reconnection of people to 
        be in relationship to land, including water and all aspects of 
        nature. This is even so and perhaps more especially so if you 
        are no longer living on the lands of your ancestors. 
        Nonetheless, do you have a relationship with the lands you are 
        now on, do you know it, care for it, care about it. This 
        relational reconnection is critical to mending the arc of 
        indigeneity, and awakens a critical societal role of indigenous 
        peoples in this country, front and center in a time of tectonic 
        climate change. To have to assume such roles for all peoples, 
        not only your own, is worthy. And worthiness assumed repairs a 
        broken arc.

   Among the transactional habits of political solutions is the 
        monetizing of repair. In its stead, be creative and generous in 
        the investment and partnership in thriving. Resources will be 
        needed for grieving, therapeutic healing, the gatherings for 
        saying what needs to be said and to share what needs to be 
        shared. Resources will be needed if language is to be 
        revitalized, peoples reconnected in relationship to land, and 
        worthiness re-established. Making it possible for peoples--at 
        scale--to have the time, space, and support to just talk and 
        figure out what it may take to repair the arc will take 
        resources, as will the implementation of those dreams and 
        hopes.

   Our children ancestors went to or were taken to places known 
        as boarding schools where things happened that are now being 
        uncovered. Even more than the deeds themselves, these are 
        places where there was loneliness, despair, hurt, numbness, 
        disappearing, anger, fear, hope and the loss of hope, love and 
        the withholding of love, joy and joy muted. The energy of what 
        happened in these spaces and places need tending to if repair 
        is to be had. That is the indigenous way. Places and spaces 
        will need to be tended to, energy shifted, memorialized or 
        repurposed, spirits called home. There will be no single plan 
        and each place and space offers its own challenges and 
        opportunities, especially for mending between native and non-
        native peoples.

    This is a generational journey; not a one and done. E nana i ka 
`opua o ka `Aina. Observing the horizon clouds of the land. What took 
hundreds of years to tear to the point of breaking cannot be repaired 
let alone propel us toward a more thriving future over the course of a 
few studies, reports, and hearings. There is work to be done, and it 
can be fruitful.
    Ka lei ha`ule `ole, he keiki. A lei (garland) that is never cast 
aside, one's child. This is our chance.
    Many thanks for the opportunity to testify. I am at your service.

    The Chairman. Mahalo.
    We will now recognize Ms. Medicine Crow.

  STATEMENT OF LA QUEN NAAY LIZ MEDICINE CROW, PRESIDENT/CEO, 
                    FIRST ALASKANS INSTITUTE

    Ms. Medicine Crow. Gunalcheesh, haw'aa, Chairman Schatz and 
Vice Chairwoman Senator Murkowski from Alaska. Thank you so 
much for your words of introduction. And to the Committee, 
gunalcheesh, haw'aa, for your time today.
    Like those who have spoken before me, this is not an easy 
subject to address. In my introduction, Senator Murkowski spoke 
about my heritage, that I am Haida and Tlingit and I come from 
[phrase in Native tongue.], the people of the community of 
Kake. Our name really means ``mouth of the dawn people.''
    I sit here before you as the granddaughter of a survivor. 
Her name was Mona Jackson. I wear her regalia here today 
because I wanted to bring her with me and I wanted to become a 
vessel for her voice and for the voice of so many of our other 
children, our most vulnerable, who were taken from our 
communities.
    They were not just taken from their communities. While we 
will focus on the importance of the children who were taken, it 
is also incredibly important to focus on the communities that 
they were taken from.
    I often wonder what it would be like to come from a place 
with no children. This is what was imposed on our people. Could 
you imagine having your own children taken, communities without 
children? As stated earlier, over 83 percent of our children 
were taken across this Country. That is a staggering amount and 
likely has left some uncounted.
    I work for an organization called First Alaskans Institute. 
Our vision is progress for the next 10,000 years. This is a 
large number which we know that we can look to because we come 
from over 10,000 years of history here in this place.
    This period of the boarding schools was a short window of 
time that exacted so much precise damage. This was intentional 
and purposeful harm. This commission will finally help us tell 
the truth about the United States' history and its relationship 
with its Native people.
    When I think about the process that we have been engaged in 
in Alaska called Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation, we 
used the process over the past almost 14 years to arrive at a 
Native value-centered process using our Native peoples' wisdom 
as the subject matter experts of this work.
    We used a process that centered our people, that honors 
them and uplifts their voices. In this process, we created 
these tribunals where we invited our communities to step 
forward and share their truths, and in the sharing of those 
truths, lifting up the healing process, which I heard some 
questions asked earlier about, how do you marry both the space 
for telling the truth with the healing that needs to happen. 
Those things actually go hand-in-hand. Using a process that was 
designed by our people, for our people, and for Alaska's 
strength and future, we designed a process that also included 
accountability partners.
    Those accountability partners were people who represent 
governments, churches, social groups, private individuals, for 
profit enterprise, who were ready to sit and stand beside 
Native people and say, we want to understand the legacy of our 
impact, we want to work side by side to co-create the future 
that we know our children deserve.
    This is wisdom and knowledge that comes from our Native 
people in Alaska, who like so many others of our Hawaiian 
brothers and sisters and our lower 48 Native brothers and 
sisters, have learned, under duress, how to actually hold 
people up, talking about incredibly hard things. That wisdom 
should be tapped by this commission.
    I cannot thank you enough, once again. I want to leave with 
a story from my grandmother. My mother asked her a question 
about her experience with boarding schools. My grandmother 
responded, ``I can tell you what happened physically, but I am 
still not able to talk about what happened inside.''
    This commission will open up a pathway where these stories 
from people who are now elders will be heard. Time is of the 
essence. We cannot waste any more of their precious life with 
not giving them a forum to share their lived experiences.
    Gunalcheesh, haw'aa, for this opportunity to share on this 
incredibly important bill.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Crow follows:]

 Prepared Statement of La quen naay Liz Medicine Crow, President/CEO, 
                        First Alaskans Institute
    Dear Mr. Chairman and Mrs. Vice Chairwoman:

    Gunalcheesh, Haw'aa, Tsina'ee--Thank You in the Lingit, Xaadaas and 
Tanacross languages--for considering [S. 2907] [H.B.5444], the Truth 
and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Policies Act. Your 
leadership on this critical national issue supports the moral 
imperative and responsibility this country has to the Native peoples of 
this place. We greatly appreciate the wisdom of those involved in this 
process for the past many decades to get us to this point, and for the 
bravery of the Boarding School Survivors to be willing to participate 
in processes that create a space for their truths to be heard and 
direct action to be taken to address the issues raised through the 
sharing of their personal stories and those of their Indigenous 
communities. It takes a great deal of courage and strength to be 
willing to do this for future generations.
    As a statewide Alaska Native non-profit whose vision is progress 
for the next 10,000 years., we too have been listening deeply and 
working alongside our communities to better understand how to support 
the critical social transformation that must occur to right these 
wrongs perpetuated against Native peoples through our most vulnerable, 
our precious children. For the past 14 years we have been engaged in 
deep community work around issues of healing and truth-telling in our 
communities and, under our people's direction and vision, to address 
these issues that are also manifest in this bill. We look forward to 
working with the US Congress to bring this Commission into reality. We 
also stand ready to support this effort by sharing our own work in this 
area called Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Alaska (TRHT 
Alaska) in hopes that lessons we have learned in creating a healing 
space for the truth to be told can be helpful in the Truth & Healing 
Commission set-up, recommendations, and outcomes that will flow from 
it. We also offer edits to the bill itself (see Attachment A) to help 
strengthen its ability to achieve these goals.
WHY THE TRUTH AND HEALING COMMISION ON INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS POLICIES 
        ACT NEEDS TO BE IMPLEMENTED
    Establishing this Commission to address the legacy and ongoing 
impacts of boarding schools for Native peoples creates a pathway for 
truth, transformation, justice, and deep healing that is critically 
needed to address the devastating, inter-generational, and ongoing 
impacts of the Boarding School era. As a country we owe it to ourselves 
to know what happened, how our country was formed by these policies, 
how Native peoples, cultures, communities, and families were almost 
completely destroyed and our homelands taken from us, and most 
importantly, how we can rectify, repair, and move forward together as a 
country whose destiny is intertwined with the well-being of the Native 
peoples of this place.
    A true accounting of the Boarding School era and its ongoing 
ramifications today is the first step towards healing as a Nation and 
as Indigenous peoples--past and present. At least 367 boarding schools 
were operated by the U.S. for over a century, yet we only know the 
location on record for 38 percent of these schools, and only a fraction 
have been analyzed. This Commission is needed to help locate and 
analyze additional records and ensure that accounts of Indian boarding 
schools--told by survivors, families, Tribes, community members, and 
Native organizations, as well as presently unknown and undisclosed 
records--are preserved. Time is of the essence as we have a limited 
amount of time to hear directly from survivors and record their 
stories--at a bare minimum we owe this to them. This Commission is 
needed to ensure that our children who were forced to attend these 
schools are not forgotten, that their descendants and the legacy of 
impact intergenerationally is acknowledged and addressed, that our 
communities who had their children taken from them and the future of 
their cultures, languages, community well-being, and homelands severely 
jeopardized are finally heard, and so that this never happens again. 
This knowledge and understanding will also help ensure that we can 
shape better policy with more meaningful and significant supports, and 
that this destructive era of U.S. Indian policy is acknowledged so that 
future generations of Americans may understand this dark history and 
strive to do better for us all.
    The traumas experienced by these stolen children and their 
communities continues to reverberate within our families, cultures, and 
communities, and disrupt our ability to live our ways of life as 
diverse Indigenous peoples. For too long, there has been a blanket of 
silence around boarding schools, without an opportunity for our 
communities to speak about what we endured. The longer the silence 
endures, the heavier the weight of these truths and the greater the 
trauma they inflict in our communities foreclosing opportunity, 
destroying lives, and creating a cycle of trauma that erodes this 
country's ability to live up to its promise.
    Developing a complete picture of the ongoing impact Indian boarding 
schools have had on generations of Alaska Native, American Indian, and 
Native Hawaiian people, is critical to providing a path toward healing 
for individuals, families and tribal communities that have endured the 
terrible consequences of Indian boarding school policies and it will 
also help heal this entire nation. What is good for Native people is 
good for all U.S. citizens. This important work must be supported by 
all who reside in the United States today, and we encourage you to 
continue bringing other Senators and Congressmen together to advance 
this critical endeavor. This work will promote healing within our 
Indigenous communities and within the US as we begin to unpack the 
legacy, confront the truth, and transform these historic atrocities 
into a future our children can not only be safe in but they can finally 
thrive in once again.
    To those ends, we highly support the creation of a Truth & Healing 
Commission that will help account for (1) the number of children forced 
to attend these schools; (2) the number of children who were abused, 
died, or went missing while at these schools and their locations and 
burial sites; (3) the number of children who were displaced, 
disconnected, and removed from their Tribal communities permanently; 
(4) the long-term intergenerational impacts on the children and the 
families of children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; (5) the 
impacts on Native communities, cultures, languages, and homelands (i.e. 
the link between colonization, land dispossession, assimilation, and 
boarding schools to effectuate those policies); and (6) the location of 
church, other privately held information, and government records needed 
to complete this analysis. Our country will continue to fall short of 
its values and ideals without this important work.
HOW TRHT ALASKA USES A NATIVE-BASED, HEALING PROCESS TO CREATE A SPACE 
        WHERE THE TRUTH CAN BE TOLD, HEALING IS CENTERED, AND ACTIONS 
        TO ADDRESS AND REPAIR HARM ARE AMPLIFIED
    First Alaskans Institute, working alongside our community, guided 
by Native Leaders, Advisors, and Healers, has been hosting the Truth, 
Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Alaska process, grown out of 
our communities priorities, designed specifically for Alaska, and 
supported in partnership with the WK Kellogg Foundation, to bring 
forward our peoples truths at a statewide level. We invite our Native 
peoples to come forward and share their truths and lived experiences as 
well as Alaskan leaders within our state and national governments, 
faith-based communities, and other entities to commit to working 
together with the Native community to transform systems of past and 
current harm. We invite and encourage your participation in our TRHT 
Alaska endeavor as well.
About TRHT
    For years, Indigenous communities in Alaska, and across the 
country, have called for a process that provides for intergenerational 
healing and permanent systemic and societal transformation. TRHT Alaska 
is a movement in response to this call and is grounded in Alaska Native 
knowledge to create space for healing for all of Alaska's people. 
Through this movement we are creating a record of our truths as 
Indigenous peoples, peoples of color, and identity intersections to 
right the wrongs we experience, and transform our systems so future 
generations are free to be who they are without harm. It is a pathway 
forward to healing the relationship with Alaska Native peoples and all 
others who now call Alaska home towards a more vibrant, dynamic, and 
strong Alaska.
    The TRHT Alaska tribunal was created to make a space for the truth 
to be told, for wrongs to be righted, and for societal transformation 
to occur for the long term--by our people, for our people, and for 
Alaska. It was designed around a simple principle, that when we center 
Native values in the process and in the way we host these forums, we 
can ensure our people feel safe, welcome, heard, and that they have the 
best chance possible for the sharing of their truths to be a healing 
experience and support their continued healing journeys for themselves 
and for our collective well-being. These tribunals are designed around 
critical communities and issues such as Boarding and Residential 
Schools, Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives (also known as MMIW) 
and public safety, Protecting Our Native Ways Of Life (POWOL), lands, 
economy, and laws.
    These TRHT Tribunals create space for truth, healing, justice, and 
societal transformation by engaging all participants is solution-making 
and ownership of actions that they can effectuate. We do not refer to 
this process as ``reconciliation'' because we are not trying to restore 
a relationship that was once good and needs to be ``reconciled''. We 
cannot reconcile what we never had, so instead of starting with a false 
narrative, we are instead focused on the outcome we are seeking, the 
healing and transformation of our society. Through this effort, we aim 
for healing and justice for our peoples, transformation of systems, and 
to create a place where once again our children are reflected and loved 
for who they are.
Truth
    The true history of Alaska Native peoples is a perspective rarely 
mentioned or represented in school systems today. This space is 
designed to accept and uplift the true lived experience of Alaska 
Native peoples. It is an opportunity to speak about the honest 
historical and ongoing legacies of institutions, governments and 
entities involved in harming our peoples. Sharing the legacy of these 
institutions and systems and how they rose into the positions they have 
at the expense of Indigenous and peoples of color is a story to share 
with every Alaskan. Telling the truth of how policies, laws, 
governments, faithbased entities, educational institutions, media, 
conservation organizations, resource industries, and other groups have 
impacted our peoples and our ability to thrive as Indigenous peoples in 
our own homelands and in our diaspora is vital for justice, for 
righting wrongs, and for ensuring all Alaskans understand their 
critical role in reshaping this legacy--to be a part of it and to find 
ways to evolve forward together. Truth is necessary for justice and 
justice is necessary for healing and transformation.
Racial Healing
    We are deliberately centering healing in all aspects of these 
tribunals. Healing emerges from telling our stories in safe, uplifting, 
loving spaces designed for us and by us. Throughout this process, we 
are focusing on the wellbeing and healing of our peoples from the 
ongoing intergenerational trauma caused by these systems and policies. 
We have been working with a group of over 40 Native healers who carry 
expertise in various forms of healing to include clinical, spiritual, 
traditional, cultural, religious, and other forms of healing that are 
not bound by and/or defined by western ideologies of healing. It also 
incorporates healing pathways that focus on group, individual, and 
homelands-based processes (such as getting out on the land to harvest 
or just to be), as well as offering other types of healing that 
individuals themselves ask for, such as western psychology, therapy, or 
faith-based processes. These healing modalities are meant to meet our 
people where they are at. This means that this work continues to center 
on the guidance of our communities and peoples. The tribunals are 
designed to try not to retraumatize or cause further harm related to 
the historic trauma, but to create a pathway for healing and care for 
every individual participating in these tribunals. For many, being able 
to talk about these experiences collectively is a healing act in and of 
itself, while others feel more supported in smaller group or one on one 
connections. Whatever way works best for our peoples is the way we try 
to create these spaces and amplify their well-being.
Transformation
    We operate with the understanding that Alaska Natives know best 
what is best for Alaska Natives, and what is good for Alaska Natives is 
good for all Alaskans. We know that when our communities are in charge 
of determining their future, everyone benefits. The transformation we 
seek will center the narratives, lived experiences, and needs of our 
people in all systems. The transformation of these systems will target 
the inequity where these injustices began, and are then addressed and 
remedied by every Alaskan in perpetuity--so it never happens again. 
Accountability Partners work alongside us to achieve this 
transformation within their institutions and governments. Our ever-
expanding cohort is examining the legacies of their institutions and 
systems, educating themselves, and sharing these hard truths. What this 
means is that doing this work is not about having one moment in time 
and then `moving on', as that is not possible, but rather that doing 
this work is about transforming ourselves for the better, never to 
return to what was before. Like a caterpillar to a butterfly, the 
United States can finally transform into the country we all know it 
must become to secure its healthy, vibrant future.
Tribunal Roles
    There are several critical roles for each tribunal, which require 
various pre- and post-meetings and trainings to be fully prepared and 
debriefed, with actions to move forward with:

   Truth Providers: Alaska Native peoples who feel called to 
        speak truth to the harms and challenges we have experienced 
        with external systems that impact our ability to live and 
        thrive as distinct Native peoples and continue our ways of 
        life.

   Pullers: Doers and allies who work for, with, and in 
        alignment with Native peoples to advance our Native peoples, 
        protect our Native ways of life, work for racial equity, and 
        fight for social justice. Pullers will be engaged, listening, 
        committed, and will help co-create solutions to make 
        transformation in the institutions, society, and systems that 
        perpetuate inequity and harm to our Native peoples and ways of 
        life.

   Indigenous Artists: They will listen and later--if 
        inspired--will create art that meaningfully responds to truths 
        told in the moment or memorialize what our peoples have gone 
        through in order to honor the stories shared through the TRHT 
        Alaska process, so they are not forgotten, ensure history is 
        not repeated, and to create a more equitable and transformed 
        future for our children.

   Healers: Healers will aid as we hold space for both our 
        Truth Providers as well as all our participants no matter their 
        role. The Healers serve as a touchstone, as a presence, and as 
        a relationship that folks can tap into, connect with, and build 
        deeper insights with during or following the gathering.

   Story Guardians: The Story Guardians are charged with being 
        deeply engaged listeners, the receivers of any truths 
        (testimony) that are shared and offering reflection into the 
        space as a way of reciprocating to our Truth Providers during 
        the process. The presence of the Story Guardians will help 
        Truth Providers feel safe, listened to, validated, and 
        believed. And provide a guidepost for all other participants as 
        well.

   Accountability Partner: An Accountability Partner is a 
        representative of an entity whose work, presence, or historical 
        legacy has impacted, continues to impact, or has the capacity 
        to impact the Alaska Native community, and the intention, 
        willingness and commitment to respond to the truths told to 
        work alongside our Native peoples to ensure true healing and 
        transformation towards a better, more equitable, and stronger 
        Alaska. Entities could include an organization, government (in 
        any capacity--elected, appointed, judicial, administrative, 
        legislative, employed, etc.), churches, educational systems, 
        businesses, media, health care, environmental/conservation 
        entities, resource development entities, social groups, or 
        person or groups of people.

          As a part of the healing work and path we are on, we ask 
        those interested in being Accountability Partners to make the 
        following commitments:

          --Participate in our Accountability Partner preparatory 
        session to ensure you are informed and ready to hear our 
        peoples' truths.

          --Examine the political and racial legacy of your institution 
        and commit yourself to examining and sharing this story.

          --Lift up truths, share hidden or untold stories, and 
        dismantle false narratives that are critical to transforming 
        inequitable systems within Alaska that negatively impact all 
        Alaskans.

          --Participate fully during truth-telling spaces by bearing 
        witness to the stories shared.

          --Commit your time and resources to work proactively with our 
        communities to advance desired policy and narrative outcomes.

    This work is ongoing and its purpose it to continue to provide 
pathways for healing for our peoples, and for systems of harm to be 
healed and transformed as well. To date, we have 151 recordings from 
our Tribunals and Summits, mostly from our Truth Providers, Story 
Guardians and Healers. We use an informed consent process that is also 
built on healing and equity methodologies--that once participants share 
their truths, they have time to reflect and view their recording in 
order to decide if they are comfortable sharing the full recording, 
some of the recording, or none of the recording, and once they decide 
they can then provide their consent as they desire to give it. This 
acknowledges and amplifies their power over their truths and supports 
their decisionmaking. Each recording, as authorized by the informed 
consent process, will be held in an online repository as a living 
history of our truths. Our communities can access the knowledge and 
wisdom of these truths in a variety of formats, ranging from research, 
writings, curricula development, media, and other communication/
artistic expressions. They will guide the narrative change needed to 
inform policy makers, leaders, decision makers, healers a and health 
practitioners, educators, and more from now and into the future. A 
short documentary film is also being made to help tell the story of 
this work, so future generations can access and learn from it for the 
challenges they will face.
    We will continue to work with our healers and advisors on our 
collective healing journey and grow our people's access to healing 
pathways grounded in our ways of knowing and being. We continue to 
expand our cohort of Accountability Partners who are examining the 
legacies of their institutions and systems, educating themselves and 
their colleagues, and sharing these truths towards the goal of 
cocreating a future legacy we can all be part of and our children proud 
of. The Accountability Partners are key participants who do not have an 
authoritarian or hierarchical role in the process, but rather stand 
beside and hold up those sharing their truths, bear witness, and do 
their own hard work to better understand these legacies and transform 
them.
    This TRHT Alaska model, co-created by a visionary group of Alaskans 
and centering Alaska Native values in the process, has been sought by 
many folks around the country and world. Aboriginal people in 
Australia, First Nations in Canada, Sami (Norway), and other BIPOC 
communities from the contiguous U.S. have reached out to learn more 
about this Indigenous process as they work on their own. We will 
continue to share the model and are committed to evolving it as needed 
to meet the vision of our Native peoples--to create a space where the 
truth can be told, wrongs can be righted, and societal transformation 
is achieved. We welcome members of this committee to join us in this 
critical work and/or reach out to learn more for potential application 
for this Truth & Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools.
STRENGTHENING THE TRUTH AND HEALING COMMISSION ON INDIAN BOARDING 
        SCHOOLS POLICIES ACT
    Please find attached a redline version of the bill * with our 
suggested amendments to help ensure the law that is passed is the 
strongest and most impactful it can be, while still holding true to the 
original intent of the bill. We understand this is a continuing process 
and look forward to further opportunity to comment and make further 
suggestions. We also want to ensure that Alaska, having a unique 
history, and complex governance due to the various way's colonization 
has occurred in our homelands, can be fully engaged and represented in 
this process.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    * The information referred to has been retained in the Committee 
files.
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    Gunalcheesh, Haw'aa, Tsina'ee--We thank you again for considering 
this bill to establish a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding Schools Policies. We stand ready to lend our support for this 
critical work.

    The Chairman. Thank you very much to all of our testifiers.
    My first question is for Ms. Wong. Our last testifier made 
reference to trauma. It seems to me that we have to act with 
absolute determination, understanding that moments come and go 
and although we all seem to be in agreement that we need to 
move forward, that could vanish quickly. You just never know. 
And the Federal Government moves slowly so we want to make sure 
they feel the impetus, feel the motivation and have the 
resources to go.
    But it also occurs to me that we have to do this properly, 
that in our determination, that can't turn into haste. 
Certainly, I have learned, as a non-Native Hawaiian residing in 
Hawaii for 47 of my 49 years, I know entering a space or 
starting a project, going into someone's home, starting a 
meeting in the wrong way can set a tone that is almost 
impossible to reverse.
    The question I have for you, Ms. Wong, is, in your 
experience are their best practices when it comes to attempting 
to reconcile personal trauma and broader community harms? In 
other words, how do we do that part of it right and not just 
start to conduct listening sessions and maybe re-traumatize 
people, without a path forward?
    Ms. Wong. Mr. Chairman, there is the trauma-informed aspect 
of this, there is the healing-informed aspect of it, and then 
there is the thriving-informed. Which is to say that, 
especially in government kinds of projects, even initiatives 
that have as much requirement as this particular initiative 
has, which is to say that the boarding schools, opening up the 
conversations that may be possible with boarding schools may be 
a once in a generation opportunity to pivot the entirety of the 
relationship that the United States Government has with the 
Native peoples of this Country.
    Because of the possibility of that pivot, you need to 
actually move forward not only with care but with I would say 
some differentiation. By differentiation, I would say that you 
recognize there are different levels. There is a level of the 
individuals which would include the survivors as well as the 
descendants, as well as the Native peoples who are not actually 
accounted for in the boarding schools but essentially were cast 
into the diaspora.
    So they are no longer a part of any peoples that are 
certainly recognized by the Federal Government and may actually 
be dislocated by hundreds, thousands of miles from their 
homeland. They will show up, they will show up in a community 
center or in a mental health clinic or some place and they will 
say, I remember that I am of these people, whoever those people 
may happen to be.
    So, there are levels of the individual but there is the 
institutional, both private and public, for which an accounting 
is required and also a new narration that is brought forward. 
Then there are the cross-community conversations that would 
include non-Natives and would be best done on an individual 
basis. This would be on a relational basis, the people that you 
know and the people who know the people that you know.
    So, designing this differently and to actually implement it 
almost at the same moment but not to use the blunt sword, I 
consider a public hearing to be a blunt sword. So we can't 
settle for the usual, the public hearing that would have 
certain testimonies and would have people who would have a time 
limit and things of that sort. That cannot be where all the 
focus happens to be.
    Every person and descendant needs a way to be seen or 
heard, be it in community or on an individual basis. Some 
massive national effort will actually resolve many things if 
that is done in concert with this particular effort. I would 
also say that support teams who are going to be used for this 
are going to experience their own trauma and they will need 
ways to deal with that and to deal with that in ways that are 
appropriate to their culture.
    There is a narrative that is embedded within this Country 
that has reverberated to this day. Unless that narrative is 
rewritten, a new story is written, then these efforts will 
remain just within the government sphere of things.
    I would say that it is useful for the United States 
Government to change its ways. But if your neighbor, who is 
non-Native, is not included in the new narrative and doesn't 
have a way forward, then I don't think much will change on the 
ground for the peoples of this place.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much.
    I am going to ask one last question. I think it is yes or 
no.
    Ms. White Hawk. do you think this commission should have 
subpoena authority?
    Ms. White Hawk. Yes, I do, absolutely.
    The Chairman. Perfect. Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Ms. Medicine Crow. I want to ask a question about how we 
are defining, or the criteria used to define Federal Indian 
boarding schools. Chief Francis, you kind of alluded to this at 
the end of your statement.
    Certainly, in Alaska, we know that many of the boarding 
schools were affiliated with religious institutions. Apparently 
in Interior's report here, they say approximately 50 percent of 
Federal Indian boarding schools may have received support or 
involvement from a religious institution and that further, that 
the government, at times, paid religious institutions and 
organizations for Native children to enter Federal Indian 
boarding schools.
    We have identified 21 schools in Alaska that we are calling 
Federal Indian boarding schools. But really, as we look at how 
big the State is and the role of religious institutions in 
these boarding schools, I kind of feel like that number might 
be low.
    Would you care to comment on whether you think the Interior 
Department's criteria is adequately capturing the federally 
supported schools that we see in Alaska and elsewhere? Is there 
perhaps a better way to define Federal Indian boarding schools? 
When you have responded, maybe I will ask you, Chief Francis, 
to comment on the same thing. Go ahead, Liz.
    Ms. Medicine Crow. Gunalcheesh for the question.
    Yes, I think that what I even read within the Department of 
Interior's report acknowledges that their criteria was really 
limited, and as a result, we don't quite know how many actual 
boarding schools were in Alaska.
    Right now, we know from the report there were 21, as you 
stated. But they also acknowledge there were over 1,000 
different institutions across the Country that did not fit that 
criteria. So they did not include it in the report.
    We know in Alaska that the orphanages, the boarding homes, 
were also subsidized by the Federal Government. Churches, in 
their own right, took it upon themselves to define areas in 
Alaska. During a convening, they came up with what we know 
today as the comity plan where the different churches sectioned 
up Alaska and each took a certain region of the State. Through 
that comity plan those churches enacted their own efforts to 
assimilate our Native children.
    Understanding the relationship between the churches and the 
Federal Government in that role is critical and I believe will 
come out through this commission process. From where I stand 
today, I do not think we have an accurate number yet of the 
institutions that were in Alaska.
    The other thing I think is important to note is that a lot 
of Alaska Native children were sent out of State to boarding 
schools down south. We do not yet know the number of those 
children sent to these boarding schools or orphanages.
    In one instance, there is another institution in Oregon 
called the Morningside Institute where mentally ill Alaskans 
were sent. A substantial number of them were Alaskan Natives 
and a number of them were Alaska Native children. Figuring out 
this entire kind of ecosystem of assimilative process is really 
critical. I think a very strict and narrow definition will 
limit our ability to really know the full story.
    Senator Murkowski. I appreciate the detail to that.
    Chief Francis, do you agree that perhaps this definition is 
just too limiting, too narrow?
    Mr. Francis. Yes, I think so. As I stated in my testimony, 
the four criteria used in Interior's definition is much broader 
than the bill. I think this is why a solid, robust consultation 
process throughout this is going to be extremely important to 
understand what each tribal community's or each region's 
experiences were.
    There are many ways that our children were affected by 
boarding schools, not just in the Federal system. What we found 
in our truth and reconciliation process in Maine was, we 
started the conversation about child welfare and then that 
child welfare conversation went into people's experiences as 
children in the Catholic church, we were raised, or whatever it 
may be.
    It will inevitably broaden to a whole host of historical 
trauma, things related to the educational system for children. 
If we look at the State of New York, for example, we know there 
are three boarding schools there that are not considered 
Federal boarding schools, even throughout periods of time, 
throughout their history, they received significant Federal 
funding.
    I think it is going to be extremely important to get that 
definition right. I think through a robust consultation 
process, the commission can begin to understand the diversity 
of institutions that contributed to these atrocities for Native 
kids.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Senator Lujan.
    Senator Lujan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The United States poured enormous resources into Federal 
Indian boarding schools. By comparison, the Federal Government 
has invested less than $400 million in recouping the very 
Native American languages they tried so hard to eradicate 
through these policies.
    Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that we still don't 
have an estimate of how much was spent by the United States 
into Federal Indian boarding schools. I am hopeful we can get 
that number so when there is comparison and some may try to 
suggest it is too expensive to support these initiatives, 
people are able to take a look at how much was spent in trying 
to take away people's lives away, take language away, and to 
hurt people. I am hopeful we can work toward getting that 
number and finding ways to support initiatives like the Esther 
Martinez Immersion Program.
    To each of the witnesses, yes or no, but if you care to 
expand, I would appreciate that as well. My question is, yes or 
no, in keeping with the initiative's recommendations, should 
Congress make bold, substantial investments in Native American 
language immersion, preservation, and maintenance programs? 
Chief?
    Mr. Francis. Absolutely, Senator. Thank you for that.
    I do not know if we will ever be able to quantify the 
cultural damages from that era. But certainly every year, it 
should be the follow-up when we talk in the testimony about the 
follow-up being important to a commission report. It is 
critically important that we are having a budgetary 
conversation every year about addressing the cultural damages 
to tribes, language preservation, historic preservation.
    Ultimately, it is going to be the Native communities that 
are going to be left to deal with the commission's report. It 
will inevitably open old wounds, it will be a difficult time 
and the communities are going to have to be able to support 
that historical trauma treatment. Unfortunately, resources are 
going to be a huge part of that success.
    Senator Lujan. President White Hawk.
    Ms. White Hawk. Yes. I was thinking that there probably 
wasn't a discussion of the cost to try to eradicate the 
language. It would probably make sense, and for sure would make 
sense that Congress would invest in what it took to restore 
what was taken.
    We often hear in our communities, people will say, we lost 
our language. I say, no, we did not lose it; it was taken. This 
was not something we did to ourselves; it was taken. It would 
make sense and I would support that.
    As Chief Francis said, it will open up wounds. But in order 
for us to heal, we need to air out those wounds and replace 
them with the medicines we have within our ceremonies and 
songs, along with our mental health professionals who can help 
us as well. Most importantly, what was taken from us, our 
songs, our life ways, that will bring the healing when our 
wounds are open from that.
    There was an elder that was one of my teachers, one of my 
most influential teachers in my life who said, we are a people 
well acquainted with grief. I have watched and seen that as we 
have gone into communities and listened to experiences and 
watched healing take place.
    I heard Chairman Schatz mention possibly triggering our 
relatives, but I don't even like to use that word ``trigger'' 
because a trigger is on a gun. Why are we using possible 
language that leads to violence?
    It does remind us that there is something that happens when 
the truth is spoken. It changes minds and changes hearts and 
gives strength to the individual who is being heard possibly 
for the first time in a way that will validate their 
experience. It is an incredible process to watch. I have been 
privileged to, over the last 20 years, witness healing circles, 
truth circles, and it is definitely the way we need to be.
    As a commissioner in Maine, Chief Francis was right, 
everything led back to boarding school, everything, because 
that is where the first disruption took place of our families, 
of our communities, of everything.
    Restoring that begins that healing process. Most of all, it 
validates. I can't say it enough. I think of my own brother 
sharing what he is finally willing a little bit to talk about, 
of what he endured and my other relatives endured. Hearing it 
and shaking your head, singing a song. When that wound 
originally happened, nothing was there. They laid there in bed 
at night with nothing.
    So hearing it, recounting it and the relatives being 
around, that is the healing process. From that, those who are 
listening can use their gifts and skills to say, wow, we need 
to do this to address this in our community, this would be 
helpful as we move forward. Our young people will take that 
next step for us as they listen and hear.
    Thank you.
    Senator Lujan. President Medicine Crow, yes or no?
    Ms. Medicine Crow. Yes, absolutely.
    Senator Lujan. Ms. Wong, yes or no?
    Ms. Wong. Yes.
    Senator Lujan. I appreciate that.
    Mr. Chairman, my time has expired, but I have other 
questions I will submit into the record. Thank you for the time 
today. Thank you again to each of the witnesses for your 
courage and being here today. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Lujan.
    I will now recognize the Vice Chair for any closing remarks 
she may wish to provide.
    Senator Murkowski. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank those who 
have come before the Committee for your testimony today, for 
your input, and for your advocacy for so many, knowing that it 
is personal for so many of you.
    I would commend, Mr. Chairman, as this Committee is looking 
further into this investigation, the reports and what will 
follow, that what First Alaskans Institute has put in place 
with the tribunal and the summit on boarding and residential 
schools in Alaska, this process that allows for the stories to 
be heard, to provide for this source of healing, is something 
that hopefully others can look to as a process.
    I hesitate to call it best practices, but I think 
oftentimes we look, where do we start, where do we begin, how 
can we allow for a safe space for the sharing, knowing that it 
won't just be words in a room but by sharing, that healing can 
begin.
    I do recognize the heart that has gone into the effort by 
First Alaskans and how, in our State, we are beginning those 
slow steps, those initial steps. There is much to be done but I 
think we saw from those who have shared today we are in those 
beginning steps. There is much work to do and I appreciate the 
Committee's attention to this.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Vice Chair Murkowski.
    I want to thank all of the testifiers for their incredible 
testimony, of course, but also their important work going 
forward. This will be the beginning of an ongoing process. 
There is no doubt about that.
    It is important to remember that our government did this 
and that we like to think that only other governments in other 
places far away implemented such atrocities. It is literally 
hard to fathom that the United States Department of War and the 
United States Department of Interior removed children from 
their homes, punished them physically and abused them mentally 
and sexually. And many died.
    This was an important first step. We are going to stay on 
this. All the Committee members are committed to this. I know 
the Secretary is. We will work with you, nothing about you, 
without you, to make sure we get this right.
    Senator Hoeven.

                STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN HOEVEN, 
                 U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA

    Senator Hoeven. Mr. Chairman, if I could, I would like to 
ask Ms. White Hawk one question then I can submit other 
questions for the record as well.
    As President of the National Native American Boarding 
School Healing Coalition, what are the next steps you feel 
should be taken following the release of this first volume of 
the study that was done?
    Ms. White Hawk. Until we hear our communities speak their 
experiences, that will define our next steps that we will take.
    Senator Hoeven. Okay. Very good. Thank you.
    Again, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the witnesses being here. 
I will submit some questions for the record as well. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hoeven.
    If there are no more questions for our witnesses, members 
may also submit follow-up written questions for the record. The 
hearing record will remain open for one month.
    I want to thank all the witnesses for their time and 
testimony. Mr. Fisher will now close this hearing.
    [Closing ceremony.]
    The Chairman. This hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 4:36 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]

                            A P P E N D I X

 Prepared Statement of the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty 
                            Protection Fund
    The United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund 
(USET SPF) is pleased to provide the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs 
(SCIA) with the following testimony for the record of the March 16, 
2022 oversight hearing, ``Buy Native American: Federal Support for 
Native Business Capacity Building and Success.'' During the 2022 State 
of the Union Address, President Biden renewed his Administration's 
commitment to the `Buy American' initiative, which was established by 
the January 2021 Executive Order 14005, ``Ensuring the Future is Made 
in All of America by All of America's Workers'' (EO 14005). EO 14005 
was issued to ensure that the federal government would invest taxpayer 
funds to support American businesses, workers, and manufacturers. 
However, the `Buy American' initiative has not necessarily recognized 
and supported the contributions and production of goods and services by 
Tribal Nations and our businesses. The federal government must support 
our self-determined and sovereign rights to pursue initiatives for 
economic development that rebuild Tribal Nation economies.
    For the `Buy American' initiative to be successful, federal 
departments and agencies must remove regulatory barriers that hinder 
our ability to create economic opportunity for our businesses and 
entrepreneurs. This can be accomplished by broadening 638 self-
determination compacting and contracting opportunities for Tribal 
Nations and utilizing `Buy American' to purchase goods and services 
from Tribal Nations and businesses. This will support Tribal Nations 
and businesses to rebuild our economies and empower our initiatives to 
rebuild economic development and opportunity for our citizens. 
Additionally, the federal government must support Tribal economic 
parity by protecting our businesses from dual taxation, the restoration 
of Tribal homelands, and provide accessible opportunities for energy 
production and distribution.
    USET Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF) is a non-profit, inter-
tribal organization advocating on behalf of thirty-three (33) federally 
recognized Tribal Nations from the Northeastern Woodlands to the 
Everglades and across the Gulf of Mexico. \1\ USET SPF is dedicated to 
promoting, protecting, and advancing the inherent sovereign rights and 
authorities of Tribal Nations and in assisting its membership in 
dealing effectively with public policy issues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ USET SPF member Tribal Nations include: Alabama-Coushatta Tribe 
of Texas (TX), Catawba Indian Nation (SC), Cayuga Nation (NY), 
Chickahominy Indian Tribe (VA), Chickahominy Indian Tribe-Eastern 
Division (VA), Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana (LA), Coushatta Tribe of 
Louisiana (LA), Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (NC), Houlton Band of 
Maliseet Indians (ME), Jena Band of Choctaw Indians (LA), Mashantucket 
Pequot Indian Tribe (CT), Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (MA), Miccosukee 
Tribe of Indians of Florida (FL), ), Mi'kmaq Nation (ME), Mississippi 
Band of Choctaw Indians (MS), Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut 
(CT), Monacan Indian Nation (VA), Nansemond Indian Nation (VA), 
Narragansett Indian Tribe (RI), Oneida Indian Nation (NY), Pamunkey 
Indian Tribe (VA), Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township (ME), 
Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point (ME), Penobscot Indian Nation 
(ME), Poarch Band of Creek Indians (AL), Rappahannock Tribe (VA), Saint 
Regis Mohawk Tribe (NY), Seminole Tribe of Florida (FL), Seneca Nation 
of Indians (NY), Shinnecock Indian Nation (NY), Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of 
Louisiana (LA), Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe (VA) and the Wampanoag 
Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) (MA).
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Economic Development in Indian Country and the USET SPF Region
    Prior to European contact, Tribal Nations, including our members, 
had a long history of dynamic economies and governance structures. 
Robust trade networks connected Tribal Nations and the goods we 
produced. As with other aspects of Tribal governance and 
infrastructure, the removal, termination, and assimilation policies of 
the United States government negatively impacted our traditional 
economic trade. Over the course of centuries, Tribal Nations ceded 
millions of acres of land and extensive resources to the U.S.--
oftentimes by force--in exchange for which it is legally and morally 
obligated to provide benefits and services in perpetuity. Because of 
this historic and ongoing diplomatic relationship, the federal 
government has trust and treaty obligations to support Tribal self-
governance and self-determination, along with rebuilding Tribal Nations 
and economies. Unfortunately, at no point has the federal government 
fully delivered upon and upheld these obligations.
    In addition to being relegated to fractions of our original 
homelands, which can be in remote areas, Tribal Nations lack 
governmental parity in economic development opportunities and treatment 
under the U.S. tax code. The Federal Reserve Board of Governor's 2012 
report, Growing Economies in Indian Country, outlined eight issues as 
fundamental challenges to realizing economic growth in Indian Country. 
USET SPF's member Tribal Nations, with few exceptions, face these same 
challenges, such as:

        1. Insufficient access to capital;

        2. Capacity and capital constraints of small business;

        3. Insufficient workforce development, financial management 
        training, and business education;

        4. Tribal governance constraints;

        5. Regulatory constraints on land held in trust and land 
        designated as restricted use;

        6. Underdeveloped physical infrastructure;

        7. Insufficient research and data; and

        8. Lack of regional collaboration

    All Tribal Nations, especially USET SPF member Tribal Nations, vary 
in levels of economic activity, capacity, and development. Some Tribal 
Nations have decades of experience and familiarity with economic 
development initiatives, while some are just starting to pursue these 
initiatives. This diversity demands that federal policy not adopt a 
one-size-fits all approach in supporting Tribal Nations and businesses 
to pursue economic development initiatives to support our communities 
and engage in nation rebuilding.
Expand `Buy American' to Include `Buy Indian' Across the Federal 
        Government
    We appreciate SCIA's effort to examine the barriers Tribal Nations 
and businesses experience in accessing financial capital and 
marketplaces to produce and distribute Native goods, resources, and 
services. The `Buy American' initiative must recognize Tribal Nations 
and businesses as economic development partners and direct federal 
agencies to actively purchase products manufactured, harvested, and 
produced by Native businesses and entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the `Buy 
American' initiative should be expanded to include federal government 
purchasing priorities outlined by the Department of Health and Human 
Services and Department of the Interior's `Buy Indian Act' (`Buy 
Indian') regulations. More effective and expanded implementation of 
`Buy Indian' regulations should be included in the `Buy American' 
initiative and implemented across the federal government to ensure that 
all departments and agencies are prioritizing the purchase of goods and 
services from Tribal Nations and our businesses. This will support 
President Biden's `Buy American' initiative and empower Tribal Nations 
and businesses to pursue economic development opportunities.
    In June 2021, the Department of the Interior (DOI) hosted Tribal 
consultations on proposed revisions to its `Buy Indian Act' regulations 
to increase contract preferences for Indian Small Business Economic 
Enterprises (ISBEEs) and Indian Economic Enterprises (IEEs). Proposed 
revisions also included updates on subcontracting to ensure consistency 
with Federal Acquisition Regulations and an update to the process for 
deviating from the `Buy Indian Act' to ensure greater preference for 
IEEs. USET SPF submitted comments in support of DOI's proposed 
revisions to fulfill the intent of the law and recommended the 
expansion of the Act's provisions across the whole of the federal 
government. We reiterated these recommendations to the Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS) in response to its November 2020 
rulemaking to update the department's `Buy Indian' regulations. In 
addition to expanding `Buy Indian' across the federal government, USET 
SPF also recommended that DOI and HHS increase internal accountability, 
communication, and compliance protocols to document and report on 
anticipated, pending, and completed ISBEE and IEE solicitations. 
Furthermore, we recommended that DOI and HHS develop ongoing evaluation 
mechanisms for `Buy Indian' implementation by hosting annual Tribal 
Listening Sessions to receive feedback on successes and challenges with 
the Act's implementation. Federal agencies adopting `Buy Indian' 
regulations should also include these recommendations to ensure the 
purpose and intent of the law is meaningfully implemented to support 
Tribal Nations and our businesses.
Ensure Tribal Nation Economic Parity
    With nearly every aspect of economic development regulated by the 
federal government, economic progress in Indian Country is often 
stymied with legal and regulatory burdens on Tribal Nations and 
businesses. These burdens have contributed to a perpetual cycle of 
social and economic hardships in our communities. Congress and the 
Administration must work to free Tribal Nations from over-burdensome 
laws and regulations that impede our social and economic success. This 
is especially important in an environment of the federal government's 
failures to uphold trust and treaty obligations to fully fund programs 
and services for Indian Country. Similar to other governments, Tribal 
Nations provide vital services to our people, which are funded by 
revenues generated by our businesses. The federal government, as well 
as state governments, should recognize and uphold Tribal Nation 
sovereignty and self-determination to pursue these economic development 
initiatives. These include efforts to support Native producers.
    As it is for any other sovereign, economic sovereignty is essential 
to our ability to be self-determining and self-sufficient. The 
rebuilding of our Tribal Nation economies involves the rebuilding of 
our Tribal economies as a core foundation of healthy and productive 
communities. Building strong, vibrant, and mature economies is more 
than just business development. It requires comprehensive planning to 
ensure that our economies have the necessary infrastructure, services, 
and opportunities for our citizens to thrive. This results in stronger 
Tribal Nations and a stronger America.
    The U.S. government has a responsibility to ensure that federal tax 
law treats Tribal Nations in a manner consistent with our sovereign 
governmental status, as reflected under the U.S. Constitution and 
numerous federal laws, treaties, and federal court decisions. With this 
in mind, we remain focused on the advancement of tax reform that would 
address inequities in the tax code and eliminate state dual taxation. 
Revenue generated within Indian Country continues to be taken outside 
our borders or otherwise falls victim to a lack of parity. Similarly, 
Tribal governments continue to lack many of the same benefits and 
flexibility offered to other units of government under the tax code. 
USET SPF continues to press Congress for changes to the U.S. tax code 
that would provide governmental parity and economic development to 
Tribal Nations.
    This includes support for H.R. 4054, the Tribal Tax and Investment 
Reform Act, introduced by Representative Ron Kind on June 22, 2021. 
H.R. 4054 would specify the treatment of Tribal Nations as states with 
respect to bond issuance, modify the treatment of pension and employee 
benefit plans maintained by a Tribal Government, modify the treatment 
of Tribal foundations and charities, improve the effectiveness of 
Tribal child support enforcement agencies, and recognize Tribal 
governments for purposes of determining whether a child has special 
needs eligible for the adoption tax credit.
Protect Tribal Nations from Dual Taxation
    Dual taxation hinders Tribal Nations from achieving our own revenue 
generating potential. Although Tribal Nations have authority to tax 
noncitizens doing business in Indian Country, when other jurisdictions 
can tax those same noncitizens for the same transactions, Tribal 
Nations must lower their taxes to keep overall pricing at rates the 
market can bear or forgo levying a tax at all. The application of an 
outside government's tax often makes the Tribal tax economically 
unfeasible.
    Dual taxation undercuts the ability of Tribal Nations to offer tax 
incentives to encourage non-Indian business entities onto our lands to 
create jobs and stimulate Tribal economies. As long as outside 
governments tax non-Indian businesses on our lands--even if a Tribal 
government offers complete Tribal tax immunity to attract a new non-
Indian business--that business is subject to the same state tax rate 
that is applicable outside our jurisdictional boundaries. As a matter 
of economic fairness, we ask that you work with us to support and 
advance initiatives that would bring certainty in tax jurisdiction to 
Tribal Lands by confirming the exclusive, sovereign authority of Tribal 
governments to assess taxes on all economic activities occurring within 
our jurisdictional boundaries.
Support Tribal Nation and Business Development in the Energy Sector
    USET SPF member Tribal Nations, and our respective Tribal Lands and 
energy resources, are located within a large region that presents 
diverse geographical environments and opportunities for both 
conventional and renewable energy development. Our member Tribal 
Nations could benefit from the unlocked potential of those energy 
resources and realize energy development goals through appropriate 
Congressional and administrative action and investment in Indian 
Country, particularly to promote balanced geographical representation 
and inclusion of USET SPF member Tribal Nations in energy programs. 
USET SPF has established its energy priorities, as follows:

   Promote Tribal self-determination and control of natural 
        resources and energy assets to make conservation and 
        development decisions that preserve Tribal sovereignty, protect 
        Tribal assets, and achieve economic independence, job creation, 
        and improvement of Tribal members' standard of living;

   Promote Tribal capacity building efforts involving multiple 
        federal agencies, universities, and the private sector;

   Reform core federal programs, expertise, and funding to 
        support Tribal energy resource development and market access; 
        and

   Remove barriers to the deployment of Tribal energy 
        resources, such as bureaucratic processes, insufficient access 
        to financial incentives, and interconnection to and 
        transmission on the power grid.

    Enacting legislation and developing regulations to support these 
initiatives will advance the energy capabilities of Tribal Nations and 
translate into beneficial economic and health and wellness outcomes for 
our communities.
Restoration of Tribal Homelands
    Possession of a land base is a core aspect of sovereignty, cultural 
identity, and represents the foundation of a government's economy. That 
is no different for Tribal Nations. USET SPF Tribal Nations continue to 
work to reacquire our homelands, which are fundamental to our existence 
as sovereign governments and our ability to thrive as vibrant, healthy, 
self-sufficient communities. And as our partner in the trust 
relationship, it is incumbent upon the federal government to prioritize 
the restoration of our land bases. The federal government's objective 
in the trust responsibility and obligations to our Nations must be to 
support healthy and sustainable self-determining Tribal governments, 
which fundamentally includes the restoration of lands to all federally-
recognized Tribal Nations, as well as the legal defense of these land 
acquisitions. With this in mind, USET SPF continues to call for the 
immediate Senate consideration and passage of a fix to the Supreme 
Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar.
Support Self-Governance Contracting and Compacting for Tribal Nations
    Tribal Nations are political, sovereign entities whose status stems 
from the inherent sovereignty we have as self-governing peoples that 
pre-dates the founding of the United States. The U.S. Constitution, 
treaties, statutes, Executive Orders, and judicial decisions all 
recognize that the federal government has a fundamental trust 
relationship to Tribal Nations, including the obligation uphold the 
right to self-government. Our federal partners must fully recognize the 
inherent right of Tribal Nations to fully engage in self-governance, so 
we may exercise full decisionmaking in the management of our own 
affairs and governmental services.
    Despite the success of Tribal Nations in exercising authority under 
the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA), as 
well as the recently enacted Practical Reforms and Other Goals to 
Reinforce the Effectiveness of Self-Governance and Self-Determination 
(PROGRESS) for Indian Tribes Act, the goals of self-governance have not 
been fully realized. Many opportunities still remain to improve and 
expand upon its principles. An expansion of Tribal self-governance to 
all federal programs under ISDEAA would be the next evolutionary step 
in the federal government's recognition of Tribal sovereignty and 
reflective of its full commitment to Tribal Nation sovereignty and 
self-determination.
    As was discussed during the hearing, this includes an expansion of 
ISDEAA into federal nutrition programs. The 2018 Farm Bill authorized a 
demonstration project for Tribal Nations to pursue 638 contract and 
compact opportunities under the Indian Self-Determination and Education 
Assistance Act (P.L. 93-638) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 
(USDA) Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). This 
638 authority should be expanded to the Supplemental Nutrition 
Assistance Program (SNAP) and other vital federally administered 
nutrition programs. Tribal Nations, like other units of government, are 
responsible for providing essential services to our citizens, which 
includes those related to nutrition and health and wellness. Tribal 
Nations have demonstrated that we have the capacity to fully administer 
SNAP programs to Tribal citizens, as we have been administering far 
more complex federal programs for decades. However, and in spite of a 
2014 USDA feasibility study, Tribal Nations continue to be excluded 
from administering SNAP and other nutrition programs under P.L. 93-638 
contracting and compacting. USET SPF joins Tribal Nations and 
organizations across the country in calling upon SCIA and Congress to 
ensure that Tribal sovereignty and self-determination for federal 
nutrition programs is made a reality, including as part of the next 
Farm Bill reauthorization.
    In addition, we urge that P.L. 93-638 authority also be extended to 
forestry programs at USDA. When Tribal Nations manage our own forests, 
we are able to prioritize traditionally harvested plants and animals 
that provide vital elements of a healthy Indigenous diet.
Conclusion
    Economic insecurity in Indian Country is a symptom of the larger 
issues we face as Tribal Nations, due, in large part, to the failure of 
the U.S. government to live up to the terms of our diplomatic, Nation-
to-Nation relationship. Development and implementation of policies and 
programs that recognize and uphold our inherent sovereignty and fulfill 
trust and treaty obligations are necessary to alleviate economic 
hardship, rebuild Tribal Nations, and improve the quality of life for 
our citizens and communities. Congress must continue to support and 
fully fund federal programs that encourage economic development and the 
rebuilding of Tribal economies. We welcome the opportunity to 
collaborate with the Committee on economic policy that better honors 
federal trust and treaty obligations while upholding our inherent 
sovereignty.
                                 ______
                                 
            Prepared Statement of the Casey Family Programs
    Casey Family Programs was founded in 1966 and is the nation's 
largest operating foundation focused on providing and improving--and 
ultimately preventing the need for--foster care. Casey Family Programs' 
perspectives are informed by our own experiences working with child 
welfare agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto 
Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and with 16 American Indian tribal 
nations on child welfare policies and practices to improve outcomes for 
children and families. Casey Family Programs partners with child 
welfare systems, policymakers, youth and families, community 
organizations, national partners, philanthropy, American Indian and 
Alaska Native tribes, and courts to support practices and policies that 
increase the safety and success of children and strengthen the 
resilience of families.
    We believe that families are the foundation of every community, and 
every family should have the ability to thrive with the support of a 
caring community. All families have strengths, and all families need 
support. Casey Family Programs has spent the last 55 years working to 
bring hope and opportunity to families across this nation regardless of 
the ZIP code or community where they live. We will continue to work 
with others in our commitment to anti-racism, anti-discrimination and 
equity. We will continue to be motivated by our belief in the intrinsic 
dignity and value of every person. We will continue to strive for 
fairness and justice in the way people are treated across America and 
the opportunities they are given to succeed. As a nation, we must 
create a world where our children's lives are no longer cut short by 
America's history of systemic racism and inequitable treatment. We 
should do everything we can to keep families strong, including our 
children and families in American Indian and Alaska Native tribes.
    Our Indian child welfare work began in the mid-1980s and grew to 
include teams that worked in Bismarck and Fort Berthold, North Dakota, 
and Martin, Pine Ridge, Rapid City and Rosebud, South Dakota. Over 
time, Casey Family Programs worked to transform from a foundation-led 
and -funded operation to a tribally chartered Indian child welfare 
program.
    In 1999, Casey Family Programs opened our Denver office, where the 
Indian Child Welfare Program is based today, employing 12 staff to work 
directly with tribes. Other teams within our organization, including 
our research, knowledge management, and public policy divisions, work 
with the Indian Child Welfare Program to support their efforts.
    Our Indian Child Welfare Program currently works on national and 
tribal initiatives that aim to strengthen tribal nations' capacity to 
keep children healthy, safe and connected with their families, 
communities and cultures. We partner with American Indian and Alaska 
Native tribes across the country to support their development and 
administration of effective and culturally responsive child welfare 
systems. The Indian Child Welfare Program staff work directly with 
tribes, providing consultation and technical assistance on implementing 
child welfare programs. Casey Family Programs has agreements with 16 
tribes that honor tribal sovereignty, support nation-building efforts, 
and help build partnerships with the broader child welfare profession.
    Beginning in 2012 and continuing today, we have also supported 9 
professional staff to work on tribal issues in several presidential 
administrations under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) in the 
White House Community Solutions Team, several divisions of the U.S. 
Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Reserve 
Bank of Minnesota. The Casey Family Programs' IPAs bring unique 
perspectives and expertise on American Indian and Alaska Native child 
welfare to their assigned divisions and serve between one and three 
years funded by Casey.
    In Washington State, Casey Family Programs is collaborating in a 
small tribal-state work group that is focusing on a comprehensive 
rewrite of Washington State's child welfare policies and procedures 
that pertain to Native children and families in the state child welfare 
system with a particular emphasis on enhancing effective tribal 
involvement in cases involving their children. Six tribal 
representatives and eight representatives from the state of Washington 
are part of the work group. The work group has completed its analysis 
and recommended revisions are now being reviewed by leadership of the 
Washington State Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS), after 
which a formal tribal consultation process will take place before they 
are finalized.
    We are currently working in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tulsa 
Oklahoma, and Billings, Montana and 13 other jurisdictions to help 
create Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) courts to meet the specific 
issues of active efforts and support keeping American Indian children 
with family and tribes. Research on the Arizona ICWA court highlight 
that such courts promote greater tribal involvement and collaboration 
to enhance support and improve outcomes for ICWA families. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Korthase, A., Gatowski, S.I., & Erickson, M. (2021). Indian 
Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Courts: A Tool for Improving Outcomes for 
American Indian Children and Families. National Council of Juvenile and 
Family Court Judges.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In 2019, Casey Family Programs worked with the North Dakota 
Department of Human Services and four Native American tribal nations to 
sign updated comprehensive agreements to enhance child welfare services 
for American Indian children and families. Under the agreements, the 
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation; the Spirit Lake Nation; the 
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa 
will receive state grants funded by federal Title IV-E reimbursements 
to support an enhanced array of child welfare services, expanded 
subsidized adoption services and the subsidized guardianship program. 
In addition, the updated agreements offer access to prevention services 
under the federal Family First Prevention Services Act, which realigns 
federal funding to strengthen families and protect children. \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ North Dakota Human Services Press Release, North Dakota and 
tribal nations sign updated comprehensive agreements enhancing child 
welfare services for Native American children and families, September 
6, 2019.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In 2017, the Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact was signed as a 
one-of-a-kind landmark government-to-government agreement between the 
State of Alaska and Alaska Tribes and Tribal organizations that 
recognizes the Tribes' inherent authority to oversee placement of their 
children and provide child welfare services--including conducting child 
welfare investigations, assigning placement of children in out-of-home 
care, and licensing foster homes, among other things. This umbrella 
agreement broadly defines the services and support that are to be 
conducted by each Tribe (Co-Signer) within their service area and 
memorializes how information and resources are shared between the State 
and each Co-Signer. This unique Compact has been created in the hopes 
of reducing the disproportionate number of Alaska Native children in 
State custody and improving the lives of Alaska Native families state-
wide. At its inception, 18 Alaska Native tribes or tribal organizations 
were part of the new compact, and negotiations to add others are done 
on an annual basis. We are proud to have worked with the tribes and 
State on this historic program. Casey Family Programs has continued to 
support this work by providing research, convenings and other supports 
to the compact. In July 2022, Casey Family Programs was officially 
added to the compact and will offer ongoing support for tracking 
negotiations, outreach, and strategic planning.
    In 2015, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS), in 
partnership with Casey Family Programs conducted a pilot project to 
identify practice trends related to compliance with the federal and 
Oklahoma Indian Child Welfare acts. The Indian Child Welfare Act 
Snapshot report describes a review of cases involving American Indian 
children in foster care performed by a subcommittee of the Oklahoma 
Tribal State Collaboration Workgroup. A ``real-time snapshot'' of 
Indian Child Welfare Act cases in Oklahoma DHS Region 4 was conducted 
to evaluate Indian Child Welfare Act practices by DHS staff and state 
courts, involvement by tribal child welfare program staff in Indian 
Child Welfare Act cases, and collaboration between state and tribal 
child welfare workers. Due to the high number of American Indian 
children in the state foster care system in Oklahoma, compliance with 
the Indian Child Welfare Act and state/tribal collaborative efforts are 
crucial factors in improving outcomes for those children and their 
families. The project findings indicate varying levels of strengths and 
weaknesses in Indian Child Welfare Act practices by CWS, state courts 
and tribes in one DHS region. \3\ Using the data from the Snapshot, the 
Oklahoma Partnership won one of three Indian Child Welfare Act 
Implementation Grants in 2016 that ends in September 2022. The grants 
are expected to improve the safety, permanency and well-being of 
American Indian children and families through early identification, 
increased communication, and collaboration. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Casey Family Programs, Indian Child Welfare Act Snapshot: A 
Pilot Review of ICWA Practice in Oklahoma, November 2015
    \4\ Casey ICWA Partnership Summary, Casey Family Programs, 2022.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tribal data
    American Indian and Alaska Native children are overrepresented 
nationally in all stages of the child welfare system, and disparate 
outcomes for these children have been well documented for decades. 
Overrepresentation of American Indian and Alaska Native children starts 
early in the child welfare process. It begins with who is reported to 
child protective services and remains a profound issue at every 
subsequent decision point, including the initial screening of reports, 
decisions about whether to substantiate allegations of abuse or 
neglect, removal of children from their homes, and permanency outcomes 
for children in foster care and beyond. American Indian and Alaska 
Native children are disproportionately more likely to be victims of 
maltreatment and to be in foster care than the general population of 
children with approximately 15 children per 1,000 placed in care, the 
highest of all minorities in 2020 data. This data also shows that 52 
percent of American Indian and Alaska Native children in foster care 
are placed with non-Native Families despite Indian Child Welfare Act 
guidelines of active efforts to keep American Indian children with 
their families and tribes. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ National AFCARS files obtained from National Data Archive on 
Child Abuse and Neglect (NDANCA) at Cornell University
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Understanding the need to improve outcomes for American Indian 
children, Casey Family Programs collaborated with 21 teams of tribal 
and state representatives to work together over a one-year period to 
develop strategies to recruit and retain more tribal homes for American 
Indian children to fulfill the intention of the Indian Child Welfare 
Act to preserve cultural connections between 2014 and 2017. The project 
led to the publication of a detailed brief outlining the four essential 
strategy areas for effective recruitment and retention of the Indian 
Child Welfare Act-preferred caregivers. The first strategy identified 
is to build tribal and state agency infrastructure and resources for a 
foundation for successful collaborative recruitment and retention 
efforts. State agencies practices also should generate ideas and 
strategies and put a team's recruitment and retention efforts into 
action. State and federal policy have a strong influence on agency and 
judicial practice in making Indian Child Welfare Act-preferred 
placements for American Indian and Native Alaskan children. Raising 
awareness about the importance of Indian Child Welfare Act-preferred 
placement and strategies can lead to better compliance with the law. 
\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Casey Family Programs, Preserving Connections: Best Strategies 
for Recruiting and Retaining Tribal Foster Families for American Indian 
and Alaska Native Children, February 28, 2018.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In 2019, Casey Family Programs published some encouraging data on 
American Indian and Native Alaskan children based on changing trends 
from 2010 to 2016. The percent of American Indian and Native Alaskan 
children in care who are placed with kin has increased from 27 percent 
in 2010 to 35 percent in 2016. The percentage of American Indian and 
Native Alaskan children placed with kin is higher when compared to 
Black/African American children (31 percent in 2016) or White children 
(32 percent in 2016). We know that placement with kin not only 
minimizes the trauma of removal, but increases the likelihood of 
remaining connected to siblings, families of origin and community, 
which improves overall well-being. In addition, children in kinship 
care have been found to experience fewer behavioral and mental health 
challenges, lower rates of re-abuse and less placement disruption.
    Alternatively, the percent of American Indian and Native Alaskan 
children placed in congregate care settings has declined from 13 
percent in 2010 to 8 percent in 2016. This reduction is greater for 
American Indian and Native Alaskan children when compared to Black/
African American children or White children (12 percent). The percent 
of American Indian and Native Alaskan children exiting care who age out 
each year declined from 8 percent in 2010 to 6 percent in 2016. This 
decline is greater compared to the trend for African American children 
(11 percent in 2016) and White children (7 percent in 2016). \7\ Such 
data highlights the potential for genuine progress with a sustained 
focus on the need for tribal children to remain connected to their 
families and their tribes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ Casey Family Programs, Native American and Alaska Native 
Children Data Trends, January 2, 2019.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Casey Family Programs research
    In 2013, Casey Family Programs collaborated with the University of 
Oklahoma to examine the effectiveness of the SafeCare model with 
American Indian families. Researchers found that SafeCare was equally 
effective at reducing repeated child welfare involvement among American 
Indian parents as it was among other groups. In addition, American 
Indian parents receiving SafeCare reported reductions in depression and 
higher ratings of cultural competence, working alliance, and service 
quality and benefit than American Indian parents receiving services as 
usual. The study findings counteract concerns that structured evidence-
based models that require certain elements such as formal manuals may 
not be compatible with American Indian culture and, and thus, not as 
effective as other approaches. \8\ This research study helped provide 
important clarifications and can be helpful to tribes and state 
agencies hoping to fund prevention services under the Family First 
Prevention and Services Act to support work with the tribes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ Casey Family Programs, SafeCare: Evidence-based Neglect 
Prevention Model Shows Effectiveness with American Indians, December 3, 
2013.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
    At the Senate Committee hearing on June 22, 20212, the Honorable 
Kirk Francis, Chief Penobscot Indian Nation, Indian Island, Maine 
testified about the successful process between the Maine tribes and the 
State agency that has led to better and sustained outcomes for Native 
Indian children. He said that success depends upon the commitment of 
both sides to work together, and Casey Family Programs stands ready to 
support other states on such collaborations.
    Given Casey Family Programs' approach of working directly with 
tribes and having specific consulting relationships with every State 
child welfare agency, Casey is uniquely poised to support the goal of 
preventing ``the continued removal of American Indian, Alaska Native, 
and Native Hawaiian children from their families and Native communities 
under modern-day assimilation practices carried out by State social 
service departments, foster care agencies, and adoption services.'' \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\ Senator Elizabeth Warren, bill text S. 2907 Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy Act, September 30, 2021.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    *Attachments have have been retained in the Committee files.
                                 ______
                                 
          Prepared Statement of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Introduction
    Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairman Murkowski, and Members of the Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe appreciates 
the opportunity to testify on Senator Elizabeth Warren's bill S. 2907, 
the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 
Act. The Tribe strongly supports S. 2907. Consideration of S. 2907 by 
the Committee comes at a critical time in the history of the United 
States and Indian tribes.
    Last month, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant 
Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland released Volume One of an 
investigative report called for as a part of the Federal Boarding 
School Initiative. The Initiative is an important effort to 
investigate, study and address the impacts and legacy of federal 
boarding school laws, policies, and practices. Through this 
investigation the Federal government must document its devasting laws 
and policies promoting assimilation and taking of tribal lands through 
forced removal of Indian children.
    Only by addressing this past can we begin to address the 
intergenerational trauma that impacts our tribal members and much of 
Indian Country. Pursuant to federal laws and policies practices at 
these schools included renaming our children and youth with English 
names, cutting the hair of youth, discouraging the use of our 
languages, religions, and cultural practices, and organizing youth to 
perform military drills. The Federal Indian boarding school system also 
included manual labor as a significant part of school curricula.
    This had a deadly impact on our youth. Our relatives who were 
forcibly removed from their loving homes and families and placed in 
boarding schools suffered physical, emotional, and psychological abuse. 
They succumbed to illness, disease, and death due to the conditions of 
the schools. These children and our Tribe have suffered a loss of our 
culture and language due to the boarding schools' assimilation efforts. 
This systemic dispossession needs to be fully investigated in order to 
establish efforts to address the harmful impact to our people.
Support for S. 2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
        Boarding School Policies Act
    S. 2907 would build upon the efforts of Secretary Haaland, 
Assistant Secretary Newland and Interior's Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative. This process will be long and difficult, but we 
deserve a thorough and complete investigation that documents how many 
Indian Boarding Schools were established, how many Indian children 
attended these schools, what tribal nations they came from, and how 
many died or went missing as a result of these tragic policies. We must 
work together to uncover this information and begin the healing process 
by returning our ancestors taken from our families and communities. 
Only through truth and healing can our Tribe recover from this tragic 
history and begin to end the effects of the Indian Boarding School 
System for our people.
    S. 2907 would establish and empower a federal Commission to 
investigate all federal agencies, church-operated schools, and private 
enterprises involved in implementing and providing for Indian Boarding 
Schools. S. 2907 would also establish and hold culturally relevant 
public hearings for survivors, victims, and tribal communities to 
testify and discuss the impact of the physical, psychological and 
spiritual violence at the Indian Boarding Schools. We strongly support 
all of these efforts and ask that Congress pass S. 2907.
Accountability for Treatment of Native Children and Historical Trauma
    Starting in 1819 with the Indian Civilization Fund Act, the federal 
government collaborated with and empowered churches and private 
entities to establish hundreds of Indian Boarding Schools. Then in 
1879, the federal government launched an official policy to forcibly 
remove Indian children from their families and tribal communities and 
place them in residential boarding schools. The Department of Interior 
found 408 Federal Indian Boarding Schools were created between 1918 and 
1969. \1\ In addition over 1,000 other Federal and non-Federal 
institutions were established to educate and assimilate Indian 
children. \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Department of Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School 
Initiative Investigative Report, Volume 1, p. 6.
    \2\ Id. p. 7.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    These military-style schools separated Indian children from their 
families, forced the adoption of Christian religions, values, and 
customs, and forbade our youth from using native languages and customs 
with the goal of eradicating their Indian identities. Congress often 
funded religious institutions or missionary organizations on a per 
capita basis for Indian children enrolled in their institutions. \3\ 
The intent of these measures and supporting federal policies was 
expressed by U.S. Captain Richard H. Pratt who established the primary 
model for all off-reservation boarding schools. In his writings, Pratt 
developed and advocated for policies based on his idea of ``kill the 
Indian to save the man.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In fact, many Indian youth died as a result of federal Indian 
boarding school policies and practices. Based on initial 
investigations, Interior estimates that approximately 19 Federal Indian 
boarding schools accounted for the death of over 500 American Indian, 
Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian youth. \4\ The Department expects 
the number of recorded deaths to increase as its investigation 
continues. \5\ As a part of this investigation and to help our 
communities heal, we need to identify where our youth are buried and we 
need to bring them home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ Id. p. 9.
    \5\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indian Boarding Schools Impacting the Standing Rock Tribe
    Standing Rock Tribal Members were sent to boarding schools across 
the country. Many of our members attended one of the boarding schools 
located in North or South Dakota. The Department of the Interior 
identified twelve federal Indian boarding schools in North Dakota that 
operated at fourteen different locations and thirty federal Indian 
boarding schools in South Dakota. \6\ These schools all received 
federal support to provide on-site boarding of Indian children for 
academic, vocational, and religious instruction. Some of these schools 
were located on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, including St. 
Bernard's Mission School, St. Elizabeth's School, Grand River Boarding 
School, and St. Benedict Mission School. Many of these boarding schools 
in North and South Dakota are still in existence, but now operated by 
the Bureau of Indian Education or by tribes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Id, Appendix A, List of Federal Indian Boarding Schools as of 
April 1, 2022.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This past year we supported our Oceti Sakowin relatives from the 
Rosebud Sioux Tribe as they brought home their ancestors who perished 
at the Carlisle Indian Boarding School. Standing Rock Tribal Members 
also attended the Carlisle Indian School and may be among the hundreds 
of children, some of whom are buried in unmarked graves, that lost 
their lives there due to illness and harsh living conditions. S. 2907 
would seek to obtain information about our children that attended 
schools such as Carlisle and assist us in bringing them back home.
    While Carlisle Indian School is located on federal lands and 
subject to the provisions of NAGPRA, many children who died at boarding 
schools located on non-Federal land will not be provided the same 
protections and process to allow family members and Tribes to bring 
them home for a proper burial. The Standing Rock Tribe hopes that S. 
2907 will identify a means to address the loopholes currently existing 
in NAGPRA that prevent us from retrieving our youth so they can be put 
to rest with honor, remembrance, and ceremony. We need to ensure that 
the remains of our children who so tragically lost their lives far away 
from their homes will be protected and returned.
Ability to Obtain Records and Information from Federal and Non-Federal 
        Entities
    The Commission on Truth and Healing established by S. 2907 would 
only be effective in achieving its mission if the Commission is 
provided with the authority to compel non-Federal organizations, such 
as religious organizations and churches, to provide information needed 
by the Commission. To date, many efforts have been made to investigate 
and collect information on Indian boarding schools, however little 
progress has been made due to the inability to compel organizations to 
release information that may be in their possession. If there is to be 
any healing, these findings cannot be covered up or ignored on any 
level. Standing Rock supports providing the Commission with subpoena 
power or some other means to work with other Committees to timely 
obtain information necessary to uncover the truth of the boarding 
school history.
Advancement of Native Language Revitalization
    In an effort to heal from the trauma created by the boarding school 
era, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its programs and agencies have 
made a commitment to Lakota and Dakota language revitalization. We have 
a Culture and Language Department located in the Tribal Education 
Department that supports this effort and a Lakota Dakota Immersion 
School housed at Sitting Bull College. We hope that S. 2907 and 
Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to investigate the 
legacy of Indian Boarding Schools will help to garner support for the 
development and expansion of culture and language programs to assist us 
with healing and restoring our culture and language.
Conclusion
    If we are going to have any chance at moving past this dark 
history, it must start with an awareness and understanding of the harm 
caused by the federal government, churches, and private groups who 
advocated for and implemented these disastrous policies. We hope that 
the parallel efforts S. 2907 and Interior's Initiative on Indian 
Boarding Schools will promote efforts for the streamlined and efficient 
return of our ancestors to their home to be buried in a respectful and 
culturally-appropriate manner. We have all endured more than a century 
of trauma from this federal family separation policy.
    The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 
Act, S. 2907, would provide important additional authority to support 
Interior's Indian Boarding School Initiative. The Tribe strongly 
supports expanding Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative 
beyond federal boarding schools to include church-operated schools or 
private enterprises that benefited from Indian children attending these 
institutions.
    All of these efforts are needed to begin the healing process that 
our Tribe and all of Indian Country desperately needs. Truth and 
reconciliation are needed for all of these schools to this day. We 
cannot wait any longer to start the healing process.
                                 ______
                                 
    Prepared Statement of Jason Dropik, President, National Indian 
                      Education Association (NIEA)
    Dear Chairman Schatz:

    On behalf of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), 
thank you for the opportunity to submit this statement for the record 
regarding S. 2907 the ``Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding 
School Policies Act.'' We are the nation's most inclusive organization 
advocating for improved educational opportunities for American Indians, 
Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. Our mission is to ensure that 
Native students have access to a high-quality, culturally based 
education. We represent Native students, educators, families, 
communities, and tribes across the country.
The Federal Trust Relationship
    Since its inception, NIEA's work has centered on improving Native 
students' educational experience, a feat that is possible only if 
Congress upholds its federal trust responsibility to tribes. 
Established through treaties, federal law, and U.S. Supreme Court 
decisions, this relationship includes a fiduciary obligation to provide 
parity in access and equal resources to all American Indian and Alaska 
Native students, regardless of where they attend school.
    However, as demonstrated by Volume 1 of the Department of 
Interior's ``Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative 
Report,'' the federal government has repeatedly failed to uphold this 
trust responsibility by funding and operating at least 408 Indian 
boarding schools that weaponized education to force assimilation 
resulting in cultural genocide. For more than 150 years, the federal 
Indian boarding school system systematically robbed Native communities 
of our languages, cultural practices, and traditional knowledge through 
physically, sexually, emotionally, and spiritually abusive practices. 
The legacies of these schools continue to harm the well-being of Native 
communities today.
Indian Boarding School Legacy and Native Education Today
    Research has shown that Native students thrive when their languages 
and cultures are a core component of their educational experience. The 
forced assimilation enacted by the federal Indian boarding school 
system has made it more difficult for Native communities today to 
integrate those linguistic and cultural components, negatively 
impacting Native students' academic development. Additionally, the 
patterns of abuse and neglect that started in Federal Indian boarding 
schools have influenced the modern Bureau of Indian Education-operated 
schools. These schools often report abysmal structural conditions and 
chronically low achievement outcomes that threaten the physical, 
mental, and academic well-being of their students, much like their 
predecessors.
    Furthermore, the intergenerational trauma caused by the federal 
Indian boarding school system has disrupted healing processes for many 
Native communities. Disproportionately high rates of poverty, PTSD, and 
youth suicide, as well as weakened familial and tribal structures have 
deep roots in the boarding school system. In order to heal current and 
future generations, it is imperative that we understand the complete 
history and legacy of the Federal Indian boarding school system. For 
this reason, NIEA calls on the Committee on Indian Affairs to report 
out S. 2907 and advance it to a vote on the floor. The Natural 
Resources Committee of the House companion bill, H.R. 5444 was reported 
out on June 15, 2022
    It is essential that the Truth and Healing Commission established 
under S. 2907 has the financial and legal power to fully and completely 
investigate the horrors of the boarding school era. Therefore, NIEA 
urges the Committee to protect S. 2907 from any amendments that would 
limit the Commission's subpoena power. Without subpoena power, the 
Commission will not be able to accurately assess the true extent of the 
damage enacted by the boarding school system or the extent to which 
this historical trauma continues to affect Native communities today.
    NIEA further urges the Committee to protect S. 2907 from amendments 
that would limit the Commission's funding in any way, such as those 
that would restrict the financial compensation provided to Commission 
members. Historically, Congress financially backed policies that 
attempted to terminate Native cultures, languages, and ways of knowing. 
Today, Congress must financially back policies that promote 
reconciliation and healing as S. 2907 does.
Conclusion
    Establishing a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding 
School Policies through legislative action will ensure that this 
critical work continues regardless of changes in Presidential 
Administration. Therefore, with these recommendations, NIEA looks 
forward to working with you and your staff to ultimately pass S. 2907, 
a bill that responds to the needs of the only students that the federal 
government has a direct responsibility to support--Native students. 
Thank you for considering this written testimony for the record.
                                 ______
                                 
    Prepared Statement of National Indian Child Welfare Association
    The National Indian Child Welfare Association would like to thank 
Senator Warren and Senator Murkowski and the many other Senate co-
sponsors of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies Act in the United States (S. 2907). As we witness the 
international shock and outrage at the identification of mass burial 
sites and unmarked graves of First Nations children in Canada who were 
residents of residential schools, we see the parallels to the boarding 
school policies and experiences in the United States and the accounts 
from survivors of the horrific abuse and conditions they were subjected 
to. The legacy of those policies and practices is evident in Native 
communities all across the United States today. This legislation is 
critical to revealing the truth about the individual and collective 
trauma that was imposed upon Native communities and furthering the 
process of healing for all Native people.
    NICWA's testimony will focus on:

   The impact of the boarding school experience upon American 
        Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) children, families, and 
        communities and its influence on the overrepresentation of AI/
        AN children in state foster care systems.

   The consequences of the boarding school experience and 
        associated trauma that leaves AI/AN children and families more 
        susceptible to public and private child welfare system 
        involvement.

   The role of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and kinship 
        care in addressing systemic bias and historical trauma through 
        recognizing tribal sovereignty and self-determination over 
        child welfare.

   Tribal-defined and trauma-informed solutions that 
        effectively address safety, healing, and connection to family, 
        community, and culture.

    NICWA is a national American Indian/Alaska Native nonprofit 
organization located in Portland, Oregon. NICWA has over 40 years of 
experience providing technical assistance and training to tribes, 
states, and federal agencies on issues that impact Indian child welfare 
and children's mental health. NICWA provides leadership in the 
development of public policy that supports tribal self-determination in 
child welfare and children's mental health systems as well as 
compliance with ICWA (25 USC 1901 et seq.). We are frequently engaged 
in work to assist tribal leaders in establishing and operating 
effective governance structures that support tribal sovereignty and 
effective oversight and decisionmaking in child welfare, emphasizing 
the important role that tribal governments play in fostering community-
driven and culturally based solutions to child abuse and neglect. NICWA 
also engages in research that supports and informs improved services 
for AI/AN children and families. NICWA is the nation's most 
comprehensive source of information on AI/AN child maltreatment and 
child welfare.
Boarding School Experience--An Avenue to Overrepresentation in the 
        Child Welfare System
    To fully comprehend the issue of child maltreatment among AI/AN 
children, it is essential to first understand that many of the risk 
factors for child maltreatment in AI/AN communities are linked to 
historic governmental policies and practices. From the 1860's through 
the 1970s, the federal government and private agencies established and 
operated Indian boarding schools in which Indian children were 
involuntarily taken from their families and often taken far away from 
their communities, often for years at a time (Crofoot, 2005; Cross et 
al., 2000), severing traditional child-rearing practices and belief 
systems and extended family networks that were relied upon to keep 
children safe from abuse and neglect. Harsh assimilationist policies 
not only took children away from their families and placed them in 
Indian boarding schools but aimed to further separate families from 
their culture. In the 1950s and 1960s, the federal government continued 
attempts to assimilate tribal communities by passing termination and 
relocation policies that ended the federal-tribal relationship for many 
tribes, provided states with expanded jurisdiction on tribal lands, and 
highly encouraged Indian people to leave their tribal communities and 
relocate to urban areas, continuing the erosion of protections and 
supports and disrupting tribal governments, cultural practices, and 
family structures. And while self-determination policies of the federal 
government began to relace more severe assimilationist federal policies 
in the 1960's, federal and state governments largely pushed against 
opportunities for enhanced self-governance, which can be seen in the 
passage of Public Law 280 in the 1950's that encroached upon tribal 
exclusive jurisdiction and required concurrent criminal and civil 
jurisdiction with the state. This is important to acknowledge because 
continued institutional barriers to tribal sovereignty and self-
determination only impeded the healing process for tribal communities.
    Due to prolonged institutionalization and the harsh discipline 
tactics instilled by boarding schools, parents and grandparents were 
unable to experience positive, culturally based models of family life 
and family discipline (Crofoot, 2005), increasing the risk of Indian 
families reverting to punitive discipline and child maltreatment, 
similar to what was experienced and reinforced in Indian boarding 
schools. The time that AI/AN children spent in boarding schools led to 
the deterioration of traditional understandings of child-rearing 
practices and protection that were once the responsibility of entire 
communities, not just the child's birth parents. Without natural 
helping systems in place, children were left vulnerable to state and 
federal control. By the time the involuntary boarding school experience 
had faded in the 1970's, it had created conditions within AI/AN 
families that made these families vulnerable to involvement in public 
and private child welfare systems that often utilized bias and 
mainstream assimilationist practices to remove large numbers of AI/AN 
children from their families and place them in homes outside of their 
communities and culture.
Boarding School Trauma and Influence on Risk Factors for Involvement in 
        Child Welfare Systems
    Beginning in the 1960s, public and private agencies involuntarily 
removed hundreds of AI/AN children from their homes and placed them in 
non-Indian homes far away from their families and tribes (Cross et al., 
2000). While this separation of children from their families occurred 
within a different system than that of boarding schools, it certainly 
took on similar patterns of forced separation and surfaced around the 
same time that involuntary boarding school placements began to 
decrease. In a 1970s study, the Association on American Indian Affairs 
found that between 25 percent and 35 percent of all Indian children had 
been separated from their families, and approximately 85 percent of the 
children removed were placed in non-Indian homes (Indian Child Welfare 
Program, 1974). Today, AI/AN children remain overrepresented in state 
foster care at a rate 2.66 times greater than their proportion of the 
general population; in particular, AI/AN children represent 1 percent 
of all children in the U.S. but account for 2.7 percent of all children 
placed outside of their homes in foster care (Puzzanchera et al., 
2022). This disproportionality only increases as an AI/AN child moves 
deeper into the system, leading to further traumatic experiences among 
AI/AN children, families, and communities, and undermining efforts to 
improve child welfare outcomes among tribal families. A national study 
found that AI/AN children are two times more likely to be investigated, 
two times more likely to have allegations of abuse or neglect 
substantiated, and four times more likely to be placed in foster care 
than Caucasian/White children (Hill, 2007). This reveals persistent 
concerns around systemic bias, lack of training in cross-cultural care, 
policy-related barriers, and other structural inequities that place AI/
AN children at higher risk of experiencing abuse or neglect.
    While there is limited information available on the specific risk 
factors for child maltreatment among AI/AN families, national 
statistics show that AI/AN families are particularly vulnerable to 
child maltreatment, which may be understood by several interconnected 
factors, including but not limited to household poverty, joblessness, 
inadequate housing, social isolation, and high rates of victimization. 
These factors can be directly correlated to assimilationist policies 
that aimed to socially and economically isolate reservations and urban 
Indian communities. Similar to past efforts of involuntary removal and 
placement of children in boarding schools, AI/AN children continue to 
experience disparate treatment in public and private child welfare 
systems, a perpetual cycle of loss and isolation from family, 
community, and culture. Further, when the human brain is exposed to 
repeat traumatic events such as these, areas of the brain that play an 
important role in stress response become dysregulated and can alter a 
person's capacity to cope with the profound effects of trauma on 
memory, regulatory functioning, and stimuli response (van der Kolk, 
2000). Therefore, a person's capacity to provide for their own safety 
becomes compromised as hypervigilance kicks in when the stress response 
system is unable to regulate itself back to a safe place that is absent 
of threat. When unable to self-regulate, a person can become 
emotionally withdrawn and participate in avoidance behaviors like 
substance abuse to prevent re-exposure to the existing unresolved 
trauma. For children, without the presence of a supportive and 
responsive adult to act as a buffer, repeat exposure to prolonged 
adversity among children, known as toxic stress, can disrupt brain 
development and other organ systems, lead to cognitive impairment, and 
increase risk for disease into adulthood (``Toxic Stress,'' n.d.). The 
presence of a supportive and responsive adult can act as a buffer to 
childhood adversity, however, the far-reaching effects of trauma both 
historically and present-day among AI/AN communities requires 
comprehensive, community-based solutions to addressing trauma.
    Traumatic events like forced displacement and the boarding school 
experience, which subjected children to harsh discipline, child abuse, 
infectious disease, isolation, and extreme mental and emotional trauma, 
can be passed down through generations (Cross, 2005; Brave Heart & 
DeBruyn, 1998) and resurface in many ways, including but not limited to 
increased mental health disorders, stress, social isolation, and 
substance abuse; all of which are risk factors for child maltreatment 
and could result in interactions with the child welfare system. Without 
commitment to ensuring AI/AN children and families have access to 
culturally appropriate support services, children and families will 
have to find other coping mechanisms to manage the emotional, physical, 
cognitive, behavioral, social, and developmental impacts of compounding 
traumatic experiences. To break the cycle of trauma and create a path 
for healing among AI/AN children, families, and communities, the 
continued legacy of harm by public and private child welfare systems 
must be acknowledged and addressed.
Understanding How ICWA and Kinship Care Promote Healing
    After two centuries of federal and state government efforts to 
disrupt tribal traditions, family structures, and systems of care for 
children, the federal government passed ICWA in 1978 to acknowledge the 
inherent sovereign right of tribal governments to protect their 
children and maintain their families. ICWA created opportunities to 
confront inequities by requiring that state public and private agencies 
provide active efforts to rehabilitate families and follow placement 
preferences as a means to keep AI/AN children connected to their 
families, communities, and culture. Active efforts requirements are 
intended to counteract potential systemic bias that may lead to 
unnecessary child removal and support family reunification whenever 
possible through the provision of services that aid families in keeping 
their children safely at home. This includes tribal-run community-based 
services that have largely been underutilized and underfunded, yet 
provide services that incorporate cultural components often left out of 
state models of how to provide child welfare services.
    Despite ICWA codifying placement preferences for kinship care, 
evidence shows that AI/AN children are still less likely than non-AI/AN 
children to be placed in kinship care settings (Carter, 2009; Maher et 
al., 2015), impacting a child's sense of attachment, cultural identity, 
and developmental outcomes in adolescence and young adulthood. Studies 
have shown that the experiences between AI/AN children and their kin 
caregivers exhibit strong attachment and bonding development (Henderson 
et al., 2015; Cross & Day, 2008; Cross et al., 2010; Mooradian et al., 
2007; Kopera-Frye, 2009) that can generate long-lasting benefits to 
mental health as well as, economic, and educational well-being. The 
holistic benefits of restoring connections between AI/AN children and 
their extended family networks shows just how important it is that 
families know the truth about what happened to their children and 
communities, have a space and opportunity to heal that is appropriate 
to their tribal culture, and have support and resources to nurture 
their tribal and cultural identity.
The Value of Tribal-defined and Trauma-informed Solutions
    When tribes are empowered and have adequate resources available, 
they can design and operate trauma-informed solutions that best meet 
the needs of their children and families that have faced historic and 
intergenerational trauma. For instance, several years ago the 
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon faced 
the challenge of how to improve their child welfare system to better 
meet the needs of children and families. Over a period of a few years, 
tribal leadership, the tribal child welfare program, and community 
members realized something needed to change if they were going to 
improve outcomes for children and families in the community. Despite 
the best efforts of those involved and the various state and federal 
funding sources they secured, the number of children placed in foster 
care had either risen or stayed very high. The tribe's largest child 
welfare funding source only provided reimbursement for services after a 
child was removed from the home, and the program was largely based on a 
state and federal model of how to provide child welfare services. With 
tribal child welfare staff overwhelmed and community members frustrated 
with the program's increased need to continually recruit more foster 
homes, the need for change was evident.
    To turn their child welfare system around, tribal leadership, 
community members, and child welfare staff all came to the table to 
redesign and decolonize their child welfare system to be more 
proactive, family-centered, and culturally appropriate. This meant 
redesigning the structure of the child welfare system, incorporating 
more cultural practices, and restructuring the way the system was 
funded, ensuring that the values of Indigenous children, families, 
communities, and cultures were at the forefront of redesign efforts. A 
primary change was developing more robust services for families that 
needed extra support or were at risk of having their children removed. 
The enhanced services placed greater emphasis on having regular contact 
with families; active coordination with other service providers, both 
in and outside the community; more training for staff on family 
engagement and support; and restructuring staff positions to provide 
more expertise and focus on prevention services. Following the 
restructuring, the number of children in foster care and other out-of-
home care decreased by over 70 percent and has remained stable ever 
since. Reducing the number of children in out-of-home care made 
available funds that had been previously employed for foster care to be 
used for family support services, and tribal leadership reprioritized 
their revenue contribution to provide greater support for family 
support services. An additional, unanticipated benefit of the 
restructuring was the improvement in the community's relationship with 
the tribal child welfare program. Further, staff reported that parents 
were more likely to voluntarily seek help before a crisis occurred, and 
there was great relief in the community when recruitment for foster 
homes became less constant.
    Although this kind of child welfare system redesign needs a lot of 
community investment to get off the ground, in the long run it has 
proven to be much less expensive because of the improved outcomes for 
children and families, higher staff satisfaction and lower turnover, 
and reduced need for more expensive and more intensive interventions 
like foster care and other out-of-home services. This illustrates that 
when tribes are at the forefront of the development process, positive 
outcomes are much more likely to occur, including enhanced support 
resources that promote safety and stability, allow for opportunities to 
restore and maintain relationships, and reduce the likelihood a child 
will experience trauma from unnecessary removal or separation that 
could be prevented with active coordination of culturally appropriate 
services.
    For too long AI/AN children have been at the center of harmful 
state and federal policies and practices, including lack of 
understanding and bias among public and private child welfare systems 
that continuously fell short of recognizing that the solution was 
within AI/AN communities themselves--that tribes know best the needs of 
their children and families and are best positioned to address those 
needs when given the capacity to self-determine. Therefore, 
prioritizing tribally driven and trauma-informed solutions is critical 
to embarking on the journey to healing and preventing continued 
suffering among future generations of AI/AN children, families, and 
communities.
Legislative Comments
    We appreciate the inclusion of the critical historical information 
and current-day impacts described in Section 2 Findings. While some 
people may be generally aware of the Indian boarding school policies 
and actions, Section 2 provides additional information that illustrates 
the intersection between the historical and intergenerational trauma 
that has occurred because of the Indian boarding school experience and 
more recent policies and actions regarding the continuing trauma that 
has occurred because of the bias and harmful practices in public and 
private child welfare systems.
    Section 3 provides information on the purposes of the Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools in the United States 
(Commission). We greatly appreciate the coordination with the 
Department of Interior's investigation into Indian boarding schools; 
development of recommendations to address healing for affected Native 
communities, families and individuals; and the focus on the modern-day 
assimilationist practices of public and private social services systems 
that have led to continued trauma for Native families.
    Section 5 provides information on the establishment and membership 
of the Commission, Truth and Healing Advisory Commission, and Survivors 
Subcommittee. We appreciate the scope of work that has been laid out 
for the Commission in the legislation and the requirements to include a 
diverse group of people with lived experience related to the Indian 
boarding school experience. We note again the importance of the 
provisions that address modern day assimilationist practices in public 
and private child welfare systems.
    We also greatly appreciate extending the time for the work of the 
Commission to five years. In previous drafts, the timeline was much 
shorter and would have been a significant barrier to completing a 
comprehensive investigation, analysis, and development of 
recommendations. As we have witnessed in Canada, the timeline for a 
similar investigative process took six years and there were less than 
half as many residential schools identified there. While we appreciate 
extending the timeline of the Commission's work, we would caution 
members of Congress to not be surprised if the work takes longer given 
the much larger scope in the United States compared with similar work 
in Canada on a much smaller scale.
    Another point of appreciation are the provisions that require 
consultation with tribal nations by the Commission and provisions that 
address the issuance of subpoenas to secure testimony and evidence 
related to the Commission's work. Because of the incredible sensitivity 
and complexity of these issues and the sovereign governmental status of 
tribal nations, it will be critical that the Commission approach their 
work with a humility and respect for the tribal nations and individuals 
affected. The subpoena authority is critical because Indian boarding 
school policies and actions were implemented over a hundred years of 
time and involved numerous institutions and individuals that carried 
out the policies. Not all may cooperate with simple requests from the 
Commission to appear or provide evidence, so the issuance of subpoenas 
may become an important tool in piecing together important information 
that the Commission will need to complete their charge.
Final Statement
    This legislation is vital to documenting the truth about the 
atrocities of the boarding school experience and the individual and 
collective trauma that has remained largely unrecognized and unresolved 
in Native communities. The passage of this legislation will not only 
further the process of healing for Native communities, but it also 
opens doors to acknowledging and addressing other ways in which 
government policies and practices have evolved over time and continue 
to perpetuate harm, including the current state of disproportionate 
treatment of AI/AN children in the child welfare system. Additionally, 
it is a path toward ensuring tribal nations receive the support and 
resources needed to continue healing, nurturing, and protecting their 
children, families, and cultural identity.
    In closing, we greatly appreciate all the work that you have done 
to move this legislation forward and support tribal nations in this 
critical effort towards the truth and healing of children and families. 
If there is anything we can do to further support the passage of this 
legislation, please let us know. We look forward to continued 
partnership opportunities to pursue healing for AI/AN children and 
families impacted by historic and intergenerational trauma through 
community-based and culturally appropriate services in tribal 
communities.
References
    Brave Heart, M. Y. H, & DeBruyn, L. M. (1998). The American Indian 
holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and 
Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 60-82.
    Carter, V. (2009). Comparison of American Indian/Alaska Natives to 
non-Indians in out-of-home-care. Families in Society: The Journal of 
Contemporary Social Services, 90(3), 301-308.
    Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (n.d.) Toxic 
Stress. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/toxic-
stress
    Crofoot, T. (2005). Effects of abuse and neglect on American 
Indian/Alaska Native children. In D. S. Bigfoot, T. Crofoot, T. L. 
Cross, K. Fox, S. Hicks, L. Jones, & J. Trope (Eds.), Impacts of child 
maltreatment in Indian Country: Preserving the seventh generation 
through policies, programs, and funding streams. National Indian Child 
Welfare Association.
    Cross, S., & Day, A. (2008). American Indian grand families: Eight 
adolescent and grandparent dyads share perceptions on various aspects 
of the kinship care relationship. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural 
Diversity in Social Work, 17(1), 82-100.
    Cross, S., Day, A., & Byers, L. (2010). American Indian grand 
families: a qualitative study conducted with grandmothers and 
grandfathers who provide sole care for their grandchildren. Journal of 
Cross Cultural Geronotology, 25, 371-383.
    Cross, T. L. (2005). Child abuse prevention in Indian Country. In 
D. S. Bigfoot, T. Crofoot, T. L. Cross, K. Fox, S. Hicks, L. Jones, & 
J. Trope (Eds.), Impacts of child maltreatment in Indian Country: 
Preserving the seventh generation through policies, programs, and 
funding streams. National Indian Child Welfare Association.
    Cross, T. L., Earle, K. A., & Simmons, D. (2000). Child abuse and 
neglect in Indian Country: Policy issues. Families in Society, 81(1), 
49.
    Henderson, T., Dinh, M., Morgan, K., & Lewis, J. (2015). Alaska 
Native grandparents rearing grandchildren: a rural community story. 
Journal of Family Issues, 38(4), 547-572.
    Hill, R. B. (2007). An analysis of racial/ethnic disproportionality 
and disparity at the national, state, and county levels. Casey-CSSP 
Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare. https://assets.aecf.org/m/
resourcedoc/aecf-AnalysisofRacialEthnicDisproportionality-2007.pdf
    Indian Child Welfare Program: Hearings before the Subcommittee on 
Indian Affairs of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 
93d Cong. (1974). https://narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/federal/lh/
hear040874/hear040874.pdf
    Kopera-Frye, K. (2009). Needs and issues of Latino and Native 
American nonparental relative caregivers: Strengths and challenges 
within a cultural context. Family and Consumer Sciences Research 
Journal, 37(3), 394-410.
    Maher, E., Clyde, M., Darnell, A., Landsverk, J., & Zhang, J. 
(2015). Placement patterns of American Indian children involved with 
child welfare: Findings from the second National Survey of Child and 
Adolescent Well-Being. Casey Family Programs. http://www.casey.org/
media/NSCAW-Placement-Patterns-Brief.pdf
    Mooradian, J., Cross, S., & Stutzky, G. (2007). Across generations: 
Culture, history, and policy in the social ecology of American Indian 
grandparents parenting their grandchildren. Journal of Family Social 
Work, 10(4), 81-101.
    Puzzanchera, C., Taylor, M., Kang, W., & Smith, J. (2022). 
Disproportionality rates for children of color in foster care 
dashboard. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. http:/
/ncjj.org/AFCARS/Disproportionality_Dashboard.asp
    van der Kolk, B. (2000). Posttraumatic stress disorder and the 
nature of trauma. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 2(1), 7-22. 
https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2000.2.1/bvdkolk
                                 ______
                                 
    Prepared Statement of the Association on American Indian Affairs
    The Association on American Indian Affairs (the ``Association''), 
we urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass 
S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies Act out of Committee. We stand in solidarity with Native 
Nations, Tribes, and the Native American survivors, descendants, and 
families impacted by genocide and assimilation policies carried out in 
the guise of education. We would like to offer a few recommendations 
regarding the language of the bill.
    The Association is the oldest non-profit serving Indian Country 
protecting sovereignty, preserving culture, educating youth, and 
building capacity. Since its earliest beginnings assisting Pueblo 
Peoples defend their aboriginal lands, cultures and water rights in 
1922, the Association was formed to change the destructive path of 
federal policy from assimilation, termination, and allotment, to 
sovereignty, self-determination, and self-sufficiency. Throughout our 
100-year history, the Association has provided national advocacy on 
watershed issues that support sovereignty and culture, while working at 
a grassroots level with Native Nations to support the implementation of 
programs that affect real lives on the ground.
    The Association has long advocated against genocide and 
assimilation policies since its inception in 1922. The Association 
consulted on the development of the 1928 Meriam Report, advocating then 
to eliminate boarding schools and replace with day schools that would 
allow children to stay in their homes, with family and community; we 
have authored legislation to restore cultural rights and religious 
freedoms to Native Americans; and we've fought to return children--one-
by-one--in state courts, which led to our organization drafting the 
provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Even after ICWA was passed, 
the Association continued to educate Congress to direct the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs in 1984, advocating for a detailed day school 
implementation plan to assure a day school opportunity for every Indian 
child, instead of continuing with distant boarding schools. The 
Association has a wealth of history educating the public and the U.S. 
government about the continuing harm of boarding schools, adoption 
policies and problems with how Native children are educated--and how 
the public is poorly educated in public schools about Native Americans.
    Despite the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act and the end of 
government mandated and funded boarding schools, the legacy of 
stereotyping Native American children as ``less than,'' ``at-risk,'' or 
simply ignoring them, has continued. We see this with recent attacks on 
the Indian Child Welfare Act and through harmful state adoption 
practices that continue to deplete familial structures and promote the 
continued removal of children from their homes and Nations. Private 
adoption practices that circumvent the Indian Child Welfare Act are a 
modern continuation of genocide and assimilation practices of boarding 
school policies.
    Even as some repatriations of children from boarding school burial 
grounds are occurring, the horrible burden that some federal agencies 
have placed on those children's families and Tribes is objectionable. 
The outright denial from private entities and churches refusing any 
opportunity to support truth, healing and reconciliation is horribly 
problematic. These actions are re-traumatizing many survivors, 
descendants, families, and Native Nations, creating an ongoing and 
continuing harm.
    Congress has an opportunity to right some of the atrocities and 
indignities that have and continue to happen to Native American 
children and families. We know much of the pain--but the federal 
government, churches and other entities hold the information required 
to begin our healing. We see this bill as a foundation to begin the 
accountability process and nation-to-nation discussion that honors 
Native Nation sovereignty, families and culture. It will be a process 
that will require healing of wounds that go so deep-they travel through 
generations in the hearts and minds of descendants and families. It 
will also require the same amount of soul searching and healing from 
those today within the U.S. government and churches who have inherited 
the legacy of the harm that their predecessors have caused.
Specific Comments
    While the Association absolutely supports the need for the 
development of the Commission as a starting point in truth, healing and 
reconciliation, we do believe minor adjustments could be made in the 
language of the bill that would better support this foundational work.
1. Definition of ``Indian Boarding School Policies.'' This definition 
        should not be limited to an era starting in 1819 with the 
        Indian Civilization Fund Act
    There is a history that the United States inherited and benefitted 
from that began earlier than 1819. This history and treatment of Native 
children and families set up the justification for the 1819 
Civilization Fund Act and must be included in this research. The first 
known boarding school was created in the 1600s in Maryland. In 1634, 
Andrew White of the Society of Jesus established a mission in what is 
now the state of Maryland, and the purpose of the mission, was to 
extend civilization and instruction to the ``ignorant'' Native 
Americans and show them the way to heaven. In 1677, the Society of 
Jesus opened a school for humanities to bring Native students to a 
``higher state of virtue and civilization.''
    In the 1700s, similar schools were established by missionaries and 
other religious groups, prior to 1819, which established the 
``template'' and justification for continuation of genocide, 
assimilation and cultural termination through education. We do not 
understand at this time how the colonies and the early United States 
were involved in these activities. Creating an arbitrary date, or 
defining an era based only on information that we understand today, 
removes the opportunity to understand why the U.S. chose these policies 
as a continuation of colonization that the U.S. benefitted from. The 
U.S. gross national product is based on the genocide, assimilation and 
taking of lands from Native Nations. Truth and reconciliation demand 
full transparency that is not limited to one legislative occurrence and 
must include the history leading up to it.
2. Collection of Testimony. There must be a clear statement that 
        survivors can remain anonymous, that their personal information 
        is protected, and that the commission will honor cultural and 
        spiritual protocols while collecting testimony.
    The collection of testimony from survivors of boarding schools, and 
descendants of boarding schools is absolutely important so that the 
U.S. and all of its citizens can come to terms with the genocide and 
assimilation policies that the U.S. has benefitted from. However, the 
investigation and personal transparency that the Commission is seeking 
will be emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually difficult for 
many survivors and descendants of survivors. Those individuals must be 
able to choose whether or not they wish to share their personal 
information in public, whether the information will be available under 
the Freedom of Information Act, and whether they are able to share 
anonymously protecting certain information.
    The Commission must make it a priority to protect the health and 
welfare of those survivors and descendants involved and use culturally 
appropriate collection practices. The commission must honor individual, 
familial, and Native Nation cultural and spiritual protocols and 
provide a safe setting for sharing stories and collecting testimony. 
Elders, language speakers, traditional practitioners, and knowledge 
keepers should all be consulted and included to create safe and 
welcoming spaces for survivors, descendants, and their families, as 
well as consulted for aftercare and follow-up far beyond the initial 
date testimony is given.
3. Advisory Committee Membership. The Association on American Indian 
        Affairs and the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) 
        should not be excluded from Advisory Committee Membership
    In Section 5(g)(2)(E)(x), the Association and IITC are singled out 
as part of the Advisory Council to include a member from either one or 
the other organization. The Association has been involved for 100 years 
on these issues, continues to provide expertise on boarding schools, 
and is the leading organization in repatriation issues and expertise. 
The bill is awkward in setting up Advisory Committee membership that 
includes Native organizations, naming some and excluding others. Native 
organization capacity can ebb and flow over time. The development and 
work of the Commission should rely on all expertise that Indian Country 
has on this subject and should not exclude or limit Native organization 
participation in the Advisory Committee.
    The Association is honored to have conducted research and provided 
other information that aided in the draft of this bill. We are deeply 
committed to working hand-in-hand with Native Nations and see no 
greater honor and responsibility than working to bring about healing 
and reconciliation for those impacted by genocide, assimilation and 
territorial termination through education policies.
    In conclusion, the Association supports this bill and Commission 
that will fulfill the following:

   A full inquiry and investigation that acknowledges the 
        genocide and assimilation policies through the use of boarding 
        schools and education;

   A full investigation that is not limited by the 1819 
        Civilization Act as a starting point; the U.S. inherited and 
        has benefitted from these practices that began prior to 1819;

   Protection of survivors and descendants of survivors when 
        collecting testimony that allows for anonymity or other 
        solutions that will not cause further harm and trauma to 
        survivors, their families and descendants;

   Provides strong provisions that allow for the Commission to 
        subpoena and investigate private entity records;

   Development and dissemination of Commission findings and 
        recommendations that is fully transparent;

   Recognition that this Act is only the beginning to correct 
        the continuing harm of the boarding school legacy;

   Any repatriation solutions must apply to our children's 
        graves regardless of the status of land where they are located; 
        and

   Broader inclusiveness of Native-led organizations with 
        expertise in the issues at hand.

    Thank you for your time, energy and attention.
                                 ______
                                 
                                              Oneida Nation
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the Oneida Nation to urge the U.S. Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act out of 
Committee. This legislation will create a Congressional Commission to 
locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian 
boarding schools that operated across the country. This Congressional 
Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal 
representatives, along with experts in education, health, and children 
and families to account for the long-lasting impacts of the federal 
Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important 
additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the Interior's 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools far away from 
their families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were 
part of a policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition 
of tribal lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss 
of Native languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from 
their families and tribal communities died at the boarding schools. 
These children were never returned home to their loved ones and often 
their families were never notified of their deaths. The very first 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, 
conducted by U.S. Department of the Interior, has helped shed light on 
the schools.
    Over the past three years, the Oneida Nation has returned home the 
remains of our precious children that attended the Carlisle Indian 
Industrial School. The historical intergenerational trauma was re-lived 
by the families and our community, as we mourned for our children. We 
know that we have more of our children to bring home and with the 
creation of the Congressional Commission in S. 2907, will help further 
a full and complete review of the total number of Native children 
forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of Native 
children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian boarding 
schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding schools have 
had on the children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. 
The Oneida Nation urges the Committee to support the passage of S.2907 
when it comes before the U.S. Senate.

        With a Good Mind, a Good Heart and a Strong Fire,
                               Tehassi tasi Hill, Chairman.
                                 ______
                                 
                                          Wabanaki Alliance
                                                      July 22, 2022
Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairwoman Murkowski, and members of the United 
States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,

    The Wabanaki Alliance was founded in June 2020 by the five 
federally recognized tribes in what we today call the State of Maine, 
the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi'kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy 
Tribe at Motahkmikuk, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik, and Penobscot 
Nation. We created the Wabanaki Alliance to educate the people of Maine 
about the need for securing the sovereignty of the tribes in Maine.
    Each one of our communities has been profoundly impacted by Indian 
Boarding Schools. Wabanaki survivors of these ``schools'' have shared 
the horrors of what they experienced. When as children they should have 
been educated, nurtured, and protected they instead were abused and 
dehumanized in an evil effort to strip them of their indigeneity.
    Wabanaki Tribal Governments in conjunction with the State of Maine 
conducted the first truth and reconciliation commission in the history 
of the world in which Indigenous and settler sovereigns deliberately 
decided to create a process to examine a painful history, the 
experience of Wabanaki children in the child welfare system. During 
that two- and half--year initiative, the Maine Wabanaki-State Child 
Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission accepted testimony from 
hundreds of people. The Commission prioritized people providing 
testimony in a manner that would be best for them striving to minimize 
people's trauma. As Congress considers S.2907/H.R. 5444, we urge that 
same prioritization to supporting victims of the Indian Boarding 
Schools who may testify.
    The Wabanaki Alliance believes in the need for reconciliation 
between Indigenous Peoples and settlers. However, settlers too often 
want to advance to the reconciliation stage before truth telling is 
complete. We urge the Committee on Indian Affairs and all members of 
Congress to ensure the authorizing language for S. 2907/H.R. 5444 
supports the best truth gathering process in a reasonable amount of 
time recognizing the opportunity to hear directly from the victims of 
Indian Boarding Schools diminishes each day. The integrity of the 
research and truth gathering will be essential to the Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. succeeding. 
As stated in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission final report,

         People don't remember what happened as to how we lost our 
        culture. The boarding schools that the government sanctioned, 
        the mentality of taking children out of the home to enforce 
        assimilation. People don't remember that today. (Beyond the 
        Mandate: Continuing the Conversation p. 12)

    People must remember and the horrific chapter in US Indian policy 
should be completely documented. Genuine and much-needed healing 
depends on the completeness of the truth telling.
                                 ______
                                 
                                            Sharon Bergmann
                                   Brookings, Oregon, July 20, 2022
Senator Brian Schatz, Chairman,

    I married a boarding school survivor who graduated from Ft Sill 
boarding school in Oklahoma. We both started work at Chemawa in August 
1972.
    Non-Indians were firmly entrenched in administration, supervisory 
positions and as teachers. Even though I had a degree from the 
University of Washington, I was hired as a dormitory matron which was a 
job I loved. In loca parentis [in place of parents] was a 
responsibility that I understood.
    Indian preference in hiring was upheld with the Mancari decision in 
1974. This did not set well with non-Indian staff who thought they were 
being discriminated against.
    I was detailed as Acting Director of Counseling and Social 
Services. Even though there was no criticism of my job performance, the 
Superintendent [dissolved] the counseling center. I had spoken out on 
policies that were harmful to students. There were 2 Indian social 
workers whose contracts were not renewed and that left a white male to 
be the sole counselor for the dormitories and I was the academic 
counselor. The academic department was poorly run and the quality of 
education did not meet the needs of students. I was targeted by Special 
Education staff who saw students primarily as extra revenue and a very 
hostile work environment resulted.
    On February 10, 1989 I walked out because I was the only academic 
staff that was required to work on a snow day. All teachers and 
administrators had the day off and I was the only person in the 
building. I had endured 3 years of an extremely toxic work environment 
and I was never able to return to work. I was diagnosed with PTSD and 
major depression and my date of injury was determined to be in 1986 
when the counseling program was dissolved.
    When I read the 2017 Oregon Public Broadcast report on Chemawa, it 
was very apparent that nothing has changed in 30 years since I was 
forced out. The problems with retaliation, insensitivity toward 
students and parents, nepotism and lack of a quality education all are 
part of systemic racism.
    I support Senate Bill 2907.
    I am a 76 year old Tolowa tribal elder. The severity of PTSD meant 
that my goal of working with Indian youth ended when I was 40 years 
old. I never worked again.
                                 ______
                                 
                                  Walker River Paiute Tribe
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the Walker River Paiute Tribe to urge the 
U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--
Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act out 
of Committee. This legislation will create a Congressional Commission 
to locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred known 
Indian boarding schools that operated across the country. This 
Congressiona l Commission will bring together boarding school 
survivors, triba l representatives, along with experts in education, 
health, and children and families to account for the long-lasting 
impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also 
be an important additional measure to support the U.S. Department of 
the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    S. 2907 w ill ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. I 
urge the Committee to pass S. 2907 when it comes before the U.S. 
Senate.

        Sincerely,
                                    Amber Torres, Chairman.
                                 ______
                                 
                                                Ben Sherman
                                                       May 16, 2022
    My name is Ben Sherman. I am submitting my testimony in support of 
the above Act.
    I am 82 years old and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine 
Ridge, South Dakota. I attended four years of boarding school at the 
Oglala Community School in Pine Ridge, a school administered by the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
    My three sisters Mayda, Marilyn and Amy attended the same boarding 
school in Pine Ridge.
    My immediate family has attended government and church boarding 
schools for four generations. My great grandmother Lizzie Glode 
(Sherman) was in the first group of Indian children to attend Carlisle 
in 1879. Another relative to attend Carlisle in that first group was my 
other great grandmother Lucy Standing Bear's older brother Luther 
Standing Bear. Lucy had one sister and two other brothers attend 
Carlisle at the same time.
    My grandfather William Sherman (son of Lizzie) and two of his 
sisters attended the government boarding school in Genoa, Nebraska.
    My grandmother Victoria Hunter (Sherman) attended the Catholic 
boarding school at Holy Rosary Mission, Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
    My mother Alice Kemery (Sherman) attended the Episcopal boarding 
school at St. Mary's Boarding School for Indian Girls in Springfield, 
South Dakota.
    My boarding school experience was not terribly unpleasant. I 
adapted fairly quickly and did well in my academic studies. The big 
disadvantage was the curriculum. All students went through one-half of 
their studies in academic courses. The other one-half was vocational. 
That set me back one full year in college, and I had to repeat one year 
of high school.
    I suffered from loneliness for my parents and home. I believe we 
returned home only twice during the entire school year. I ran away once 
and made it all the way home, but was immediately returned to school. I 
imagine that loneliness created most of the emotional stress on 
boarding school children.
    I always felt sorry for the youngest boys in the dormitories. They 
were managed by matrons who could not provide the loving for care they 
needed. I wonder today how they were affected by the absence of family 
closeness. Some of those little ones spent the entire year at school 
because their parents were unable to visit them.
    I mentioned earlier my great grandmother Lizzie at Carlisle. She 
stayed there for a few years. She learned primarily homemaking skills, 
which was the standard teaching for girls. After Carlisle she went to 
Genoa, not for school but to work. She met Frank Sherman and they were 
married.
    They moved back to Lizzie's home on the Pine Ridge Indian 
Reservation where they raised a family of five children. Three of the 
older children were sent to school at Genoa where they eventually 
finished and returned to Pine Ridge.
    Lizzie and Frank's fourth child was Mark Sherman. He was sent to 
school at the Rapid City Indian Boarding School. The school environment 
was harsh, with regimented routines intended to instill highly 
controlled behavior. Mark and three other boys ran away from school in 
1910. They decided to follow the railroad tracks from Rapid City and go 
south toward the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. At some point they 
decided to rest, with Mark and James Means sleeping on the railroad 
track.
    A train rolled through, striking Mark and James, killing Mark 
immediately and fatally wounding James.
    Mark was 17 years old. He was buried by Lizzie and Frank in a 
cemetery near their home in Kyle, SD on the Pine Ridge Indian 
reservation.
    This is my personal story given in support the Act mentioned above. 
The committee will have volumes of testimony regarding the often cruel 
treatment of Indian children in boarding schools, some of which was 
fatal.
    This cruelty was a government policy of a continued war against the 
children of an Indian population that was hated and reviled by many 
powerful Americans.
                                 ______
                                 
                                  Gary B. Neumann, RedCloud
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of my grandmother Elizabeth Minesinger and 
her brother Peter Minesinger, members of the Confederated Salish & 
Kootenai Tribes who attended the Chemawa Indian Boarding School in 
Oregon to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support 
and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding 
School Policies Act out of Committee. This legislation will create a 
Congressional Commission to locate and analyze the records from the 
over four hundred known Indian boarding schools that operated across 
the country. This Congressional Commission will bring together boarding 
school survivors, tribal representatives, along with experts in 
education, health, and children and families to account for the long 
lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 
will also be an important additional measure to support the U.S. 
Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help further 
the ensure a full and complete review of: the total number of Native 
children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of 
Native children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian 
boarding schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding 
schools have had on the children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. 
We urge the Committee to pass S. 2907 when it comes before the U.S. 
Senate.

        Sincerely,
                                            Gary B. Neumann
                                 ______
                                 
                                       Patricia C. Corcoran
                                      Tonawanda Onondowaga (Seneca)
    I did not attend boarding school. All my mother's cousins went from 
the Tonawanda Reservation. She (Ruth Weigel Corcoran) escaped because 
the family moved to Rochester, NY.
    Her mother, Grace Jones, went to Lincoln Institute in Philadelphia 
when she was ten years old. My mother never told me this, I don't know 
if her mother told her. . . boarding schools are not a popular topic of 
conversation. They were so traumatic people wanted to forget them and 
rarely shared anything about them. I discovered this fact on-line from 
information Dickinson College students posted about Carlisle.
    According to my research she was at Lincoln for four years. During 
the summer to avoid 'summer epidemics' the girls were shipped off to 
private homes to do childcare, cooking, and house cleaning. They worked 
all day, everyday and my grandmother was paid $5 per week. (I'm sure 
Lincoln made more.)
    Grace returned to Tonawanda only to discover her next stop was to 
be Carlisle. She knew a lot of people who were also going there, but 
Carlisle made it a point to keep siblings, relatives and folks from the 
same nations as separate as they could. (As if the whole thing weren't 
already cruel enough!)
    What my mother told me, that her mother said: Grace said, ``she 
didn't learn anything, but cruelty and marching'', it was never quiet 
at night because of children crying, they were always hungry, many 
children never went home (died), summer was super hot and winters were 
very cold inside the buildings unless you had laundry duty (then it was 
always hot). Punishment was frequent and heartless. I've found 
paperwork stating that Grace was ``impertinent'' and for this and for 
speaking her language she scrubbed sidewalks on her hands and knees for 
hours, knelt on cement for hours and also was forced to kneel on 
pencils!! I am proud and pleased to tell you Grace never had her 
language stolen from her, she retained it! However her white husband 
forbade her to teach it to her children.
    Malen White from Tonawanda was nice, handsome, intelligent and I'm 
told a good lacrosse player, but he drank himself to death at a young 
age after coming home from boarding school.
    Arlie Hill, my mothers cousin, told her when she visited him in the 
nursing home, ``Ruthie, every minute of every day was dictated by 
bells, whistles and bugles. (at boarding school) When I finally got out 
I didn't know what to do. I had know idea what to do, I was lost, I 
didn't belong anywhere. So I joined the army because I knew how to take 
orders, but when I got out of the army, I was lost again. I never 
thought for myself in boarding school. They wouldn't let you.''
    Which brings us to another point. Richard Pratt served with George 
Armstrong Custer and he had run an Indian prison. He ran Carlisle like 
a military camp and in so doing was training Indians to become troops 
for the USA. It worked! Per capita, no race serves in the military more 
than Native Americans, even before we were citizens!
    Heinous barbaric treatment of children, and they called us savages. 
I'm currently looking at colleges for my daughter, not one has a 
cemetary on campus.

        Sincerely,
                                       Patricia C. Corcoran
                                 ______
                                 
                                             Annella Tucker
                                                      July 21, 2022
To: Relevant Actors in the Native Language Initiatives--Subject: 
Barriers Faced by Native Students

    Native Americans are survivors. We have proven our resilience and 
adaptability, which is why we are still here despite the gross efforts 
of the United States to ``kill the Indian and save the man''. Pre-
European contact survivance necessitated hunting, gathering, and other 
traditional skills and practices. With the rise of capitalism, a 
strictly traditional lifestyle is unfortunately unsustainable in the 
21st century and I find myself struggling to balance working and 
pursuing academics while also engaging with my culture. Survivance for 
Native students, like myself, now includes working hard in school and 
getting a job to support themselves and their families.
    I attend Stanford University, which offers some Native languages. 
These languages, however, are classified as ``special languages'' and 
therefore are under the umbrella of an underfunded department in the 
University. In order to initiate a Native language course, students 
must find a qualified instructor to teach it. Eligibility to teach 
requires a bachelor's degree, among other qualifications. The teacher 
must have these qualifications and be willing to teach the course for a 
relatively low wage. This has presented a barrier for my peers who are 
seeking to initiate courses in their Native languages. Native language 
educators often do not qualify for such positions because their 
expertise is developed outside of western education models.
    Stanford is a private University, but the barriers to language 
access are also present in public education. Native languages are 
treated as ``special'' in most educational institutions in the country.
    Common barriers to learning Native languages for students include:

        1. Lack of ``qualified'' Native language educators due to 
        irrelevant certification requirements. Qualifications to teach 
        Native languages should reflect the skillset that is necessary 
        to teach the language.

        I. To hire the best Native language instructors, the Native 
        Language Initiatives should determine how best to evaluate 
        fitness in consultation with tribes.

        2. Lack of incentive--I have been unable to take as many 
        culturally relevant courses as I would like due to the lack of 
        credit incentives for ``special'' languages or Native-focused 
        courses in general. In order to meet graduation requirements, 
        students must prioritize courses that fulfill those 
        requirements.

        I. It is imperative that Native Language Initiatives push to 
        include credit incentives that will allow native students to 
        truly incorporate their Native languages into their academic 
        agenda.
                                 ______
                                 
                                               Irene Norman
Dear Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,

    I write to you not as an immediate survivor of the residential 
school system, but as the great-granddaughter of survivors. My maternal 
great grandparents, the Beauvais, were Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) 
originally from Kahnawa:ke. As survivors of the Canadian residential 
school system their experience is not under your direct purview, but I 
believe it is valuable nonetheless, and helps to illuminate how the 
trauma of Indian Boarding School Policies is felt for multiple 
generations. This information is as accurate as I can make it, given 
that many of the people involved have been dead for some time.
    Both of my maternal great-grandparents were forced away from their 
families at a young age by residential school policies at the turn of 
the twentieth century. I do not know exactly what my great-grandmother 
Beatrice experienced at residential school, but according to my 
grandmother she was unable to return to her home afterwards. Beatrice 
worked as a seamstress in Montreal to support her young siblings before 
marrying my great-grandfather. Given that Kahnawa:ke is just outside of 
Montreal, I suspect that she experienced forced enfranchisement through 
the residential school system, thus losing her legal status as an 
Indian and her right to live on her reserve.
    My great-grandfather Edward also experienced forced 
enfranchisement, and I know some of the details of the abuse he 
survived. The combined forces of
    Canada's Gradual Civilization Act, Gradual Enfranchisement Act, and 
the Indian Act forced Edward into the residential school system, used 
the supposed education he received through that system as an excuse to 
forcibly enfranchise him, and used that enfranchisement to strip him of 
his Indian status and force him to adopt an English name. As part of 
the forced labor programs and so-called ``vocational training'' 
associated with residential schools, he was sent to a logging camp at 
the age of five. As you might imagine, a logging camp is an extremely 
dangerous place for a child, made even more so by the older men at the 
camp entertaining themselves by plying this young child with alcohol 
and cigarettes. Edward would struggle with alcohol abuse his entire 
life, and would eventually die from lung cancer stemming from life-long 
tobacco addiction.
    As the Canadian government had forcefully stripped them of their 
Indian status and alienated them from their community, my great-
grandparents moved to Michigan after their marriage. Great-grandmother 
Beatrice raised their eight surviving children on a farm in Emmet, 
Michigan while my great-grandfather spent his weeks working in a 
factory in Detroit. Though Edward was always very loving and gentle 
towards his wife, his children were given reason to fear his temper. To 
protect themselves, the Beauvais family did their best to pass as 
white.
    My grandma Bea was the youngest child of her family, and while she 
was probably the most sheltered from my great-grandfather's temper, she 
was not sheltered from the attention of older men in the area. When she 
was sixteen, Bea became pregnant with my mother. As she was unwed and 
either would not or could not identify the father, she greatly feared 
her father's response. As a result, she ran away to Florida to have the 
baby, whom she surrendered to Catholic Charities for adoption shortly 
after her birth in March 1958. During this time, Michigan had an 
eugenics program that targeted Native Americans and ``moral 
degenerates'', which may have resulted in my grandmother's forced 
sterilization had she not fled the state to give birth. I was unable to 
confirm with Grandma Bea before her death if this was a factor in her 
choices.
    My grandmother would go on to have a very successful harness racing 
career, where she still holds the record for most wins by a North 
American female driver, but had a turbulent personal life. Several of 
her siblings and their children struggled with alcohol abuse and 
domestic violence. Bea had four failed marriages, and no other children 
after my mother. Grandma Bea had many friends, and was very close with 
the sister closest to her in age. After my mother reconnected with her 
in the late 1970s, the two maintained a relationship for the rest of 
Grandma Bea's life. Grandma Bea never felt comfortable talking about 
the time surrounding my mother's birth or her Mohawk heritage, and only 
spoke of it with me once.
    My mother Deborah's adoptive father was first-generation Irish-
American and her adoptive mother was of French-Canadian descent. They 
adopted her with no idea as to my mother's indigenous heritage, and 
faced challenges raising an obviously non-white child in the Jim Crow 
South. My mother struggled with not knowing her racial identity as a 
child, and recalls having to use separate public restrooms from her 
adoptive mother on several occasions as well as the specific pain of a 
frequent anti-Asian schoolyard taunt where other children would pull 
the edges of their eyelids in different directions and say ``My mother 
is Chinese, my father is Japanese, so what am I?''
    These experiences, among others, prompted my mother to seek out her 
birth family once she was in college. My great-grandfather Edward had 
already passed away by then, and Grandma Bea was often uncomfortable 
discussing family history, so most of the information we have came from 
discussions between my mother and great-grandmother Beatrice Beauvais 
before her death in 1988. It was from Beatrice Beauvais that we learned 
who our people are, where they came from, and what was taken from us. 
It was because we know these things that we feel slightly less lost in 
the world.
    You can directly trace the impact of residential school policies on 
my family through four generations. When my great-grandparents were 
forced into residential schools, they were stripped of their families, 
their freedom, their culture, their language, their legal recognition 
as indigenous people, and their very names. The early introduction to 
addictive substances led my great-grandfather Edward to a lifetime of 
alcohol and tobacco abuse, resulting in his death. The trauma of his 
youth also caused him to be abusive towards his children. The 
alienation from their tribal communities meant that there was little 
support for my great-grandmother Beatrice as she gave birth to eleven 
children and raised the eight survivors to adulthood.
    This environment allowed for my grandmother to become pregnant at 
sixteen, and prompted her to flee her family and surrender her daughter 
for adoption. This experience would impact her interpersonal 
relationships for the rest of her life. My mother's transracial 
adoption meant she encountered systemic and societal racism without the 
support of a family who could understand and guide her through it.
    My siblings and I have spent our entire lives trying to learn about 
our history and reclaim our Kanien'keh :ka identities in the face of 
people and governments who tell us that we are either lying in the hope 
of receiving some sort of monetary benefit or that we will never be 
``Indian enough''. Our alienation from our history and native 
community, and our need to prove ourselves, has contributed to our 
struggles with education, mental illness, and substance abuse.
    It is my sincere hope that this Committee will approve S. 2907 and 
endorse it for a vote before the full Senate. The Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act may not have a direct 
impact on my family, but it will help other families with similar 
histories to heal. It is incalculably valuable for indigenous 
communities to understand the full width and breadth of the harms done 
to them, because it is necessary to know the extent of an injury before 
it can be properly healed. It is necessary that the perpetrators of 
these wrongs be named, and the harms they cause be officially 
acknowledged. According to the Haudenosaunee, to whom the Kanien'keh 
:ka belong and from whom the United States' founding fathers drew 
inspiration for their Constitution, law and peace are one and the same. 
The Haudenosaunee believe that peace is righteousness in action, which 
requires the practice and pursuit of justice between individuals and 
nations. The passage of S. 2907 would be a clear example of such 
righteousness, and would help provide peace to the hearts of indigenous 
people across the nation.

        Nia:wen and thank you for your time,
                                               Irene Norman
                                 ______
                                 
                         Frank Lewis Sanchez, Yankton Sioux
                                                      July 22, 2022
    I was born 1955 on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota.
    My father worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1955 
until he passed away in 1963. At that time my mother also got sick with 
tuberculosis and went to the hospital in Rapid City, SD for two whole 
years. I was first sent to a U.S. government boarding school in Pierre, 
SD at that time for about 9 months. Then I was sent to a Roman Catholic 
boarding school called St Joe's in Chamberlain, SD. There they took all 
our personal belongings away, everything, and they gave us things that 
had been donated to the school to wear. No ties to home or memories of 
home were permitted.
    My mother recovered and gathered up all her children and moved back 
to the Yankton Sioux reservation. We lived in a 3 room house, with no 
water, no electricity, it was my grandparents home, a few miles from 
Marty, SD. We walked to a one room school house with one teacher for 
all the grades. That school was destroyed by a twister (tornado) in May 
of 1965.
    In the fall of 1965 I went to St Paul's Indian boarding school, in 
Marty, SD. I remember being dropped off with my suitcase and not 
knowing anyone there. I was taken to a little boys dorm, for grades 1 
to 4. That day was the most traumatizing 24 hours of my life. They took 
me to a 3 story building called St Cats, with an 8' tall barbed wire 
fence around all sides of an outside area for the little boys. The nuns 
in charge of this dorm were Sister John and Sister Paul. They took me 
to the top floor and told me to pick out a bed and put my things under 
it. I did this and then they took me to the fenced area outside, where 
I found another boy to play with for an hour or so. Then the nuns came 
back and told everyone to get up next to the wall, to take down our 
pants and put our hands against the wall. The nuns moved down the line 
with a strap, that was 2.5'' wide and about 18'' long with holes that 
left red circle marks on our butts and the back of our legs. Everybody 
was screaming and crying. Later one of the other boys told me that one 
of the kids had crossed over the line by the entrance of the little 
prison yard.
    Early the next morning we were woken up at around 5am, then we were 
taken over to a rack of suits and we had to find one that fit, with a 
white shirt, then we were marched over to the church, which seemed very 
big. I was sat in the front row, and was looking at the life sized 
crucifix with Jesus nailed to it, a crown of thorns on his head, the 
hole in his side. This was the first time I had ever seen anything like 
this, so as a kid I thought to myself `what line did he cross over?'
    As time went on things got worse, the nuns would come in the shower 
room and show you how to wash yourself with a wash rag, they would rub 
us down with soap, fondling us to see how big we could get down there. 
One of our class mates, his penis was a lot bigger than the rest of us 
and the two nuns would take him to their room at night. We would see 
him come out in the morning and he told us what he had to do for them 
(sexual intercourse), later, on a cold day in the winter he committed 
suicide and died of exposure.
    After the 4th grade we were moved to a new dorm called St Bens 
(from grade 5 to 12). We were made to work, clean and other things. 
They would also load us on a bus and take us to local farms to work, by 
picking corn, stacking cane or hauling bales of hay and straw with no 
pay, of course. There was Wednesday bowling for the brothers, nuns and 
priests. They would come back from this outing all drunk and smelling 
like booze. They would get out the strap and whoever was on the list 
would be brought out in front of everybody, and be brutally punished. 
They also shaved our hair off for public punishment.
    Under the mission were underground pathways that could access all 
the above ground buildings, so you could get anywhere, like from the 
priests house to the girls dorms via underground tunnels. There were 
also underground rooms where the girls were kept who got pregnant from 
the fathers and others. There was also a cemetery for fetuses and even 
full term babies aborted by the high school girls and nuns. I heard 
many stories from my elders and other class mates as well, many of them 
are not here to tell their personal stories anymore.
    One personal story that still negatively affects me today was in 
the 2nd grade classroom, I was digging a pencil into my right ear, and 
Sister Bonita (who we called `Beetleboots'), said ``get back to work'' 
and hit me hard on the left side of my head forcing the pencil deeper 
into my right ear, piercing the ear drum. This punctured a hole and 
became severely infected. It was my mother who happened to visit that 
weekend who took me for some urgent medical assistance at the IHS 
hospital in Wagner, SD. This is documented, they had to cut a hole in 
my skull to fix the pencil damage. Infections and deafness plagued my 
life from then on. I wasn't able to get into the army or navy because 
of this hearing loss. Just this month, July 2022, I had to seek medical 
treatment due to bleeding from the ear.
    There are so many tragic stories from St Paul's Indian Mission, 
Marty SD and children being abused at other catholic institutions in 
South Dakota. I had some friends, now deceased, Loren & Sherwyn Zephier 
who unsuccessfully tried to bring law suits against the Catholic 
Diocese in South Dakota. The statute of limitations thwart their 
efforts at truth telling and justice.
    I have shared a few memories today. Besides the physical and sexual 
abuse, the verbal abuse was constant, as the nuns told us ``you won't 
amount to anything''. They tried hard to `kill the Indian' in us, not 
allowing us to speak our language, nor pray in our way etc. but I'm not 
even sure they actually tried to `save the man' as many of us did not 
make it. Those of us that did `survive,' continue to live with the 
trauma and repercussions of the abuse, with the shame and the lack of 
self worth.
    To this day, I am not able to cry. At St Paul's, I learned there 
was no one to cry to. Not the adults, and not the other kids, as the 
atmosphere was too tense and hostile, there was no love, no compassion, 
and no feeling of safety. I was always on guard for what was going to 
happen next.
    The genocidal federal policy that encouraged education to be a 
weapon against Indian people, and employed the Roman Catholic Church to 
abuse us and literally strip us of our dignity and culture, needs to be 
further examined and dismantled. It is not only in the past, there are 
still federal policies that are actively used against us Indian people. 
I know this as I am currently a federal prisoner, upholding my 
innocence. I have recently seen up close the ugliness and unfairness of 
the `justice' system and criminal policy in `Indian country.'
    If `Truth & Healing' is genuinely sought at this time in the United 
States with the indigenous peoples, much more needs to be unpacked than 
the horrors of the boarding schools. A sincere effort would be to 
actually honor the treaties. Such as the 1851 treaty of Fort Laramie, 
which my great grandfathers signed. We are still waiting for these 
agreements between sovereign nations to be upheld.
    I hope that the good people in the US Senate and beyond who are 
willing to look at the truth and take the time to listen to us Indian 
people and our stories, will also have the courage to look at the whole 
truth, the past and present and then perhaps we can create a future 
together which is not based on lies, stolen land, and genocide.

        Respectfully,
                                        Frank Lewis Sanchez
                                 ______
                                 
                Matthew Hanks Leivas, Sr., Chemehuevi Chief
Dear Chairman Schat and Vice Chairman Murowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the [Alaska Native students who went to 
Holy Cross and Copper Valley Boarding School] to urge the U.S. Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act out of 
Committee. This legislation will create a Congressional Commission to 
locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian 
boarding schools that operated across the country. This Congressional 
Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal 
representatives, along with experts in education, health, and children 
and families to account for the long lasting impacts of the federal 
Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important 
additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the Interior's 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    My name is Matthew Hanks Leivas, Sr., hereditary Chief of the 
Chemehuevi. Our reservation is located in eastern SanBernardino County, 
California, where I've resided since 1977. I am a 1971 graduate of 
Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, California. The first school I 
attended was; Parker Valley Indian School on the Colorado River Indian 
Reservation. A former Tribal Council for several terms and Chairman 
from 1992 to 1994, officially from 93-94. Former Chemehuevi Chief Game 
Warden, and Federal Law Enforcement Officer. Also a traditional farmer 
and current Board member of the Native American Land Conservancy from 
Coachella, California. Lastly I am co-founder of the Salt Song Trail 
Project, a grassroots organization consisting of 15 different bands of 
the Nuwuvi. I speak on behalf of the Chemehuevi and all our sister 
Nuwuvi Tribes from, AZ, CA, NV, and UT. A total of fifteen different 
bands of Nuwuvi or Southern Paiutes, and we support S. 2907--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.
    An analogy for consideration or Food for thought: Nearly 50 years 
ago a four year old Orca Whale was captured off the Pacific Northwest 
coast, and the Lummi Nation in Washington State know this particular 
whale which is named ``Tokatai'' in their language. Since it's been 
held in captivity it had to learn to do tricks for food and ultimately 
for entertainment for the public. Tokatai has been singing it's Mothers 
song all these years, crying for family. I compare this to the taking 
of our the indigenous people from their families to learn to be 
subservient to their captors or stewards.Non-Indian Capitalism and 
Greed in America saw the indigenous people as less than human and 
attempted to use our people for financial gain and power, without 
compassion. I pray these words are read and felt by the readers. Truth 
is forthcoming, along with True reconciliation in America--2022. Mawk, 
Thank you in the Chemehuevi language.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help further 
the ensure a full and complete review of: the total number of Native 
children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of 
Native children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian 
boarding schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding 
schools have had on the children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. 
[I/WE] urge the Committee to pass S. 2907 when it comes before the U.S. 
Senate.
                                 ______
                                 
                                              Jadeen Elving
                                                      July 20, 2022
    I am Jadeen Elving. Oldest daughter of Eva Elving. My mom is a 
boarding school survivor. She went to Wrangle Institute when she was 6 
years old. 1955. Later she also attended Mt. Edgecomb. Her whole 
childhood was stolen from her at those schools. I am Yupik thru my mom. 
We belong to the Asacarsmiut Tribe. Our people are from the Bering Sea 
coast where the Yukon meets. Many villages are relation.
    I thank everyone involved with H.R. 5444. I support H.R. 5444 The 
Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.
    I have included my Moms, Eva Elving, written testimony with mine. 
She has Dementia and has a hard time writting emails. It took her a 
while to write her statement. Please accept it. She has more to say but 
has a hard time writing it all down.
    I have known about my moms childhood. It was always so sad to hear 
about the abuse and loneliness she suffered as a small child. She went 
thru medical problems also and was at the hospital she says was part of 
the Wrangle Institute. Not sure myself but she says she had surgeries 
there on her ear. She's legally deaf. One ear no hearing other less 
than half hearing. She also was legally blind for years then had lens 
replacement surgery and can see better. Now my mom suffers from 
dementia. She has had a stroke. I am thankful her voice can be heard 
and recorded.
    She told me she was 6 when she was sent to Wrangle Institute. She 
was confused and scared and wanted to stay with her family. She is the 
oldest of 12 children. Back then the other younger siblings were to 
young to be taken.
    When she arrived her hair was cut. She was changed out of her 
traditional clothing to their clothes. She was forced to change. And 
she didn't understand why this was happening or what she was going 
thru. She was scared. She was hit for not speaking English and punished 
and hit for speaking Yupik. She was put into closets for long periods 
of time. Which caused her to have clasterphobia as an adult. She cant 
ride elevators alone or walk up stair wells. Small rooms even the dark 
scare her. To this day she has a hard time sleeping. She sleeps with 
the lights on.
    My mom received her one and only gift package from her parents. 
Dried fish she was so happy. She was even happy to share it with her 
childhood friends. The matrons made them all eat the dried fish under 
the table on the floor. Like animals.
    The experiences she shared with me has hurt my heart for her and 
the thousands of other children who suffered like her and worse. Some 
never made it back home. Her culture was stripped from her. Her 
language shamed and beaten out of her. Her pride of who she was where 
she came from was forced out of her. Her whole childhood was stolen. 
Her teen years too. She entered the real world broken and lost. She 
managed to survive this world's discrimination this state's hidden 
history this governments hidden ugly past. It's been a hard life for my 
mom. Shes found herself with age and time and support from other family 
who are deep into our traditions. But it was never the same. I lost my 
culture too. My mom never made it a priority to teach us our culture. 
Because of what she went thru. My mom has always been a loving mom she 
saved us kids with her life. Literally. She never lost love for us. Or 
for her family. Her family at times shunned her for her cultural 
differences her experiences they didnt understand. Some still don't see 
the importance of what she went thru. And sadly some never will unless 
it happens to them. And I hope this never happens again. We also need 
to keep our native children out of children's services and foster care. 
That's another subject.
    I couldn't imagine what horrors my mom survived. I am a mother 
myself and these days if someone treated my child that way I would be 
pressing charges. I wasnt taught our cultural ways so I couldn't pass 
them to my children. It trickled down thru 3 generations. Wrangle 
Institute has made the news for how horrible they were. Its 
unbelievable our government would allow this to happen to our kids. To 
families. The newest generations have cultural classes now here in 
Alaska. But that's not enough. I believe every survivor and descendant 
who felt the impact of cultural genocide should be repaid for their 
lost lives. The survivors especially deserve all the help they can get 
for emotional support to therapy to housing them. before they are all 
deceased. And bring every child home who didn't survive. They all 
deserve all the help to bring closure and to know they are cared about. 
. .that the horrors they survived are cared about.
    Thank you to the Natural Resources subcommittee for Indigenous 
Peoples of the United States.
    Thank you everyone who is a part of this.
    Thank you for letting us tell our stories.
                                 ______
                                 
                                  Cheryl Wynn Russell Quick
                                                      July 20, 2022
    Hello. My name is Cheryl Wynn Russell Quick. Russell is my maiden 
name. I'm married, my husband's name is Virgil R. Quick. I was born on 
August 25, 1954 in Medicine Lodge, KS. My parents are the late Harvey 
Cicero MouseTrail Russell and Francis Rosalie Nibbs Russell. I am a 
full blood Cheyenne and member of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of 
Oklahoma. I have four children: Ellen, Allen Jr., Aaron, and Chauncina. 
My Father and Mother had nine children including myself and we lived in 
Lame Deer, Montana during this time. I was 9 years old in 1963 when I 
was sent to St. Labre Catholic Boarding School located in Ashland, MT. 
The first thing they did was cut my hair and told us that we were not 
to speak our language. It was the Devil's Tongue, they said. They told 
us that if we spoke our language, we would be punished. I was terrified 
and cried, I wanted to go home. My grandmother lived with us, I told 
her of the nuns and she didn't want me to go there in the first place. 
My first bad experience happened in my class, I can't remember my 
teacher's name but she was mean. As she asked our class to get our 
papers and pencils out, this boy whispered in our language that he 
didn't understand what the nun told us to do so I spoke in my language 
back to him. She heard me and began hollering at me and jerked me out 
of my chair by my earlobe. It hurt so bad that I began to cry. Then she 
screamed at me to hold out my palms and began to swat my palms very 
hard with a thick wooden paddle board. I never felt this much pain 
before in my life. All the while, she told me to open my mouth and 
shoved a huge bar of soap in my mouth, making me stand in the corner 
for the rest of the hour in class. To this day, I still have the scars 
on my palms. Sometimes I think this nun got pleasure out of hitting me. 
Frequently I peed on my bed in the dorms at night from being afraid and 
was made to lie in the wet bed all night. They also fed us dry cold 
oatmeal and a hard dry biscuit for breakfast while the priests and nuns 
ate eggs, bacon, sausage, and gravy and drank orange juice. The nuns 
would walk up and down each aisle in the cafeteria with a paddle board 
making sure everyone was quiet and ate everything on their plates. If 
not, we had to stay in our seats until we ate everything. The food was 
terrible. We had to kneel for hours on our knees in mass reciting and 
praying in Latin. I never learned to recite Latin or pray in Latin 
because I didn't want to. A boy who was kneeling next to me in mass, 
pooped and peed on himself because the nun wouldn't let him go to the 
restroom. They jerked him out of the church by the back of his neck. I 
felt so bad for him. I was miserable in that place. I still have 
nightmares about St. Labre. My husband says he has to wake me up 
because I talk and cry in my sleep. I also attended Concho Indian 
Boarding school from 1967 to 1968 and Chilocco Indian Boarding school 
from 1970 to 1971. I was a sophomore when I went to Chilocco. I only 
had one complaint about it, my parents would write me letters and send 
me money. The matrons would open my mail, read my letters and take the 
cash. I never received any money from my parents. I feel as though I 
have been abused in the boarding school system. Now that I've told my 
story, it is time to begin my healing journey. Thank you for taking the 
time to listen to my experiences as a boarding school survivor.
                                 ______
                                 
                                    Sandra Katz, Saco Maine
                                                      July 25, 2022
    I am writing in support of The Truth and Healing Commission on 
Indian Boarding Schools in the US Act.
    The time is overdue to deal with this horrific chapter in US 
history. It is time to listen to the survivors and descendants. We need 
to find all the children and find out which churches were involved and 
find government records.
    Please pass this bill.
    Thank you!
                                 ______
                                 
           Patricia Corcoran, Tonawanda Onondowaga (Seneca)
                                                      July 25, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to 
support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. As you are aware, this 
legislation will create a Congressional Commission to locate and 
analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian boarding 
schools that operated across the country. This Congressional Commission 
will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, 
along with experts in education, health, and children and families to 
account for the long lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding 
school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important additional measure to 
support the U.S. Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative.
    My grandmother went to two boarding schools, Lincoln Institute and 
Carlisle (and possibly a third, Thomas Indian School). My mother 
narrowly missed going, by moving off the reservation, but almost all 
her cousins went. I totally support S. 2907 with my heart as I believe 
this S 2907 will be the beginning of the healing of all American 
Indians and Alaska Natives boarding school victims and reconnect the 
70% American Indian and Alaskan Natives that live in urban areas to 
their tribes and villages.
    I appreciate all of you working with the Native Americans who 
attended boarding schools to heal from this period of sterilization, 
assimilation, colonization and genocide in United States history. May 
there be justice and healing and may this never happen again! May the 
People receive the justice we so deserve for all generations.
                                 ______
                                 
              Kelly Leah Stewart, Gabrielino-Tongva/Luiseno
                                                      July 25, 2022
Dear Members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,

    Miiyuyam. My name is Kelly Leah Stewart. I am Gabrielino-Tongva and 
Payomkawish (Luiseno). My ancestors--while not recognized by the United 
States (US) federal government--are the original inhabitants of the Los 
Angeles Basin, along with parts of San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, 
and North San Diego counties, and are the original caretakers to some 
of the most fertile and ecologically diverse land in the US. I am also 
a descendant--by blood and through marriage--of thirty-three former St. 
Boniface Indian Industrial School (SBIIS) students, three of which are 
interred at the school cemetery located in Banning, California. Two 
generations of my family attended SBIIS between 1890 to 1935, with many 
of my ancestors being a part of the first cohort of students at the 
institution.
    Additionally, I am currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Joint 
Degree Program in Education Leadership at the University of California 
San Diego and California State University, San Marcos, where I am 
writing my doctoral dissertation on SBIIS. Employing archival and oral 
history research methods, my dissertation examines the actions taken by 
the US government, Catholic Church, and settlers to eradicate 
California Indian knowledge transmission practices in efforts to 
assimilate Mission Indians into Spanish, Mexican, and American colonial 
societies. Furthermore, my research examines SBIIS's impact on 
survivors and descendants, explicitly centering on California Indian 
acts of survivance. I am the first California Indian woman and 
descendant of former students to explore the legacy of SBIIS in 
academic research. In addition to my forthcoming dissertation, I 
previously conducted research on the institution in my master's thesis, 
(Re)writing and (Re)righting California Indian Histories: Legacies of 
Saint Boniface Indian Industrial School, 1890 to 1935, which examined 
my family's experience at the institution.
    I am writing to express my support for Senate Bill 2907--the Truth 
and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, and have 
previously provided written support and testimony for S.2907's sister 
bill in the US House of Representatives, H.R. 5444--the Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. Since its 
establishment, the US federal government, along with state governments 
and multiple churches across the nation, enacted various policies--and 
invented legislation--designed to disrupt Native American peoples' 
connections to Indigenous knowledge systems to gain access and title 
over our lands illegally--violating a millennium of Indigenous 
governance systems, which pre-date the foundation and governing systems 
of the US. On multiple occasions, the US government ignored Indigenous 
sovereignty and ways of governing by violating and hiding various 
treaties established between the US government and Tribal Nations, 
specifically the Thirteen unratified (hidden) treaties of California, 
which would have given many unrecognized tribes in California--
specifically the many Coastal Tribal Nations associated with the 
Spanish missions--federal recognition status.
    In terms of colonial schooling and Indian boarding schools in 
California, the US government--for over two generations--provided 
substantial financial support and resources to both religious 
organizations (i.e., the Catholic and Protestant churches) and 
government schools under the guise of providing an education to Native 
youth. US government financial support and resources were used to steal 
or forcibly take Native youth from their tribal communities to 
sequester them to federal and religious day and boarding schools, where 
Native youth experienced genocide through colonial education. In these 
institutions, Native youth were stripped of their indigeneity, used as 
sources of unfree labor, and provided an inadequate education. Often, 
financial support was not utilized to educate Native youth; instead 
used to line the coffers of individuals, institutions, and religious 
organizations charged with providing a western education to our youth. 
As such, the US government has a moral, financial, and legislative 
obligation to atone for their wrongs and complacency in this history by 
offering resources and legislation to support Native communities as we 
begin to investigate the atrocities committed against Indigenous 
youth--at federal and religious Indian boarding schools--and in our 
efforts to move towards healing from the traumas enacted against us at 
the hands of the US government and to (re)claim our sovereignty as the 
original peoples of the land on which we allow you to reside.
    As the descendant of over thirty former Indian boarding school 
students, the legacy of these institutions--institutions created 
strategically by your forefathers--has significantly impacted me, my 
family, and my Tribal Nations. My grand-uncles, Paul and Emmanuel 
Gonzales, were two of the 100+ California Mission Indian youth to be 
coerced or forcibly taken to SBIIS. A few short years later, my great-
grandfather, Louis Florian Gonzales, would also be taken to the school 
to obtain the education promised to our people. During his time at 
SBIIS, Grandpa Louis was stripped of nearly every ounce of our Tongva 
and Pay centsmkawish culture. As the last family member to be connected 
to our traditional knowledge systems, taught to him by his mother, 
Maria Francisca Lisalde--a known midwife and healer for Native families 
in San Timoteo Canyon (located in present-day Redlands, CA), our family 
lost our culture for three generations.
    My grandmother, Carmelita Gonzales, and her siblings (Leonard, 
Gilbert, Raymond, Dora, and Emma) were also forced to attend SBIIS, 
further decimating connections to our ancestral knowledge and education 
systems. My grandmother, who was taken to the school before she even 
turned five, shared with many of her children and grandchildren how she 
would run away from the school because she feared the priests and nuns 
at the school and wanted to return home to her family at the Gonzales 
Ranch. My grand-aunt, Emma, shared with me how the only thing she 
received in terms of the promised education was a Paul Merchant 
penmanship course alongside endless religious indoctrination. Aunt Emma 
also spoke about how she was given different charges, of which butter 
churning was one. Before her death, she reflected on how she never got 
to taste the butter she churned as it was reserved for the priests and 
nuns overseeing the school--many of whom were already pocketing the 
financial support provided by the US government rather than using it to 
give the robust education promised to our people.
    Upon completing their time at SBIIS, my thirteen and fourteen-year-
old granduncles, Leonard and Gilbert, were sent to help build the 
Riverside Mission Inn. Uncle Leonard and Uncle Gilbert didn't get to 
return home to reconnect with their family. Instead, they were forced--
in connection to SBIIS's outing programs--to help create what has 
become one of the most frequented tourist attractions and wedding 
destinations in Riverside, CA. My grand-uncle Raymond may have had it 
the worst out of all the children. He was a sickly child and required 
healing through traditional plants and medicines that only his 
grandmother knew how to cultivate and utilize. Uncle Raymond would have 
inherited her knowledge and experience and carried on her work as a 
healer, passing down generations of California Indian knowledge and 
wisdom held by Grandma Francisca. But the US government and Catholic 
Church stole that Indigenous education from him--from all of us.
    The negative impacts of Indian boarding schools didn't end with 
their closing or Native youth being permitted to attend public schools 
with white children in urban areas after 1935 and beyond. My mother's 
generation, my generation, my nieces and nephews' generation, and my 
great nieces' generation--four subsequent generations--carry the legacy 
of these institutions--for our family, we carry the legacy of SBIIS and 
our ancestors' time at the institution.
    My mother, Dolores Aguila, spent most of her life knowing she was 
California Indian, being forced to work with state and government 
agencies--most frequently the US Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)--so 
that she could (re)claim ties to our Tribal Nations via federal census 
and California Indian Judgement Rolls. While Dolores carried the oral 
histories of our family--narratives passed down for generations and 
that recounted stories of our ancestors always calling Southern 
California home--to meetings with BIA staff, they required her to find 
physical documents--records they had in their possession--to provide 
proof of her Native heritage; something that often came at a tremendous 
financial burden to her and our working-class family. The denial of 
access to documents that would confirm what she knew to be true and the 
rejection of the oral histories she took to BIA offices by staff only 
gave my mother fuel to stand her ground and to prove that the oral 
histories were correct and matched their records. My mother has led the 
charge in ensuring my siblings and I, along with our many cousins, have 
never forgotten that we descend from the first and true Americans of 
Southern California.
    I, too, carry the legacy of my ancestors' experiences at SBIIS. My 
ancestors are why I have chosen to undertake the traumatic and 
heartbreaking work of being a scholar conducting Indian boarding school 
research. Every day--through every archival document I review, article 
I read, and story I preserve--I relive the experiences of my great-
grandfather and his brothers, my grandmother and her siblings, and 
every survivor, victim, and descendant of SBIIS. As a youth, I was 
ashamed to tell friends that I was Tongva and Pay centsmkawish. Over 
multiple generations, the Spanish, Mexican, and US governments had done 
such an excellent job in their attempts at erasing California Indians 
from the physical and symbolic landscape of our ancestral homelands--
and in replacing pride in our indigeneity with shame--that I knew my 
friends and teachers would not believe me if I told them I was 
California Indian and that they were residing on the lands my ancestors 
have called home since creation. I was also ashamed that I had no 
knowledge of our traditions and couldn't speak our languages. Practices 
that were stolen from us in the missions and further removed from us at 
SBIIS. I carried a shame forced upon my family due to these colonial 
structures and systems.
    Conducting academic research on Indian boarding schools began as a 
way to atone for the rejection of my indigeneity, to find answers as to 
why my family had lost connections to our traditional ways and 
knowledge, and to rid myself of a shame--passed down 
intergenerationally--that was forced upon my family by on-going 
colonial structures and systems. But as the years have passed, it has 
become a way of (re)connecting with and (re)claiming the ancestral 
wisdom that I carry within me and exposing generations of falsehoods 
through truth-telling and (re)storying the Indian boarding school 
narrative of Southern California. It has become acts of refusal and 
healing. Refusal to be silent and refusal to let my ancestors' 
sacrifices be in vain. It is also healing generations of loss and shame 
and breathing life back into the ancestral knowledge and teachings we 
carry within. While we may never fully get back what was stolen from 
us, I am doing everything in my power to make sure the cycle of shame 
that was reinforced at the boarding schools ends with me. My nieces and 
nephews will carry stories of our ancestors' resilience and refusal at 
SBIIS and our enduring survivance as a people and as a family.
    I want to note that as California Indians, we carry not only the 
legacy of US federal and Catholic mission Indian boarding schools but 
also the legacy of Spanish and Mexican colonization via the missions 
and ranchos, respectively. We carry the lasting effects of the genocide 
financially sponsored by the California government, which the US 
government reimbursed. As previously stated, my Tongva and 
Pay centsmkawish ancestors are the original inhabitants and caretakers 
of some of the most ecologically diverse and rich land in Southern 
California. Our people today continue our stewardship over our 
homelands. While the US government continues to deny us our very 
existence by denying us recognition--and despite three waves of 
colonization and three attempts to physically remove us from our 
homelands--we are still here, and we are not going anywhere.
    When you approve this legislation in the Senate--which every US 
Senator should be morally obligated to vote yes on--and the sister 
legislation is approved in the House of Representatives, followed by 
President Biden signing this Act into law; I hope that committee 
members and investigators also include the Spanish missions and Mexican 
ranchos in investigations of California's Indian boarding schools. Why? 
Because colonial schooling--the stripping of our culture and knowledge 
transmission practices--began with Spanish contact and continues today. 
To fully atone for the wrongs done to California Indians, you have to 
start from the beginning. In bringing California into your nation, you 
inherited the atrocities committed by Spanish and Mexican government 
officials, religious leaders, and settlers. Thus, it is now your 
responsibility to right those wrongs. Additionally, I hope you call in 
California Indian tribal leaders and emerging scholars--such as 
myself--to be a part of these conversations and investigations because 
truth and healing cannot occur unless we are given a seat at the table.
    I want to close by reinforcing my support of Senate Bill 2907--the 
Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. 
The US government has benefited from Indigenous peoples and our land 
for far too long. It is time that the government honors the treaties--
ratified and unratified--and helps Native peoples obtain truthful 
answers that we have sought for generations as we move forward in our 
healing.
    Thank you to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for holding 
this space for us and collecting written support and testimonies.
                                 ______
                                 
                             Brian Kamanuokalani Martin, MD
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski,

    My name is Brian Kamanuokalani Martin, MD.
    I am a kauka Kanaka Maoli, a Native Hawaiian physician. I began my 
career as a computer scientist, went to medical school, did post-
doctoral training in epidemiology, and currently work as a Health and 
Life Sciences Principal for a Federally Funded Research and Development 
Center.
    I had the privilege of working with US Senator Daniel Inouye's 
staff on the drafting of The Native Hawaiian Health Care Act of 1988, 
Public Law 100-579.
    I am writing to you to urge you to support S. 2907, and to consider 
including Native Hawaiians--na Kanaka Maoli--in S. 2907.

    Here's why:

    I am a 1973 graduate of the Kamehameha Schools, which at that time 
was a military institute for high school students and a K-12 boarding 
school for Native Hawaiian children. Up until 1973, the Kamehameha 
Schools did not provide a college preparatory education for Native 
Hawaiian children; instead, it required four years of Army ROTC for its 
male high school students, with the objective of graduating students 
who would enter the US Army at an E-2 private second class rank rather 
than attend college.
    In the fall of 1972, as a senior at the Kamehameha Schools, I was 
accepted for admission to Reed College, an undergraduate-only college 
that the National Science Foundation ranks on a par with Caltech and 
MIT based on the proportion of undergraduate students who go on to earn 
a STEM PhD. Reed is a college of approximately 1400 students with its 
own on-site nuclear research reactor.
    In the spring of 1973, the Kamehameha Schools high school newspaper 
published a list of students who had been admitted to college, along 
with the names of the colleges that the students were planning to 
attend. I clearly recall my high school social studies teacher asking 
me to speak privately with him after publication of the school 
newspaper.
    When we met, my teacher told me that he needed to apologize to me; 
he said that the Kamehameha Schools purposely did not prepare its 
students for college, and that he was worried that I was ill-prepared 
for the academic rigors of Reed College. He said that I would have been 
better-prepared for college if I had attended one of the public schools 
on the Island of O`ahu.
    His conversation with me led me to write a blistering editorial 
about the education provided by the Kamehameha Schools; my editorial 
was published in the Sunday edition of the Honolulu Advertiser in the 
Spring of 1973. That editorial took the Kamehameha Schools to task for 
asserting that it accepted only the best and brightest of Native 
Hawaiian children, while failing to prepare these same children for 
success at the top educational institutions in the US. (The Kamehameha 
Schools dropped its mandatory ROTC requirement the following school 
year, in the Fall of 1973, and started a college preparatory program.)
    I framed the editorial within the context of my family's oral 
history, as told to me by my maternal great-grandmother and step-great-
grandfather. My family's ancestral home is the Island of Moloka`i; my 
family was known for its expertise in the practice of La`au Kahea, a 
traditional healing practice that was outlawed in the mid 1800s by the 
Protestant missionaries who controlled Hawai`i's government. However, 
my family continued its traditional practices in secret, hidden from 
the Protestant-led government.
    In 1914, the church leaders of two O`ahu-based churches--Kawaiaha`o 
and Kaumakapili--received word that certain individuals on the Island 
of Moloka`i were still engaged in the Hawaiian cultural practices that 
the Protestants had outlawed. They sent an armed group to Moloka`i; 
that group tracked down my great-grandfather and murdered him. My 
grandmother saw her father murdered, and confirmed her experience to 
me.
    In 1978, five years after I graduated from the Kamehameha Schools, 
the Hawai`i State Constitutional Convention dramatically amended 
Hawai`i's Constitution in part to reverse the impact of the cultural 
genocide that had been inflicted on the Kanaka Maoli by the Protestant-
led government: the Hawaiian language was made an official language of 
the State of Hawai`i; Hawaiian beaches could no longer be owned as 
private property; and Native Hawaiian gathering rights, a practice that 
my family had carried out in secret for more than one hundred years, 
were enshrined by Hawai`i's Constitution.
                                 ______
                                 
                         Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski,

    I am writing on behalf of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians to 
urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 
2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 
Act out of Committee. This legislation will create a Congressional 
Commission to locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred 
known Indian boarding schools that operated across the country. This 
Congressional Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, 
tribal representatives, along with experts in education, health, and 
children and families to account for the long lasting impacts of the 
federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an 
important additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the 
Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help further 
the ensure a full and complete review of: the total number of Native 
children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of 
Native children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian 
boarding schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding 
schools have had on the children who attended and their families. S. 
2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the Indian 
boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. I urge 
the Committee to pass S.2907 when it comes before the U.S. Senate.

        Sincerely,
                                  Michael Hunter, Chairman.
                                 ______
                                 
                            Valerie Watson, Old Town, Maine
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski,

    I am writing to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to 
support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. While I am not a victim 
myself of the boarding school era, I defer to my relatives who did, and 
I trust them when they say that this legislation is an essential step 
toward healing. Native people in this country continue to endure the 
direct and intergenerational trauma inflicted by boarding schools 
supported by the federal government, and it is our duty today as a 
nation to address that harm in a culturally appropriate way.
    As you are aware, this legislation will create a Congressional 
Commission to locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred 
known Indian boarding schools that operated across the country. This 
Congressional Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, 
tribal representatives, along with experts in education, health, and 
children and families to account for the long lasting impacts of the 
federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an 
important additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the 
Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    Many who experienced the boarding schools and foster homes directly 
support this legislation, and I do too. I appreciate you working to 
heal this period of our history.
                                 ______
                                 
                 Governors' Interstate Indian Council, Inc.
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski,

    I am writing on behalf of the GOVERNOR'S INTERSTATE INDIAN COUNCIL 
(GIIC), to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support 
and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding 
School Policies Act out of Committee. This legislation will create a 
Congressional Commission to locate and analyze the records from the 
over four hundred known Indian boarding schools that operated across 
the country. This Congressional Commission will bring together boarding 
school survivors, tribal representatives, along with experts in 
education, health, and children and families to account for the long 
lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 
will also be an important additional measure to support the U.S. 
Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Tribal Nations died at the boarding schools. These 
children were never returned home to their loved ones and often their 
families were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian 
Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light 
on the schools.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help further 
ensure a full and complete review of: the total number of Native 
children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of 
Native children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian 
boarding schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding 
schools have had on the children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. 
[I/WE] urge the Committee to pass S.2907 when it comes before the U.S. 
Senate.

        Sincerely,
                                Nealie McCormick, President
                                 ______
                                 
                                              Myra Campbell
                                                      July 13, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski,

    Greetings, my name is Myra Campbell, tribal member of the Colville 
Confederated Tribe and the Nez Perce Tribe. My deceased father had 
attended Chemawa Boarding School in Chemawa, Oregon. He was born in 
1932 and attended during his adolescence (approx. 7-9 years old). I am 
a Licensed Professional Counselor for the State of Idaho and have 
conducted research with boarding school members both young and elderly.
    My support for H.R. 5444 the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act, is a personal one and a subject that I 
still continue to research in my current doctoral studies. I support 
the idea of reparation to indigenous peoples of the United States due 
to the historical trauma that is still a major component in the 
biopsychosocial issues of many Native American communities. This 
investigation is paramount to disclosing many generations of 
devastating policies set forth by the government in order to eradicate 
Native populations and strip from them their identity and culture.
    My personal story of intergenerational trauma stemmed from my 
grandparents and the ensuing abuse and trauma that was passed down from 
generation to generation. My grandmother was placed in a boarding 
school as a youth which in turn imprinted behavior that caused her to 
develop an abusive pattern toward her children. My father, who had been 
named after his father, was then emotionally and psychologically abused 
by his mother. This caused my father to become abusive to me and my 
siblings. My father was an alcoholic who would physically abuse us as 
children. He could never maintain a healthy relationship with his wives 
who he also abused physically and emotionally. My siblings and I 
witnessed many physical fights and often had to `break up' altercations 
during our adolescence. The trauma of sexual, physical, and 
psychological abuse occurred in our family throughout my childhood. I 
became addicted to alcohol and drugs and was also institutionalized in 
substance abuse treatment centers, county jails, and eventually prison. 
It took many years to come to the conclusion that my parents were 
affected by various ideologies that meant to break down the familial 
structure of Native American family lifeways. I did have the 
opportunity to discuss this with both of my parents before they passed 
away. Once I became sober and began my healing journey, I was able to 
recognize that my parents were the product of a system meant to 
negatively affect our cultural identity. I see psychologically how this 
affected them and their life. One common theme from their stories they 
have told me was `shame' and `regret'. They struggled with finding 
their true identity but was imprinted in them that `being Indian' was 
shameful and superstitious. I also felt this way growing up as I was on 
the tail end of my parents' legacy of discrimination, racism, and loss 
of culture. I struggled with finding my way in this world despite what 
occurred in the past. I am now in the process of a doctoral studies 
program that will allow me to incorporate my research on historical 
trauma and boarding school history.
    Again, I want to support H.R. 5444 to establish indigenous 
knowledge to others that suffer adverse events and how we, as a nation, 
can move forward with accurate history and acknowledging the wrongs of 
the past and to continue to help tribes become more culturally aware 
and emotionally well.
    Thank you to the Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous 
Peoples of the United States for laying ground for a very important and 
historical healing event.
                                 ______
                                 
                        The Coalition of Natives and Allies
                                                      July 14, 2022
Dear Senator Schatz and the Committee on Indian Affairs,

    The Coalition of Natives and Allies (CNA), a Pennsylvania-based 
coalition led by Native voices, educates communities, schools and 
universities on the true history of our country. We understand that the 
``Boarding School'' era in this country added to the profound harm that 
has been caused since first contact with Europeans. In our educational 
program, the Native American Boarding Schools and adoption programs are 
a central theme, given that two of our members have personal family 
experience with both of those harmful practices.
    We understand the powerful intergenerational impact of the Boarding 
School era on all members of Native communities in the United States 
and Canada. We also understand how most Americans haven't been 
truthfully educated, therefore have no idea about this chapter in our 
shared history. Our Coalition co-founders visited the Pennsylvania 
State Capitol to meet representatives and discovered that nearly all 
were unaware of this history, despite the flagship school--Carlisle 
Indian Industrial School--being less than 30 miles from the 
Commonwealth's Capitol.
    We seek justice for Indigenous peoples by working on legislation to 
end the use of Native peoples for sports mascots. Decolonizing our 
schools by bringing awareness of the blatant racism and harm in 
misappropriation of the Native minority as stereotypical archaic 
mascots, is part of our mission.
    We wholeheartedly support S. 2907 to begin the healing process in 
this country. We will never be the country that we are capable of being 
without this history and truth told, the harm expressed, the wrongs 
witnessed, and the healing beginning. The land we occupy, the air we 
breathe, the lakes we swim in, and resources we enjoy, come at a huge 
price to the original peoples of this land. It is time for this to be 
acknowledged and healing to begin. We urge supportive actions of repair 
be made in any way possible.
                                 ______
                                 
           Lower Sioux Indian Community, State of Minnesota
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing this letter on behalf of the Lower Sioux Indian 
Community in the State of Minnesota, to urge the U.S. Senate Committee 
on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. As 
you are aware, this legislation will create a Congressional Commission 
to locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred known 
Indian boarding schools that operated across the country. This 
Congressional Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, 
tribal representatives, along with experts in education, health, and 
children and families to account for the long lasting impacts of the 
federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an 
important additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the 
Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    The Lower Sioux Indian Community fully supports and endorses 
passage of S. 2907 and we appreciate your work towards healing.

        Sincerely,
                                Robert L. Larsen, President
                                 ______
                                 
                                    Constance Garcia-Barrio
                                                      July 13, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    Hello:
    I urge the Senate to pass S. 2907, which acknowledges the harm done 
to Native Americans by boarding schools designed to strip them of their 
cultural heritage. S. 2907 also provides resources needed to heal that 
damage.
    Please support passage of S. 2907 and H.R. 5444 now.
                                 ______
                                 
                                 Native Organizers Alliance
                                                      July 20, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    The mission of Native Organizers Alliance (NOA) is to amplify the 
power of Tribes, organizations, and communities to drive policy change 
in Indian Country. NOA believes our lands, waters, cultural resources, 
and communities are best protected when the rights of Tribal Nations 
are upheld, and the voices of Native peoples are heard. NOA urges the 
U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to pass S. 2907--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. This 
legislation would authorize a comprehensive investigation of 
educational institutions in which Indigeous children endured trauma 
that has since been passed through generations. It will support the 
creation of national survivor resources that will increase our capacity 
to rise in resilience, heal from wounds of the past, and move forward 
with power into the future. A political moment is upon us.
    We urge you to take action to make recommendations to identify the 
Tribes from which children were taken, protect unmarked burial sites of 
our children, ensure repatriation for our relatives when their families 
have requested that they be returned home, and to discontinue the 
removal of Indigenous children from their communities. While we cannot 
erase the past, we can create a permanent record of the stories of 
those who survived attempts of genocide, and leverage policy change to 
heal.
    Alongside the work of the Department of Interior and Secretary Deb 
Haaland's initiative with the Red Road to Healing, this legislation 
will prove that the Biden-Harris administration is committed to making 
a lasting and positive impact on Indigenous peoples in response to the 
trauma caused by federal policies throughout the course of history in 
the United States. Enactment of S. 2907 will promote truth, justice, 
and healing. I urge the Committee to pass S.2907 when it comes before 
the U.S. Senate.

        With Respect and Thanks,
                        Judith LeBlanc, Executive Director.
                                 ______
                                 
                               Sister Mary Ann McGivern, SL
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    An extreme belief in ``Manifest Destiny'' led the U.S. effort to 
destroy Native peoples and their cultures. Fortunately, we did not 
succeed completely. But like Germany after the Holocaust, we need to 
teach our children the wrongs done in the name of our country when 
blinded by ideology. A Truth and Healing process will allow us to begin 
to heal the relationships that past behaviors harmed so much, and live 
more closely in respectful interdependence. In this way, we can move 
past current problems in our wider culture as well.
    I am a Sister of Loretto and our community taught the Osage in St. 
Louis, St. Paul and Pahuska, KS and we operated an Indian school in 
Bernalillo, NM. While we always thought we had been good teachers to 
the Indians, we are now reviewing records and talking to descendants, 
asking for accounts from those we taught.
    How can we go forward unless we understand the past?
                                 ______
                                 
                                      Libby Comeaux, Denver
                                                      July 14, 2022
    We need to face our history in order to heal it. Like Germany after 
the holocaust, we need to teach our children the wrongs done in the 
name of the U.S. when blinded by Manifest Destiny to disparage other 
cultures. This will allow us, like it allows humans in one-on-one human 
transgressions, to begin to heal the relationship and live more closely 
in the truth of our respectful interdependence. Let America heal and 
become the great nation we want to be.
                                 ______
                                 
                                     Nikki Katt, Orange, CT
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to 
support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. This legislation will 
create a Congressional Commission to locate and analyze the records 
from the over four hundred known Indian boarding schools that operated 
across the country. This Congressional Commission will bring together 
boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, along with experts 
in education, health, and children and families to account for the long 
lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 
will also be an important additional measure to support the U.S. 
Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help ensure a 
full and complete review of: the total number of Native children forced 
to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of Native children 
who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian boarding schools; and 
the long-term impacts that Indian boarding schools have had on the 
children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. I 
urge the Committee to pass S. 2907 when it comes before the U.S. 
Senate.
                                 ______
                                 
                              WASHINGTON WOMEN'S FOUNDATION
                                                      July 25, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the Washington Women's Foundation to urge 
the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 
2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 
Act out of Committee. This legislation will create a Congressional 
Commission to locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred 
known Indian boarding schools that operated across the country. This 
Congressional Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, 
tribal representatives, along with experts in education, health, and 
children and families to account for the long-lasting impacts of the 
federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an 
important additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the 
Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

        Sincerely,
                 MARIA KOLBY-WOLFE (she/her), President/CEO
                                 ______
                                 
                                          Diane Oltarzewski
                                                      July 14, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    The ``Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies Act'' is long-overdue and extremely important. It will allow 
us to sweep away the clouds of confusion, ignorance, and denial--in 
favor of the clear truth about our history. For we've all been learning 
how these schools wrongly tore families apart and were part of a 
strategy to promote assimilation rather than protect the cultural 
integrity of Indigenous communities.
    The pawns in the game were the young children (some so very young!) 
who were psychologically brutalized by denying them their language, 
their connection to siblings as well as their parents and extended 
family, Dressed up as little white children for photos, their reality 
was too often forced labor rather than education. Physical cruelty and 
exploitation were too often their lot. Many never made it out alive, 
and even more never made it back to successfully reintegrate with their 
families.
    The truth must be told and reparation made.
    Thank you in advance for your commitment to this truth.
                                 ______
                                 
                            Jennifer Frick, Portland, Maine
                                                      July 15, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I write to strongly encourage you to pass S. 2907 to create a Truth 
and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools.
    As a survivor of childhood trauma, I fully understand the 
importance of unearthing and revealing the truth of the reality of 
adverse experiences, especially for the young.
    Healing can only be possible when all parties face and feel the 
Truth, and acknowledge it publicly. Please reach into your hearts and 
make this Commission possible.
    Thank you.
                                 ______
                                 
                                              Arifa Boehler
                                                      July 13, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    Hello,
    I am a non-native person living on Wabanaki coalition land in 
Maine. I am so grateful for the work that Maine has done with truth and 
reconciliation. Because I was able to hear and feel the consequences of 
boarding school and other travesties on native people when my ancestors 
arrived on this land I have been able to unearth some very deep seated 
unresolved guilt.
    Before learning the stories I was able to live in denial of those 
feelings and just assume nothing could be done. Mostly I had a shield 
up inside me about my own ancestors that I did not want to learn about. 
I just thought myself as starting now, they are not part of me.
    Because of the work of an organization in Maine, Wabanaki Reach, 
that was initiated after the T&R council work here, many of us have 
excavated our own ancestral stories, felt the sorrow and guilt, and 
awakening ourselves the broad sweep of the development of the human 
heart through the course of history. And here we stand now. This is 
what we can do. We can hear the stories, do what is possible to 
reconcile the damages, all of us, native and non-native, working to 
create societies that these sort of atrocities can not happen.
    But first, the native people need to heard, loud and clear. Their 
history needs to be in our schools. Children need to know the true 
complexity of the foundations of this country, great as the vision of 
government is, the foundation has problems. Riddled with secrets and 
wounds that unless recognized and label will only fester and continue 
to create a society that is not based on truth. I think we all know 
what is manifesting now.
    We are acting like violent nation now because of our roots of 
violence. We all know too that in our hearts we not a violent nation.
    Action like a truth and reconciliation commission could possibly be 
a pretty major step toward the depth of healing that is required by all 
of us, especially the native peoples and those of us who are 
descendants of early settlers.
    Thank you for your work!
                                 ______
                                 
                                               Autumn Gusto
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing this as a message of support for S. 2907, The Truth 
and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. 
Act.
    Immediate action needs to be taken to rectify the crimes of our 
history in Maine and across the United States with regard to ``Indian 
boarding schools'' I can only hope this can serve as a beginning step 
to healing and and memorial to the lives and culture lost.
                                 ______
                                 
                                                  Lana Jack
                                                      July 23, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    My name is Lana Jack. I am Celilo Wyam of the Columbia River 
Indians. We are a Sovereign Nation since time immemorial there are only 
a few of us left as holding aboriginal title After being picked apart 
from the inside I come from a long line of Matriarchs whom stood their 
ground to their end The final blow after jail, juevy, prison, state 
hospitals The Boarding school folks swept the village for the children, 
to be sent to Chemawa Indian School We been so completely 
disenfranchised from our authentic status of aboriginal title holders 
in pursuit of self determination They were sure to leave the elders 
alone with no one left of their young folks And when the children , 
young adults tried to return there was no one left of the old ones I 
have cried a river This is our sad reality both my parents were taken 
from their families and sent to school My mom state side, my dad 
Canadian side.
    I went thru years of the Truth and reconciliation process with my 
dads people 2010-2012 Recompense behind an I am sorry will not dp It 
was devastating to our communities, to expose the darkest moment behind 
the secret allowed to live in our communities incest, child rape, made 
for a very sorrowful time as we were struck with suicide of epic 
proportion's My uncle Chief Harvey Alphonse called me tiwun means niece 
His words to follow were real as it gets He himself had battled for his 
own life behind suicide It came at a time the tribe had to call a state 
of emergency Suicdes along with a Rash of violence , attempted murder, 
murder! Missing and MUrdered Indigenous peoples in numbers 
unprecedented My uncle said Tiwun its a spirit isn't it? Yes, was my 
response. He himself had cried out the name of Jesus! And the spirit of 
suicide had to leave He lay the shot gun down and thanked God for his 
life I said tell them that uncle! Tell our people your story Our people 
need to receive your story a s a source of hope I stood next to my 
uncle as he told his story to a room full First Nation of Cowichan 
valley Mr Shawn Atleo listened and responded to our call By this time 
it is 2011 jan to dec We had experienced 277 attempts of suicede and 88 
completions from the age of 8 to 80 Sexual abuse was being spoken of 
and it was a powerful spirit That the street people of Vancouver were 
falling out under legions of spirits Behind the abuse of the schools 
and at home.
    There is no easy way to move thru this with out coming up against 
harsh rebukes behind the abuse To hear the truth means to hear all of 
the truth , sodomy , incest having to preform sex acts on the nuns and 
priests or suffer the physical abuse and to be starved, or harsh 
corporal punishment and death.
    I feel so desperate for time in the matter of Truth and 
Reconciliation The Hour of Acknowledgement is been upon us for some 
time now. The extent of our shared suffering and pain is so immense in 
our Indian communities from north to south, east to west. The Healing 
must began immediately Can cannot pull back the bandaid and hope to air 
it out and that will be the answer. It is a very delicate matter to all 
whom have a story of survival over the through the generations It is 
the intergenerational trauma silenced with in our elders often to the 
grave, never to be spoken of Its what keeps us from our authentic 
selves as the aboriginal Also That which keeps us Marginalized as 
drunk, lazy, dirty Indian Except meth, now fentynal are the new poisons 
killing our next generation. Alcohol was the set up for this wave of 
death by drugs for our young people Covid 19 took our elders on the 
Columbia River, our honored oral tradition keepers of a way The last of 
our language teachers are gone Our language keeps us connected to our 
symbiotic way of being by the Natural Law as keepers of the earth This 
is what they wanted to make us forget the most There is nothing more 
dehumanizing then to steal our hearts, our children Back in a time when 
it took a village to raise a child, we observe the design of the system 
to pick a village a part over night Yes it was boarding schools for 
some, but it was that or Juvenile detention who did not cooperate, 
mainlined to adult jail, and then fed to the doctors at the state 
hospital , and or prison. Or off to the Vietnam war, All of which have 
kept our families apart to date As this on going genocide continues to 
take its toll on us.
    Sandy white-Hawk says Our elders sharing their story will bring 
healing In time yes, but , on an immediate it will disrupt and damage 
more than I will do good.
    The Government of United States of America should be held culpable 
for the crimes against us as the first peoples of Turtle Island Mass 
extinction of Millions of Indians We told them from the get what you do 
to the earth you do to yourself The system of kkk and white supremacy 
played its part in all departmenst was used to our demise to the 
fullest How to get rid of Indians by starving them out at the Rez and 
at school Not much has changed in the tactics to assimilate and 
acculturate us The salmon are near gone now as we foretold. We are 
almost all gone now Save an Indian campaign from extinction Time to 
honor the treaties Prisoners of war denied their existence is the worst 
kind of fate , we like the falls are prisoners of war in isolation We 
are the land , the river the air The salmon the orca Return our 
children now Money for mental health issues that manifest in self 
abusive ways for us Restore us the Celilo Wyam as a Sovereign nation, 
so we may protect what little we have left.
                                 ______
                                 
                                Joseph Appell, Freeport, IL
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing in support of the Native American Caucus of the 
Washington State Democrats to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian 
Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on 
Indian Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee.
    This legislation will require the review of the records of over 
four hundred known Indian boarding schools that operated across the 
country, and will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal 
representatives, along with experts in education, health, and children 
and families to account for the long lasting impacts of the federal 
Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important 
additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the Interior's 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    We MUST heal this history.
                                 ______
                                 
                                Venus Evans, Mi'kmaq Nation
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the [INSERT TRIBE/ORGANIZATION NAME] to 
urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 
2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 
Act out of Committee. This legislation will create a Congressional 
Commission to locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred 
known Indian boarding schools that operated across the country. This 
Congressional Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, 
tribal representatives, along with experts in education, health, and 
children and families to account for the long lasting impacts of the 
federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an 
important additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the 
Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help further 
the ensure a full and complete review of: the total number of Native 
children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of 
Native children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian 
boarding schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding 
schools have had on the children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. 
[I/WE] urge the Committee to pass S. 2907 when it comes before the U.S. 
Senate.
    I am a descendant of a day school and residential boarding school 
survivor. My grandmother, Ida, attended the Woodstock Indian Day 
School, of the Woodstock Indian Reserve, of Woodstock, New Brunswick, 
Canada. Her sister, my great-aunt Esther, attended the Shubenacadie 
Residential Boarding School, in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada. Both 
eventually came to and became U.S. citizens. The trauma these women 
endured has had a lasting effect on their descendants to this day. We 
struggle with depression, addictions, and suicide. Addressing this 
issue with S. 2907 will be instrumental in beginning the healing 
process for the abuse and trauma suffered by Native children and 
families everywhere. The time has come, and you can hold a significant 
place in history. Please make it happen.
    Wela'lin! (thank you)
                                 ______
                                 
                               Christine Diindiisi McCleave
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    Greetings my relatives. My name is Christine Diindiisi McCleave. I 
am a dual citizen of the United States and the Turtle Mountain Band of 
Chippewa Tribal Nation and I am Eagle clan. I am also a generational 
survivor of church-run and government-run Indian Boarding Schools in 
the U.S. I am writing to submit testimony in support of passing Senate 
Bill 2907 for a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies.
    I am the former CEO for the National Native American Boarding 
School Healing Coalition (NABS) and I worked with Senator Elizabeth 
Warren to write this bill. Currently, I am a doctoral student at the 
University of Alaska Fairbanks in the Indigenous Studies department 
doing my research on healing Indigenous historical trauma with 
traditional plant medicines.
    The bill and testimony to date sets forth the many reasons this 
truth and healing commission is needed so I will focus on my personal 
testimony here.
    At present, Indian boarding school experience affects five 
generations of my family, including my children. My great grandfather, 
John Wallette, attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School and my 
grandfather, Lawrence Wallette, attended Marty Catholic Indian School 
(formerly, Saint Paul's Mission School) and Haskell Indian School. My 
great grandfather attended Carlisle from 1910 to 1915 and played 
football for the Carlisle Indians. My family says he was recruited 
there by coach, Pop Warner and that he played football with the 
legendary Jim Thorpe. Though this may seem a proud piece of family 
history, my family never spoke of it until I started asking questions 
about my grandfather's boarding school experience. In fact, I had been 
working for the boarding school healing coalition for months before I 
learned that my great grandfather attended Carlisle at all. This is how 
little our family spoke of boarding schools in an attempt to erase the 
past, but that didn't work. The effects lingered and surfaced, 
nonetheless.
    I attempted to find out what dates my grandfather went to Marty or 
Haskell, but I have yet to locate his boarding school records. My 
grandfather passed away from a heart attack when I was 18 so I never 
got to ask him about it and when asking my mother, aunts, and uncles 
about his boarding school experience the response was always ``he 
always said he didn't want to talk about it.'' I could only assume this 
meant he had negative experiences that he did not want to relive or 
burden his children with. I do know that he learned masonry at Haskell, 
as it was a vocational school at the time he attended, and that he was 
a bricklayer all his life. But I can only speculate what happened to 
him at Marty Catholic School. Some insight from his Catholic boarding 
school education can be gleaned from the fact that he almost missed my 
uncle's wedding because he said he ``never wanted to step foot in the 
Catholic church again.'' Despite my grandfather's lasting resentment 
against the Catholic church, he disowned his eldest son, Lawrence 
Junior, when he came out as homosexual causing a lifetime of pain and 
estrangement between the two. Prior to colonization, my uncle would 
have held a position of honor in our tribe for his gender and 
sexuality.
    Over the years, as NABS's executive, I heard countless testimonies 
and stories from survivors and descendants. Many described inhumane 
conditions, cruel treatment, brutal punishments, and horrendous abuses. 
I heard from one such survivor of boarding school abuses that Marty 
Indian School was known for using a punishment called the ``beltline.'' 
The beltline was when children lined up in two rows facing each other 
and the child being punished would have to run down the middle while 
the others whipped and hit them with their belts. If blows were not 
doled out, the staff would send that child down the beltline next. I 
heard testimony that one child died from such wounds and that the 
children at the school had to build his casket to bury him in. I sobbed 
uncontrollably the first time I heard this and imagined my grandfather 
as a little boy being forced to run down the beltline and at times 
being forced to hit others running down the beltline. This type of 
punishment was physically cruel, psychologically torturous, and 
disgustingly common in Indian boarding schools.
    As a result of learning brutality in the boarding schools, my 
grandparents exposed my mother to much violence and alcoholism growing 
up on the Turtle Mountain reservation. Eventually, my mother was sent 
to live with her aunt from age 8 to 15. Yet, when she became pregnant 
with me, she was sent to a Catholic unwed mother's home and told to 
give me up for adoption. I grew up witnessing much the same brutality 
as my mother did during childhood. As a result, when I had my first 
child, I gave custody to his father because I felt like I didn't know 
how to be a good parent. Thus, five generations were affected by Indian 
child removal, perpetuating the narrative that our children were better 
off being raised by someone else--an intentional message propagated by 
the U.S Indian Boarding School Policies and the Indian Adoption 
Project.
    Now, I have an Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) score of 10 out 
of 10 resulting from inter-generational childhood trauma. The ACEs 
study shows that if a child experiences more than four of the ten 
trauma indicators, they are proven to suffer significant health 
disparities as an adult such as anxiety, depression, chemical 
dependency, obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc. and ultimately early 
death. I am 47 years old and living with several of these health 
issues. I have lost family members to alcohol-related and violent 
deaths. The ACEs study is indisputable proof that the U.S. policy to 
separate Native children from their families and send them to 
assimilative boarding schools in the U.S. caused generations of trauma, 
disease, and death.
    Regarding the question about the bill's language granting subpoena 
power, it is imperative for the commission to be able to carry out a 
mandate for truth and healing. Subpoena power will assist with finding 
the truth. While CEO of NABS, I encountered numerous challenges in 
accessing boarding school records. In the U.S., NABS researched and 
documented that the location of nearly half of boarding school records 
is unknown. (As of 2021, collections for 62 percent of the schools on 
NABS's boarding school list were located, but collections for 38 
percent of the known 400+ schools had not been located.) Churches who 
wanted to work towards reconciliation often could not answer the 
questions about where their records were. Funding, organization, and 
staffing were listed as obstacles to several Protestant denominations 
knowing what documents they held or even where they might be. Other 
institutions refused us access to the records outright, such as 
Marquette University. For three years I engaged in conversations with 
them about gaining access to records for over 60 Catholic schools--the 
bulk of the records owned by the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions. 
Furthermore, I was advised by Canadian Truth and Reconciliation 
Commissioners to make sure our commission had subpoena power because 
the Canadian Commission ran into issues getting the church records even 
after they had been court ordered. There is no question that subpoena 
power is a requirement of the truth-telling process.
    Lastly, regarding the questions about subpoena power starting the 
process off ``adversarially,'' that is erroneous--we are talking about 
a commission to address crimes against humanity. Genocide, to be exact, 
according to the definition set forth by the United Nations. Granting 
subpoena power is not starting adversarially. Stealing peoples' 
children for indoctrination was the beginning of any adversarial action 
and it was not on the part of the peoples seeking justice through the 
formation of this commission.
    Therefore, I urge this committee to be bold and brave in your 
pursuit of truth, healing, and justice. I have dedicated my life and 
career to those pursuits out of necessity. Prior to working at the 
boarding school healing coalition, I completed my master's thesis on 
Native American spirituality and Christianity which covered the impacts 
of spiritual prohibition and religious programming at Indian boarding 
schools in the U.S. Inspired by my grandfather's boarding school 
experience, I sought to find healing for my own questions of how one 
could possibly be Native and Christian after such evil had occurred in 
the name of God. The findings of my study showed that many Native 
Americans still practice Christianity, yet there are also many who have 
renounced it in favor of traditional Indigenous spirituality. Of those 
who had renounced Christianity, forced conversion in boarding schools 
and the irreparable harm that was caused by Christianity was cited as 
one reason. The strength and power of ancient Indigenous culture, 
language, and spirituality was another reason. Sadly, I have witnessed 
many families and communities arguing with each other over this issue 
of religion. Overall, it remains an unhealed wound for our peoples and 
an unresolved history which runs deep into our blood memory. A truth 
and healing commission would help to start these conversations for 
survivors and descendants to heal and move forward.
    Lastly, regarding truth and reconciliation as a legal framework, I 
want to share that during my six-year tenure at NABS, I studied 
transitional justice with international experts from Canada, South 
Africa, and Columbia-all of which had TRCs. I learned about truth and 
reconciliation models and processes as I worked with Commissioners, 
Chief Willie Little Child and Monica Wilson from the Canadian Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as well as Commissioner, Sandy 
Whitehawk of the Maine Wabanaki TRC. The boarding school healing 
coalition was formed expressly to implement such a commission in this 
country. Additionally, I was part of the City of Minneapolis's TRC 
workgroup which made recommendations to the city council after the 
murder of George Floyd and the civil uprising that occurred in the 
summer of 2020. Truth and Reconciliation is currently the best model we 
have for addressing government-sanctioned violence. Though the murder 
of George Floyd sparked a global movement for racial justice, our 
cities, tribal communities, and nations are nowhere near healed from 
the centuries of racism, violence, injustice, and systemic oppression 
which has not only been designed by but upheld by the leaders of this 
country for generations.
    While working at NABS, I often quoted Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave 
Heart who coined the term ``historical trauma'' and her recommended 
steps to healing it. She wrote that the first step is to confront the 
trauma and the second step is to understand it before we can release 
it. In all honesty, this work will not be easy. My time at the boarding 
school healing coalition brought up much of my own family traumas for 
healing. Though I am grateful to all whom I worked with, and for, along 
the way, boarding school trauma will always be part of me. And it will 
always be a part of this country. Ignoring it won't make it go away as 
many survivors and descendants can attest to; however, we must find a 
way to heal.
    The U.S. Senate has the opportunity, through the passing of this 
bill, to begin the process of healing our collective historical trauma 
by setting us on that path to confronting and understanding this 
history and its enduring negative impacts on millions of people. We are 
just starting to step foot on this path to truth and healing in this 
country. It will be a long journey and will require a new level of 
humanity in our work and relationships.
    I urge this committee to move this bill forward to be signed into 
law.
    Wela'lin! (thank you)
                                 ______
                                 
                            Jess Cadorette, Downingtown, PA
                                                      July 19, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    Hi there,
    I'm writing as a non-Native ally in support of revealing the truth 
about this painful chapter in our country's history so that healing may 
begin.
    Unfortunately, we know thousands of Indigenous children were taken 
away and forced to attend boarding schools. To date, there has never 
been an accounting of how many children were forced to attend, how many 
were abused or even killed, and what the long term impacts of this 
horrific time were.
    This Federal Commission is needed in order to locate and analyze 
the records from the 367+ known Indian boarding schools that operated 
in the U.S.
    We need this Commission in order to examine the location of 
children who are buried, to help document the ongoing impacts from the 
boarding schools, and to help locate and analyze the church and 
government records. Additionally, this Commission could help to provide 
culturally-appropriate public hearings as a forum for survivors, 
victims, and their families.
    This Commission ultimately would help to uncover findings and share 
those findings publicly so that this country may fully recognize and 
reckon with its past.
    I support S. 2907, and I look forward to its passage and the 
creation of this Commission.
    Thank you.
                                 ______
                                 
                                          Mary LaValley, PA
                                                      July 19, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing to express my support for S. 2907. It is time to 
acknowledge the deep generational harm that has been done, and 
continues to be inflicted on our First People including friends, 
members of my congregation and their families.
    Please vote in favor of S. 2907 in order that healing begin.
    Thank you.
                                 ______
                                 
                                    Judi Gibbs, Seattle, WA
                                                      July 12, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I strongly support a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
boarding schools.
    Canada took on the issue of their residential schools some years 
ago with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the ensuing 
report. It is long overdue in the U.S.
    I urge you to push ahead as quickly as possible with the Act that 
will set up the Truth and Healing Commission. I will ask my own 
senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and my representative, 
Pramila Jayapal, to support your effort to push through this important 
legislation.
                                 ______
                                 
       Santa Fe Indian School's Summer Policy Academy (SPA)
                                                      June 22, 2022
Dear Honorable Senator Ben Ray Lujan Jr.,

    On behalf of the Santa Fe Indian School's Summer Policy Academy 
(SPA), we are students who represent the Pueblos of San Idelfonso, San 
Felipe, Jemez, and the Navajo Nation. We spent a week at Princeton 
University's School for Policy and International Affairs (SPIA), 
studying the history of Indian boarding schools and the assimilation 
policies that devasted our tribal communities. This letter presents our 
research and recommendations for addressing the widespread atrocities 
resulting from the boarding school era.
    The legacy of forced assimilation begins, in 1492, with our 
ancestors ' first contact with European colonizer Christopher Columbus, 
and is followed by the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors in the late 
1500' s. Colonization resulted in the rape, pillage, and enslavement of 
our ancestors. By 1860, the U.S. established the first Indian boarding 
school on the Yakima Indian Reservation. Guided by its mantra to ``Kill 
the Indian, save the man,'' the school's sole purpose was to forcibly 
assimilate Indian people into mainstream American culture. In fact, in 
New Mexico, the Albuquerque Indian School--built on the soil of our 
homelands--intentionally stripped our grandpas and grandmas of their 
traditional language and culture.
    The conditions in Indian boarding schools and the long-term, 
detrimental impact on tribal communities were well-documented in both 
the 1928 Meriam and 1969 Kennedy reports. Yet, a more recent report--
released on April 1, 2022--examined more closely the harsh, boarding 
school methods that were used to poison children's hearts and minds. 
The report shows that schools replaced children's original Indian names 
with English names, cut their hair, and forbid them from using their 
native language and cultural practices. Children between 6 and 16 years 
old were even forced into hard, manual labor, including working on 
railroads. They were taught useless vocational skills, which left them 
with meager employment options, post-graduation. Even worse, the skills 
they learned were irrelevant for sustaining our cultural ways. Further, 
boarding schools used corporal punishment, such as solitary 
confinement, to enforce rules. If students broke the rules, the report 
states, they were denied food, whipped, slapped, and cuffed. Children 
in these schools experienced the most inhumane and humiliating 
punishment.
    Almost 150 years since the creation of boarding schools, public 
schooling for Native American students still reflects remnants of the 
boarding school era--very little has changed. Public schools today 
neglect to include Indigenous culture, language, governance, and 
history into the curriculum. Schools, for example, often lack native 
language and culture courses, while history class typically neglects to 
teach the 1680 Pueblo Revolt--the only successful rebellion to drive 
out colonizers from present-day New Mexico. It is important to 
understand that we value our culture, history, languages, and 
traditions. Much like boarding schools, public schools today often 
conflict with our values and thus continue to threaten our very way of 
life. We value an education that blends academic learning with our 
cultural knowledge. The lack of a culturally relevant education leaves 
us, as students, feeling disconnected from school.
    It is no surprise that academic achievement gaps disparately affect 
Native students. When students disconnect from school they fall behind 
academically. In fact, data shows that American Indian students have a 
dropout rate twice the national average. For this reason, several New 
Mexico families, in 2014, sued their state legislature and executive 
office for not providing Native American students an adequate 
education, i.e. one that strengthens cultural identity in the 
classroom. In 2018, the Court ruled in Yazzie/Martinez v. State that 
Native students have a constitutional right to a culturally relevant 
education; and that the State had violated those rights.
    A general principle we are taught early on is to apologize for our 
wrongdoings and take responsibility for our actions. Since the recent 
release of the Boarding School report, one might think the U.S. would 
seek to undo the long-term trauma and harm inflicted upon Native 
children by boarding schools. As of today, however, this is not the 
case. For that reason, my colleagues and I seek a formal apology--in 
the form of legislation--to restore balance among our communities and 
enable positive opportunities for indigenous people to heal. By doing 
so, Congressional leaders would signify that our education, language, 
culture, and traditions are important. It would also signify that 
Indigenous people will never again be subjected to a school system that 
seeks to erase our cultural identity.
    For example, in 2000, Kevin Gover, then Assistant Secretary for the 
Bureau oflndian Affairs, apologized publicly to Indigenous people for 
America's historical atrocities committed against them. Additionally, 
in 1993, Congress passed a Joint Resolution, which President Bill 
Clinton signed into law, apologizing for the U.S.' role in the 
overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1893. In his apology, President 
Clinton stated, ``I want to do what is right with respect to Native 
Hawaiians and all other Americans.'' These two events prove that, with 
sufficient political will, the U.S. can demonstrate respect for 
Indigenous people through a formal apology.
    However, the U.S. must also take action to undo the generational 
harms resulting from federal Indian boarding schools. Many generations 
of Native families are deeply affected, for example, by poverty, 
substance abuse, and culture and language loss, thereby impeding the 
transfer of our tribal laws and cultural customs from one generation to 
the next. According to the recent Boarding School report, sustainable 
and long-term investments to increase opportunities for Indigenous 
education, and language and cultural preservation, are prime examples 
of actions that can be taken to undo such harm.
    Let our request for a formal apology and commitment to undo the 
destruction to our cultural fabric be an encouragement for lawmakers to 
take the first step in helping us reach our most desirable communities. 
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or 
feedback.
                                 ______
                                 
                 Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican 
Indians to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support 
and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding 
School Policies Act out of Committee. This legislation will create a 
Congressional Commission to locate and analyze the records from the 
over four hundred known Indian boarding schools that operated a.cross 
the country. This Congressional Commission will bring together boarding 
school survivors, tribal representatives, along with experts in 
education, health, and children and families to account for the long-
la.sting impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 
will also be an important additional measure to support the U.S. 
Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from tl1eir 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    My name is Shaimon Holsey President of the Stockbridge Munsee Band 
of Mohican Indians located in northcentral Wisconsin, I am the 
granddaughter of grandparents who all attended Boarding School in 
Wisconsin and w1dersta.nd acutely the intergenerational trauma 
associated having dose family members survive this challenging period 
in my families' lives.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help further 
the ensure a full and complete review of: the total number of Native 
children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of 
Native children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian 
boarding schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding 
schools have had on the children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth,justice, and healing. We 
urge the Committee to pass S.2907 when it comes before the U.S. Senate.

        Sincerely,
                                  Shannon Holsey, President
                                 ______
                                 
                                                 Peter Clay
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing as a neighbor, a friend and an ally of The Menominee 
Tribe of Wisconsin and the Meskwaki Nation/Sac and Fox Tribe of the 
Mississippi in Iowa to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs 
to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. I am neither a Native 
person nor a survivor of the Indian boarding schools but I care deeply 
about this and wish to lift up my voice in support of S.2907. This 
legislation will create a Congressional Commission to locate and 
analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian boarding 
schools that operated across the country. This Congressional Commission 
will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, 
along with experts in education, health, and children and families to 
account for the long lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding 
school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important additional measure to 
support the U.S. Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Trial Nations died at the boarding schools. These children 
were never returned home to their loved ones and often their families 
were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light on the 
schools.
    As a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) I am 
aware that Quakers oversaw at least thirty of these Indian boarding 
schools. Within my own faith community I am respectfully advocating 
that we acknowledge the historical harms that Quakers have done and 
that we do more research to learn more about what happened and how we 
tragically played a part in this. I am asking Quakers to apologize and, 
in respectful consultation with Native Nations and tribes, consider how 
we could make amends for our actions. I also am asking Quakers here in 
Iowa and across the United States to assist with the re-vitalization of 
Native languages destroyed by this misguided federal policy, which we 
supported. In fairness, earlier Quakers thought that what they were 
doing was for the best futures for Native children. We were profoundly 
misguided and we were wrong.
    Thank you for including my strong support for S. 2907 as you 
deliberate. Please pass this crucially important bill out of committee 
and urge the full Senate to quickly pass this legislation. For all 
Americans, of all backgrounds and every heritage, the only way forward 
is together. This bill will be instrumental in making that possible.
                                 ______
                                 
                  Elizabeth A. Oppenheimer, Minneapolis, MN
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to 
support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee.
    As I understand it, this legislation will create a Congressional 
Commission to locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred 
known Indian boarding schools that operated across the country.
    I am an active member in good standing of the Religious Society of 
Friends (Quakers or Friends) and have been learning about the terribly 
harmful role that Quakers had in advocating for and implementing the 
boarding school system during the Grant administration, all of which 
resulted in abuse of all kinds, the destruction of families, and the 
forced assimilation of children into a culture that had decimated 
indigenous peoples and still causes tremendous harm. (See this post on 
the website Decolonizing Quakers: https://www.decolonizingquakers.org/
quakers-and-boarding-schools/)
    More specifically, in the last few years, I have learned that the 
relatives and ancestors of a few Quaker friends of mine and fellow 
worshipers in Iowa taught in one or more of these schools for Native 
children. There is remorse, confusion, and grief among my small Quaker 
community (called a ``meeting, similar to a congregation): We are 
fairly certain that there were good intentions connected to these 
Quaker relatives and predecessors, yet our contemporary learning 
teaches us that good intentions must never outweigh or be disconnected 
from taking responsibility for their harmful impact.
    I myself am filled with remorse and have spoken openly among 
Friends about the need for healing--first and foremost for the 
indigenous communities, and second, as Way opens, for the Quaker and 
other Christian perpetrators of such widespread moral injury. 
Nevertheless, addressing the harm done to Native Americans is the 
priority and so their emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual 
needs must be centered by this Commission. Friends historically value 
truthtelling, this Commission will come a long way in doing so around 
these issues at the federal level.
    I understand through the National Native American Boarding School 
Healing Coalition (NABS) that this Congressional Commission will bring 
together boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, along with 
experts in education, health, and children and families to account for 
the long lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy. 
S. 2907 will also be an important additional measure to support the 
U.S. Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School 
Initiative.
    The fact that NABS and other indigenous led groups and individuals 
are promoting this Congressional Commission leads me and other Quakers 
to humble ourselves and follow their guidance. My own predominantly 
white faith community has our own and separate healing to do, so I am 
in full support of this Commission.
    Another Quaker friend of mine has written in his own testimony 
something I strongly unite with, so I am quoting him: ``I am asking 
Quakers to apologize and, in respectful consultation with Native 
Nations and tribes, consider how we could make amends for our 
actions,'' including taking meaningful actions related to the landback 
movement; the restoration and renewal of indigenous languages, culture, 
and practices; the cessation of pipeline construction that intrude upon 
indigenous land and infringe on the resources on which Native Americans 
depend; and the affirmation of the rights of nature and of Mother 
Earth.
                                 ______
                                 
   Lois A. Law, Venetie Indian Tribal Government/member of 
                                       Arctic Village Tribe
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    Good morning. I am writing to show support for S. 2907/H.R. 5444, 
the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 
Act. Here in Alaska, truth of the myriads of child abuse which emerged 
from the religious boarding schools to address the traumatic outcomes 
caused by enforced attendance by scores of Alaska Native children in 
faraway boarding schools over several decades.
    Please support this bill. Thank you.
    I am writing to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to 
support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. As you are aware, this 
legislation will create a Congressional Commission to locate and 
analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian boarding 
schools that operated across the country. This Congressional Commission 
will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, 
along with experts in education, health, and children and families to 
account for the long lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding 
school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important additional measure to 
support the U.S. Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative.
    As a boarding school student who resided in children and foster 
homes I totally support S. 2907 with my heart as I believe this S 2907 
will be the beginning of the healing of all American Indians and Alaska 
Natives boarding school victims.
    I appreciate all of you working with the American Indians who 
attended boarding schools to heal from this period of assimilation, 
colonization and genocide in our United States history.
                                 ______
                                 
        Farina King, Ph.D. (enrolled Navajo Nation citizen)
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I write in support of S. 2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on 
Indian Boarding School Policies Act. I am a Dine (Navajo) boarding 
school survivor descendant, daughter of Phillip Lee Smith who went to 
the Fort Wingate Indian Boarding School in New Mexico. I am a historian 
and author of publications about American Indian boarding school 
experiences. I recently accepted the position of Horizon Chair in 
Native American Ecology and Culture at the University of Oklahoma's 
Department of Native American Studies. I have worked as an associate 
professor of history and affiliate of Cherokee and Indigenous Studies 
at Northeastern State University for the past six years.
    My aunt, Diane Smith, asked me to share her story of how the 
boarding school attendants and officials refused to take her to the 
hospital after she fell on the monkey bars at the Fort Wingate Boarding 
School in New Mexico. She broke her nose, but ``they would not take 
[her] to the hospital.'' Her mother finally took her out of the 
boarding school to the hospital where she stayed for several days. My 
aunt continues to have sinus problems that affect her health. As she 
recounted this memory, in 2022, she said: ``my nose still hurts.'' Her 
mother never returned her to school, and my aunt did not finish her 
schooling. She only attended school to the third-grade level. Her 
mother feared for her life. My aunt and family can only imagine the 
kinds of opportunities that my aunt could have had if she could have 
attended a school where her life wasn't threatened or disregarded.
    I have interviewed and written about Native American boarding 
school experiences, especially those of my Dine kin like my aunt Diane 
and my father, Phillip Smith. One of the most haunting stories of 
boarding schools that I learned about has been recorded in a BIA file 
that I came across in the national archives about the ``Leupp 
Incident'' of 1957. In October of 1957, the Leupp Boarding School was 
hit by an influenza epidemic, and most of the children became very 
sick. A five-year-old girl, Dorothy Daily, was bullied and beaten by 
some older girls, while they were all suffering from the flu. Dorothy 
became unconscious and died soon after. Where were the school 
attendants and officials? The children were left vulnerable and at 
risk. A boarding school education under the hands of the U.S. federal 
government was lethal. I shared the story of Dorothy not to 
sensationalize her but to always remember her. Her community and family 
of Bird Springs also responded to this tragedy and sought for 
community-based Dine education, which our people still fight for today. 
I was able to talk with her home community and record some oral 
histories. You can read about it in my book, The Earth Memory Compass 
(2018), published by the University Press of Kansas.
    This weekend, July 22-24, 2022, the largest group of Dine boarding 
school alumni and survivors are gathering in Wheatfields of the Navajo 
Nation. The Intermountain Indian Boarding School reunion and gathering 
brings hundreds of Dine boarding school survivors together, and they 
share their stories for healing. They find strength in each other as 
kin, as fellow survivors. They sacrifice their resources and time to 
travel from major distances to meet once a year. They put great effort 
in fundraising thousands of dollars to be able to gather with provided 
food, facilities, and shelter. Where is the support for this healing? 
Where are the centers and museums to remember their experiences and 
sacrifices for their people's survival? How are boarding school 
survivors, their families, and communities being involved in such 
initiatives? There are so many who want to share their stories and to 
be remembered. There are so many other boarding school survivors who 
want to gather and heal together, but they lack the resources to make 
it to such meetings.
    I hope that this legislation, S. 2907, will be passed and address 
these imperatives. I support and look forward to collaborating with 
these initiatives as a public intellectual and Native American oral 
historian.
                                 ______
                                 
                                                Don Motanic
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to 
support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. As you are aware, this 
legislation will create a Congressional Commission to locate and 
analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian boarding 
schools that operated across the country. This Congressional Commission 
will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, 
along with experts in education, health, and children and families to 
account for the long lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding 
school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important additional measure to 
support the U.S. Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative. As a son of two parents that were removed from the 
Umatilla and Coeur d' Alene Reservations and attended Chemawa Indian 
School in the 1930's, I've enclosed my testimony and totally support S. 
2907 with my heart as I believe this S 2907 will be the beginning of 
the healing of all American Indians and Alaska Natives boarding school 
victims and cultural wellness programs to reconnect the 70 percent 
American Indian and Alaskan Natives that live in urban areas to their 
tribes and villages. I appreciate all of you working with the American 
Indians who attended boarding schools to heal from this period of 
assimilation, colonization and genocide in our United States history.

    Enclosure
    Thank you for this opportunity to support S. 2907/HR. 5444. My name 
is Don Motanic an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the 
Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) who had parents that attended the 
Chemawa Indian School from 1927 until 1936. My mother, Myrtle Agnes 
Dupree, enrolled with the Coeur d' Alene Tribe met my father and 
married, Daniel Motanic, enrolled with CTUIR who attended the Chemawa 
School from 1932 to 1936.
    I support all the recommendations in S. 2907/HR. 5444 and recommend 
that the implementation plan includes a process to assist boarding 
school decedents, especially the urban tribal population to reconnect 
with their tribe's reservation community with cultural wellness 
programs and provide a social-economic healthier population that was 
disenfranchised by genocide during the boarding school era.
    In November 1958, I was only four years old, but found myself 
sitting in jail with my father in Renton, Washington. At a very young 
age, I started to understand how I needed to find a process to help our 
family to go from ``Tragic to Magic.''
    I was fortunate enough to survive and thrive with parents who were 
affected by World War II and the Indian Boarding School system and 
become one of the very rare urban tribal science professionals with a 
degree in forestry to return to one of my mother's reservations at 
Spokane and my father's Umatilla Reservation to live and work. Our 
daughter Dr. Kelsey Motanic has also returned to the tribal community 
as the first CTUIR medical doctor and practices medicine with the 
Puyallup Tribe and a faculty member with the University of Washington 
School of Medicine. My parents and I found a way to struggle through 
some tough times and near death experiences with the assistance of many 
resilient community tools to find the Tragic to Magic trail.
    I would recommend that the implementation plan with S. 2907/HR. 
5444 gather Tragic to Magic stories of families, especially the urban 
tribal population that has returned to work on the reservation, so it 
could develop a resilient toolbox with various ways that families can 
survive and thrive to find the Tragic to Magic trail back from the 
boarding schools to our reservation lands.
    Once again, I would like to thank the Senate Committee on Indian 
Affairs for Indigenous Peoples of the United States for this 
opportunity to support S. 2907/HR. 5444.
                                 ______
                                 
                            Prairie Island Indian Community
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    On behalf of the Prairie Island Indian Community, a federally 
recognized Indian tribe in Minnesota, I am writing to express the 
Tribe's support for the enactment of S. 2907/H.R. 5444--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. We commend 
your leadership on this issue and respectfully request that the Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs pass S. 2907 out of Committee and, 
ultimately, the Senate.
    The Indian Boarding School Policies funded by the Federal 
Government and U.S. missionaries were assimilation policies and 
practices inflicted on American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native 
Hawaiian children as young as three years old. These schools intended 
to terminate the culture, spiritual practices, and languages of 
Indigenous people.
    As Mdewakanton Dakota Sioux, our history and culture is kept alive 
through oral tradition--the purposeful repeating of stories--so the 
Indian Boarding School system immeasurably impacted who we are as 
Dakota people, even today. Killing our language was an attempt to kill 
our culture, traditions, connection, and existence. But our ancestors 
were strong, resilient people and, despite the scars within them, they 
raised us to have the same eternal principles, so we endure.
    That is why S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies Act is critically important, not only to our 
Tribal people, but also to infinite other tribal nations who carry the 
same generational trauma inflicted on them by the U.S. Government and 
missionaries. Therefore, we respectfully urge you to take remedial 
action to support and enact S. 2907/H.R. 5444 to establish a commission 
to formally investigate, document, and acknowledge past injustices, 
assimilation practices, and human rights violations of tribal children, 
federally endorsed by the U.S. Government. Because, by better 
understanding the past, we can start to heal future generations of our 
Dakota people.
    We thank you for your attention to this critical legislation for 
Tribal Nations.

        Respectfully,
                   Johnny Johnson, Tribal Council President
                                 ______
                                 
                                              Oneida Nation
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the Oneida Nation to urge the U.S. Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act out of 
Committee. This legislation will create a Congressional Commission to 
locate and analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian 
boarding schools that operated across the country. This Congressional 
Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal 
representatives, along with experts in education, health, and children 
and families to account for the long-lasting impacts of the federal 
Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important 
additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the Interior's 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools far away from 
their families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were 
part of a policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition 
of tribal lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss 
of Native languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from 
their families and tribal communities died at the boarding schools. 
These children were never returned home to their loved ones and often 
their families were never notified of their deaths. The very first 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, 
conducted by U.S. Department of the Interior, has helped shed light on 
the schools.
    Over the past three years, the Oneida Nation has returned home the 
remains of our precious children that attended the Carlisle Indian 
Industrial School. The historical intergenerational trauma was re-lived 
by the families and our community, as we mourned for our children. We 
know that we have more of our children to bring home and with the 
creation of the Congressional Commission in S. 2907, will help further 
a full and complete review of the total number of Native children 
forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of Native 
children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian boarding 
schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding schools have 
had on the children who attended and their families.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. 
The Oneida Nation urges the Committee to support the passage of S. 2907 
when it comes before the U.S. Senate.

        With a Good Mind, a Good Heart and a Strong Fire,
                                Tehassi tasi Hill, Chairman
                                 ______
                                 
                                          Kimberly Ann Fyke
                                                      July 12, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    My name is Kimberly Ann Fyke of The Sault Tribe of Chippewa 
Indians. I attended Holy Childhood of Jesus School in Harbor Springs, 
Michigan.
    I'm here for those that can't, or won't talk about Holy Childhood 
of Jesus.
    I am number 10 of my Indian Mother's 10 children, 2 of her children 
died young, but the other 8 of us all attended Holy Childhood of Jesus 
School. Being the youngest of the 10, I do have a different Father than 
my siblings, I'm unsure of the dates my siblings attended, but I was 
there from 1970-1974, we were taught white peoples ways, also the 
Beliefs of the Catholic Church
    Growing up, the only Indian left in us , was our Blood an skin 
color.
    My Mother passed away in 1970, my Father remarried a woman who had 
12 children and her 5 youngest also attended Holy Childhood, a daughter 
an 4 boys, us girls were brought together by the nun an told we were 
sisters now because my Father had married her Mother. My Father passed 
away in 1974, left the school for his funeral and never returned. After 
living with my Stepmother for awhile, I needed out and ran away. My 
sister number 2 of the 10, took me in and then in 1976, we moved to 
Fairbanks, Alaska where she adopted me. I spent 20 years in Fairbanks, 
20 years in Anchorage. After 40 years, my own daughter, an 2 grand 
daughters I came back home at age 55. Now learning what our ancestors 
really went threw at this Holy Childhood of Jesus School, an all over 
the world. I am so Angry! Of course my experience was nothing compared 
to my ancestors. The mental, physical, sexual abuse was still 
happening, by the people we were taught to be Holy people, Righteous 
people, Celibate people at Holy Childhood of Jesus School. We 
experienced the Pure Evil, in the Catholic Priests, Brothers, and 
Sisters if Notre Dame.
    I may have been at the end of this school being Federally Funded, 
because we had to write letters to rich people asking for money. We 
children had cores, running Industrial Equipment, we stripped and 
varnished all hardwood floors, Industrial Kitchen Equipment, all food 
prep, Industrial Laundry Equipment. We were given needles and thread 
when first getting there and have to sew a number on all pieces of 
clothing we had, numbers changed each year. We were completely 
terrorized on Halloween, by the Holy people. I recall Sister Diane who 
took care of the youngest boys, bringing in a Black Bear's head on a 
silver platter, bleeding from its nose, at dinner time and rubbing the 
bloody nose all over a girl telling her that The Devil was going to get 
her. After dinner getting ready to leave the dinner hall we were told 
not to touch the Devil powder, that was everywhere from door of dinner 
hall, 3 fleets of stairs to our dormitory, entering the dormitory it 
was totally torn apart like a Tornado had hit it. Sister Diane came to 
our dormitory with the front paw of the Black Bear and was pulling the 
hairs from it, putting them on our beds telling us The Devil was going 
to get us. One year I found a human leg bone in my bed with my name 
written on it. Was told also The Devil would get me. One year, Sister 
Diane took all the girls in the back of a truck up to the Harbor 
Springs cemetery and dropped us of in the dark, to find our way back to 
the school. Holy Witches came out from behind trees and Tombstones to 
get us. I was running with a girl, who tripped and fell on a Tombstone 
an cut her knee wide open. By the time we made it to the school, the 
blood down her leg was drying, they wouldn't take her to doctors.
    We had to find our belongings before bed, clean up their mess. 
After lights out the Holy Witches would come out of every where to get 
us. I Also remember another girl and I were told to go to the walk-in 
cooler to get cupcakes, we entered the cooler and the door was slammed 
shut, an light turned off. We were in there seemed like forever, but 
also would hear someone unlock the cooler, as soon as we moved toward 
the door it would be locked again. This happened multiple times. We 
both thought we would freeze to death. I also remember hearing boys 
crying from the infirmary all the time, but no one was ever sick enough 
to be put in the Infirmary. I also remember Sister Naomi/Maxine tell 
all of us girls, that someone sold money from her living quarters and 
we had to knee in the main isle of our dormitory on the hardwood floor 
to pray that who ever took it would admit it. No one ever said they did 
it but we knelt and prayed until we would no longer, we couldn't feel 
our legs anymore and all started falling over in pain.
    Again, I'm here to talk for those who can't, or won't talk about 
Boarding School.
    For my healing, I want to see Churches give up all Records from 
these schools, and Churches being held Accountable.
    Thank you to all who are finally listening to us.
                                 ______
                                 
                                       Cathie Chavez-Morris
                                                      July 25, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I, Cathie Chavez-Morris, am writing to urge the U.S. Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act out of 
Committee. My great grandmother, Paulina Juarez and her brother, were 
both enrolled in the Sherman Institute in Riverside, CA in 1905. They 
were preteens at the time of their enrollment. We have requested 
records from the Institute several times with no success. We do not 
know how long my great grandmother was enrolled, but we do know that 
her time there was during a critical moment in her life when she needed 
her family. My great-grandmother never spoke of her time at the 
Institute. It wasn't until we were able to look at records through 
ancestry.com did we even realize she was enrolled there. We can only 
imagine how painful it was for her to have to be separated from her 
family. She never spoke of the separation to her children. As a mother, 
I can imagine that must have been incredibly painful to even have to 
recollect and so she chose to keep that experience close to her heart. 
As a direct descendant of a survivor who cannot speak for herself, I 
speak for her and other ancestors who have no ability to share their 
thoughts and experiences. My journey and my children's journey is an 
extension of her journey. So this advocacy is carried on my shoulders 
for past and future generations.
    This legislation will create a Congressional Commission to locate 
and analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian 
boarding schools that operated across the country. This Congressional 
Commission will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal 
representatives, along with experts in education, health, and children 
and families to account for the long lasting impacts of the federal 
Indian boarding school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important 
additional measure to support the U.S. Department of the Interior's 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    I'm so thankful you are working hard to heal this history.
                                 ______
                                 
               Rebecca Linder Blachly, The Episcopal Church
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of The Episcopal Church to urge the U.S. 
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth 
and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. This 
legislation will create a Congressional Commission to locate and 
analyze the records from the over four hundred known Indian boarding 
schools that operated across the country. This Congressional Commission 
will bring together boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, 
along with experts in education, health, and children and families to 
account for the long-lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding 
school policy. S. 2907 will also be an important additional measure to 
support the U.S. Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative.
    For well over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of American Indian 
and Alaska Native children were taken, forced, or coerced to attend 
federal government supported Indian boarding schools away from their 
families, communities, and Tribal Nations. These schools were part of a 
policy of cultural assimilation and genocide, the disposition of tribal 
lands, and produced long-lasting impacts including the loss of Native 
languages and cultures. Many children that were taken from their 
families and Tribal Nations died at the boarding schools. These 
children were never returned home to their loved ones and often their 
families were never notified of their deaths. The first Federal Indian 
Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report has helped shed light 
on the schools.
    The Congressional Commission created by S. 2907 will help further 
ensure a full and complete review of the total number of Native 
children forced to attend Indian boarding schools; the total number of 
Native children who were abused, died, or went missing at Indian 
boarding schools; and the long-term impacts that Indian boarding 
schools have had on the children who attended and their families.
    As part of our Church's work on racial reconciliation, justice, and 
our commitment to truth-telling, we are dedicated to addressing the 
legacy of violence and abuse perpetrated by boarding schools, including 
our church's role in the kidnapping of Indigenous children from their 
families by participating in the boarding school system. During our 
most recent General Convention, we passed a resolution to address our 
own history with Indian boarding schools. We resolved to create a fact-
finding commission to conduct research on historical documents relevant 
to the role of the Episcopal Church in the Indigenous residential 
boarding schools and to support federal legislation to create a truth 
and healing commission on Indian boarding school policy.
    S. 2907 will ensure that there will be a full accounting of the 
Indian boarding schools and will promote truth, justice, and healing. 
We urge the Committee to pass S. 2907 when it comes before the U.S. 
Senate.

    Final Statement of Support--Submitted
    We welcome the introduction of this legislation and thank Senator 
Warren and Congresswoman Davids for their leadership. As part of our 
work on racial reconciliation, justice, and our commitment to truth-
telling, we are dedicated to addressing the legacy of violence and 
abuse perpetrated by boarding schools, including our church's role in 
the kidnapping of Indigenous children from their families by 
participating in the boarding school system. The Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act 
will begin the work of healing intergenerational trauma and advancing 
efforts of racial reconciliation. We urge this legislation's swift 
passage.

    Helpful References

    Bishop Curry: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/
statement-on-indigenous-boarding-schools-by-presiding-bishop-michael-
curry-and-president-of-the-house-of-deputies-gay-clark-jennings/

    Act of Convention (2018-A044): https://www.episcopalarchives.org/
cgi-bin/acts/acts_generate_pdf.pl?resolution=2018-A044
                                 ______
                                 
                                              Linda R. Cobe
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    My name is Linda Cobe, I am Ojibwa/Oneida and a member of Lac Vieux 
Desert Tribe of Lake Superior Indians. I speak English because my 
Native tongue was taken from me. Ojibwa was spoken in our home. My 
parents lived a traditional lifestyle, we lived off the land, my father 
hunted, trapped, and fished. We were poor and did not have running 
water or electricity. My grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins all 
lived in close vicinity of us. I am a survivor of boarding school. 
Myself, siblings, and cousins were all forced to attend Holy Childhood 
boarding school in Harbor Springs, MI. The school was run by the 
Sisters of Notre Dame, Catholic nuns, where we were forbidden to speak 
Indian, wear our clothes from home, or possess any items from home. I 
was 5 years old, it was 1964 when the priest came for us. I don't 
remember who was with him but they patiently waited for us to come out 
of hiding, shook a bagful of candy, and grabbed us and put us in the 
car. We took the long ride downstate, 5 hours, and arrived to a 3 story 
building, where the nuns came out to greet us. They were dressed in 
long black dresses with veils, with only their white faces showing. We 
saw other children that looked like us, boys and girls. They all had 
the same stunned look on their faces as if to wonder why we had to be 
there. We had separate dorms, girls on one side, the boys on the other, 
school rooms and cafeteria were on the lower floors. They started with 
the rules right away. They were strict and mean. We had to line up 
single file and march next door every day for church before school 
started. Our morning routine started with making our bed. It had to be 
made without any wrinkles and have hospital corners. If it had one 
wrinkle, they ripped it apart and you did it again. Of course you also 
got a slap for not doing it right. A slap or cuff to the back of the 
head could also come if you weren't ready to line up when we were told 
to line up, or if you missed a button, didn't pull your sock up, 
whatever, you could be yanked out of line, told to fix it, then shoved 
back in line. Punishments were also severe, many were made to kneel for 
hours for infractions. One girl had wet her bed and the nun made her 
scrub the entire bathroom on her hands and knees using her toothbrush. 
Mealtime was also stressful, having to eat slop, the same mush in the 
morning, we were expected to eat everything on our plate, and no 
seconds. I hated beets, was crying in my food because I knew I would be 
punished for not eating them. My cousin would eat what we couldn't so 
we wouldn't get in trouble. I had smile at him one time across the 
table and the nun came and slapped me across the face, told me I should 
be eating not playing. Nighttime was the most sorrowful, listening to 
the little girls sobbing into their pillows so the nun wouldn't hear 
them and come out and smack us around. We were homesick, we cried for 
our parents, we didn't want to be there. It seemed like we were 
constantly being told what stupid, dirty, stinking, good-for-nothing 
Indians we were and how lucky we were to be there. They made us write 
letters home and tell our parents we liked it there and the nuns were 
so nice to us. We had chores, there was always cleaning, they wanted 
the stairs and banisters to shine. The windows had to be washed inside 
and outside. One of my cousins told me she witnessed one child sitting 
on the windowsill, on the 3rd floor to wash the outside, while another 
child held his legs. I've repressed most of my memories of my one year 
there but I clearly remember the worst beating I got for not being 
ready when the girls were lining up. I couldn't find the blue dress I 
was told to where, so I started crying. Sr. Naomi came over to me, 
livid, hit me so hard I fell to the floor, she hiked up her long dress 
and started kicking me over and over. I was crying hard as she yelled 
at me to shut up, you stupid good-for-nothing Indian. I was smart 
enough to know you don't treat someone like a dog, something less than 
human. We just wanted the time to be over so we could go home to loving 
parents. I've had male cousins tell me they were sexually abused by the 
nuns. Today they drink heavily to numb out the pain. I finally returned 
home in the summer, but in August, a Social Worker came to the house 
and said we were being neglected. Our parents had split up, there was 
domestic violence and alcoholism in the family. We were placed with a 
White, Catholic family in Baraga, MI. where our culture again was kept 
from us, they treated us like we were White children but at school, the 
other children treated us like Indians, we faced a prejudiced 
community. Our adopted dad was also alcoholic and began sexually 
abusing us, which lasted for years. The US government, in the 1960s had 
started the Indian Adoption Project to also help assimilate Native 
children. This was called the 60s Scoop, before the Indian Child 
Welfare Act in 1978 became law. It was all done for the Land Grab and 
resources, they used the Churches to force the assimilation through the 
boarding schools, destroying our culture, breaking up the family unit, 
and abused thousands of innocent Indigenous children. This was cultural 
genocide. How did it impact my life? It has taken most of my life, 
years of counseling, searching for answers, developing addictions, 
depression, divorces, to find myself again. It has been, a painful 
process to look at what happened. I've had to build my confidence, 
regain my dignity, and grow courage to tell my story. Not only was my 
language, culture, and identity stolen from me but so was my childhood. 
My real parents, whom I got to know somewhat, have been gone for years. 
My siblings are all gone, I have a half-sister that I do not know very 
well and we have an estranged relationship, I'm still meeting relatives 
I didn't know I had. But my older brother, Luther Brunk, a former US 
Marine, also attended Holy Childhood for 3 years, committed suicide at 
the age of 25, alcohol related. My other brother, Melvin Brunk, 
attended Holy Childhood, served in the US Army, was killed in a fatal 
car wreck, alcohol related. My younger sister Celia Mundell, attended 
Holy Childhood, developed diabetes, had addictions, passed away from 
Leukemia in 2018, she was only 57 years old. Our youngest sister Leona 
Brunk did not attend boarding school but our father and her siblings 
all did. She had addictions, developed diabetes also, had a leg 
partially amputated due to the diabetes, walked on in 2016, at the age 
of 53. They are all gone, I'm the last one and I often wondered, Why 
Me? Today I know why, I am their voice, they could not talk about 
boarding school or the trauma handed down from our ancestors. I am here 
to say that's what killed them, the US government and the Church broke 
their hearts and killed their spirits. Captain Richard Henry Pratt 
said, ``Kill the Indian, Save the Man,'' they killed the Indian but 
they didn't save the man in my family. My story is the same as others. 
We need to heal from this pain. We need the truth to be told, the US 
and the Churches need to own up to what they've done. There needs to be 
Confession before Forgiveness. We need answers, how many Indigenous 
children died, where are they buried, how did they die? It is a 
shameful history and Indigenous people do not own that shame but we 
continue to feel the impact from that dark period. Intergenerational 
trauma may be passed down through our DNA but so is our ancestor's 
resiliency. We are taking back what was stolen, our language, our 
culture, our spirit, but much work still needs to be done. If there is 
a hell, we've lived it, if there is a heaven we want to go there, if 
there is to be justice, then start by instituting the Truth, Healing, & 
Reconciliation Commission to fully investigate and address the U.S. 
Boarding School policy and its impact on the Indigenous Peoples.
    Miigwetch & Thank You,
                                 ______
                                 
                                            gkisedtanamoogk
                                                      July 14, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I greet You. I am gkisedtanamoogk, from the Wampanoag Community of 
Mashpee, located on cape cod, massachusetts.
    From 2012-2015 I had the great honor of being one of five 
Commissioners seated on the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth 
and Reconciliation Commission, mandated by the Wabanaki Chiefs and the 
Governor of the state of Maine to investigate, report, and recommend 
actions regarding findings relative to the condition of Indigenous 
Children in the Maine Child welfare systems of the state. During our 
tenure we heard testimonies from Wabanaki Community members, and state 
welfare officials, state lawyers and judges. The Maine Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission, the first of its kind in the United States, 
recorded the tremendous impact public state and federal policy held 
over Indigenous Peoples (see: Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth 
and Reconciliation Commission--Maine-Wabanaki REACH 
mainewabanakireach.org)
    Additionally, I am married to Mi'kmaq Woman, Miigam'agan, living in 
her Mi'kmaq Community of Burnt Church, who was forced to attend Indian 
Day School, as her parents and family members, community were forced to 
attend canada's residential schools. I speak of this as testimony to 
the horrors and legacy of what federal policies have done to Indigenous 
Nations and Peoples, and in p[articular, Children for several decades 
and afterwards. these legacies still impact Communities and families.
    I deeply support every effort to acknowledge the full truth of 
these legacies, to reconcile the long-overdue resolution and 
reconciliation required between Indigenous Nations and the settler 
colonial nation-states of north america. Our mutual need for this 
reconciliation and the future that awaits us both, must be manifested 
if life in these lands and indeed the world is to survive. My heart 
aches for all that has happened over this long, often brutal history 
and relationship between our two peoples and generally how Peoples of 
Color are treated, particularly in canada and the united states. This 
is not the life that I want for my Grandbabies and children from all 
ethnicities. Truly our rational, intellectual minds and Hearts can do 
far better at forming a loving, embracing society, one in which equity 
and freedom exists for all People and all living Beings.
                                 ______
                                 
                                             Johnny Sanchez
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    Hello Chairman Schatz, Chairwoman Murkowski, and members of the 
United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. I live on Wabanaki 
land in what is now called Orono, Maine. Before Maine, I was raised in 
Ohkay Owingeh, NM--one of the 19 pueblo tribes along the Rio Grande. I 
am writing today to strongly urge all of you to support S. 2907.
    The indigenous peoples of this country, from the tribes of Maine to 
my own in New Mexico, have deeply been affected by Indian Boarding 
Schools and the associated federal policies. Today, our society tries 
to distance itself from the horrors of this country's past. However, 
that is not a path forward. To date, there has never been an accounting 
of the number of children forced to attend these schools, the number of 
children who were abused, died, or went missing while at these schools, 
or of the schools' long-term effects on the children that survived.
    People cannot truly heal from these types of atrocities without 
real reconciliation from all involved parties. A formal investigation, 
with input from tribes as well as survivors and their families is a 
necessary step to move on from many of the harms of forced 
assimilation.
    I truly hope that you will support this important step to ensure 
that this terrible chapter in U.S. history will be honestly documented 
and indigenous survivors will be heard and allowed to process and heal 
from what they were forced to experience.
                                 ______
                                 
                                          Susie Silversmith
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing as a U.S. Indian Boarding School survivor. We need to 
find all our relatives from the Indian boarding schools that are still 
missing. I fully urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to 
support and pass S. 2907 in hopes that boarding school survivors, 
tribal representatives, along with experts in education, health, and 
children and families can come together to account for the long lasting 
impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy.
    I am so thankful that you are working towards finding our missing 
Native American children and to work towards healing the suffering 
caused during this period of U.S. history.
                                 ______
                                 
                                      The Wabanaki Alliance
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    The Wabanaki Alliance was founded in June 2020 by the five 
federally recognized tribes in what we today call the State of Maine, 
the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi'kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy 
Tribe at Motahkmikuk, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik, and Penobscot 
Nation. We created the Wabanaki Alliance to educate the people of Maine 
about the need for securing the sovereignty of the tribes in Maine.
    Each one of our communities has been profoundly impacted by Indian 
Boarding Schools. Wabanaki survivors of these ``schools'' have shared 
the horrors of what they experienced. When as children they should have 
been educated, nurtured, and protected they instead were abused and 
dehumanized in an evil effort to strip them of their indigeneity.
    Wabanaki Tribal Governments in conjunction with the State of Maine 
conducted the first truth and reconciliation commission in the history 
of the world in which Indigenous and settler sovereigns deliberately 
decided to create a process to examine a painful history, the 
experience of Wabanaki children in the child welfare system. During 
that two- and half--year initiative, the Maine Wabanaki-State Child 
Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission accepted testimony from 
hundreds of people. The Commission prioritized people providing 
testimony in a manner that would be best for them striving to minimize 
people's trauma. As Congress considers S.2907/H.R. 5444, we urge that 
same prioritization to supporting victims of the Indian Boarding 
Schools who may testify.
    The Wabanaki Alliance believes in the need for reconciliation 
between Indigenous Peoples and settlers. However, settlers too often 
want to advance to the reconciliation stage before truth telling is 
complete. We urge the Committee on Indian Affairs and all members of 
Congress to ensure the authorizing language for S. 2907/H.R. 5444 
supports the best truth gathering process in a reasonable amount of 
time recognizing the opportunity to hear directly from the victims of 
Indian Boarding Schools diminishes each day. The integrity of the 
research and truth gathering will be essential to the Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. succeeding. 
As stated in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission final report, People don't remember what 
happened as to how we lost our culture. The boarding schools that the 
government sanctioned, the mentality of taking children out of the home 
to enforce assimilation. People don't remember that today. (Beyond the 
Mandate: Continuing the Conversation p. 12)
    People must remember and the horrific chapter in U.S. Indian policy 
should be completely documented. Genuine and much-needed healing 
depends on the completeness of the truth telling.
                                 ______
                                 
             Nate Smith, National Outdoor Leadership School
                                                      July 22, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I write in support of S. 2907, which would establish a Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. I 
write to you from the perspective of an educator in two separate 
fields, and a resident of the state of Maine who has a connection to 
Chairwoman Murkowski's state of Alaska.
    During the summer months, I am a field instructor for the National 
Outdoor Leadership School. I have recently returned from a month-long 
expedition in the Healy mountains, the ancestral homeland of the Ahtna 
people. Aside from some social trails, a few airstrips, and hunting 
cabins, much of the landscape is empty of human presence; it becomes a 
fruitful environment to teach students about outdoor leadership and 
risk management in remote areas. But the landscape there, like all of 
North America, also tells a story of forced removal; I know that 
today's ``wilderness'' bears a history of traumatic experiences for 
countless individuals.
    During the school year, I teach secondary economics, government, 
and history at a high school in Maine. I can reflect back upon my own 
high school experience, which did not include much about the history of 
cultural genocide committed by colonists in Maine against the Wabanaki 
people; learning more about this history as an adult was a wake-up 
call, and I feel the burden of teaching accurate history to my 
students. I know of this history because Maine conducted a truth and 
reconciliation commission, among the first of its kind.
    On July 4th, I crossed over a high mountain pass near the Yanert 
river. That evening, as I sat with students above treeline, reflecting 
on the celebration of US independence, we spoke of our connections to 
country and land. I am painfully aware that my connection to place is 
overwritten upon someone else's, and that the United States committed 
genocide in the colonization of its current territory; I am ashamed of 
the actions committed by the United States. I also know that the 
conversation that is beginning today, namely, what is the right 
relationship now between colonizers and indigenous people, is new to 
human history, and I am proud to live in a place where that 
conversation is growing, and proud that the United States is taking 
steps towards right relationship.
    I am proud that Maine led the way in establishing a truth and 
reconciliation commission. I hope to be proud that the United States 
followed suit; we are not alone in the world in needing to have this 
conversation, and having committed some of the worst atrocities of this 
kind, we are in a position to lead the way in opening the door to this 
process. I hope that Congress feels the same responsibility to truth 
and accuracy as I do in teaching history, and that they create a 
process that centers the voices of the victims in the truth process, 
dwelling there as long as needed before asking them about 
reconciliation.
    Thank you for your time.
                                 ______
                                 
           Julie Sa'Leit'Sa Kwina Johnson, (Enrolled Lummi)
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am writing on behalf of the Native American Caucus of the 
Washington State Democrats to urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian 
Affairs to support and pass S. 2907--Truth and Healing Commission on 
Indian Boarding School Policies Act out of Committee. This legislation 
will create a Congressional Commission to locate and analyze the 
records from the over four hundred known Indian boarding schools that 
operated across the country. This Congressional Commission will bring 
together boarding school survivors, tribal representatives, along with 
experts in education, health, and children and families to account for 
the long-lasting impacts of the federal Indian boarding school policy. 
S. 2907 will also be an important additional measure to support the 
U.S. Department of the Interior's Federal Indian Boarding School 
Initiative.
    My mother Sarah Elsie Lewis and my Uncle Arnold McKay attended the 
federal government Tulalip Indian Boarding School and both worked long 
hours each day to maintain the school. My mother worked in the Health 
Center and my Uncle, cleaned and cut wood to keep the school warm.
    One day, my mother's cousin got caught speaking the Lummi language 
and the rule was ``All the students in the classroom had to line up and 
`hit' the person who spoke their native language.'' So, all 27 girls 
lined up and slapped our cousin with a belt. . .my mother was number 
28, she took the belt and ``slapped the teacher as hard as she could.'' 
Mom was kicked out of the school in the 8th grade. This was one of our 
bedtime stories my mother shared. . .So growing up. . .we were very 
careful ``never'' to speak our language in front of or near a non-
Indian. We were taught not to speak about our culture, our traditions 
or our language in front of any non-Indian.
    I don't think we all realized that this historv has left many scars 
on our minds and heart of our Native People today. This is the first 
time; I'm speaking publicly about the beating my mother endeared. I've 
only shared this history with a few people, who are related to our 
family.
    I'm so thankful you are working hard to heal the scars of our 
people. Thank you for helping to pass Senate Bill 2907.
    Hy'shque Si-am. ``Thank you. Leaders.''
                                 ______
                                 
                                             Laura Rauwerda
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I am the daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter of 
European Immigrants that came to this great country. I have immense 
respect for the Native Americans who suffered, died and were driven 
from their homeland to make way for others to exploit the resources 
here. Our history is one that has expressed unjust practices for the 
greater good throughout its existence and it is time for all Americans 
to recognize that the Indian Boarding Schools were inhumane, cruel and 
culture robbing. It is long overdue that the original Natives of this 
great land are given truth and justice for crimes we committed against 
them.
    As an American citizen, I support this Act.
                                 ______
                                 
                                                 Debra Delk
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    I went to Holy Childhood of Jesus School in Harbor Springs 
Michigan. Was there for 5 years along with my younger sister. And our 
mother before us. We were locked in closets, locked in infirmary 
without supper. Made to kneel on rice outside the nuns bedroom door all 
night long. Physically abused infront of all the girls, mentally abused 
by being told we would never amount to anything and going to hell. 
After hearing this every year you start believing it! We were Chased 
around the dormitory in the middle of the night with the nuns being 
dressed as bears. Because up North Indian medicine was called: Bear 
Walk That alone traumatized me! So bad that I wouldn't take my children 
to any of our Pow-Wow's. Until they were adults.
                                 ______
                                 
    I am a survivor of Cut Bank Boarding School, Browning, Montana; 
Concho Indian Boarding School, Oklahoma; and the Institute of American 
Indian Arts, Santa Fe. I survived Indian boarding schools from age 6 
until 20 years old. I have a story to tell if anybody is listening.

        aboriginally yours,
             Alfred Young Man, Chippewa-Cree Tribe, Montana
                                 ______
                                 
                                       Faith Action Network
                                                      July 21, 2022
Dear Chairman Schatz and Vice Chairman Murkowski:

    We are writing to express our full support for S. 2907--Truth and 
Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. As a multi-
faith organization working across Washington State, we represent more 
than 164 faith communities and thousands of individual advocates of 
faith and conscience. Together we call upon the Senate to take action 
on S. 2907.
    Faith Action Network facilitates an Interfaith Network with 
Indigenous Communities (INIC) that seeks to address the harm caused by 
faith communities involved in our nation's tragic history of Native 
American Boarding Schools. We recognize the history of the United 
States is marked with Christian-based denominations' complicity in the 
cultural genocide of indigenous people. While these atrocities are 
making headlines now, tribal communities have been testifying for 
decades of the forced removal, assimilation, abuse, and death 
perpetrated through these boarding schools.
    As people of faith, we know that our complicity and lament must 
lead to action. INIC issued the statement signed by over 160 faith 
leaders and organizations including Pacific Northwest bishops, calling 
for a truth-telling and healing process and endorsing Secretary Deb 
Haaland's investigation. Moving S. 2907 forward is a critical step in 
the process of addressing this injustice.
    We support bringing together a commission to investigate the 
lasting and ongoing effects of these boarding schools, and make 
recommendations to:

   Discontinue the removal of indigenous children from their 
        families and tribal communities by state social service 
        departments, foster care, and adoption agencies.

   Protect unmarked graves and accompanying land protections.

   Support repatriation and identify the tribal communities 
        from which children were taken.

   Include subpoena power in the bill to ensure accountability 
        and sharing of church records.

    Passing S. 2907 is a critical step towards doing what is right. 
Faith Action Network, faith leaders, multi-faith communities, and 
advocates of faith and conscience across Washington urge you to take 
action.
    Please contact us if we can be of any assistance in speaking with 
our WA Congressional delegation.

        Sincerely,
                         Elise DeGooyer, Executive Director
                                 ______
                                 
            CITY AND BOROUGH OF SITKA RESOLUTION NO. 2022-20
a resolution of the city and borough of sitka supporting the passage of 
 us senate resolution 2907, the truth and healing commission on indian 
boarding school policies in the united states act, and encouraging the 
 commission to come to tlingit aani as part of the commission's search 
                  for truth and the process of healing
    WHEREAS, a 2021 report from the Department of Interior 
investigating Indian Boarding Schools, it was found that between 1819 
through the 1970s, the United States implemented policies establishing 
and supporting Indian boarding schools across the nation. The purpose 
of federal Indian boarding schools was to culturally assimilate 
American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children by 
forcibly removing them from their families and Indian Tribes, Alaska 
Native Villages, and Native Hawaiian Community; and,

    WHEREAS, the report found Indian child removal coincided with 
Indian territorial dispossession. The conditions experienced by 
attendees included manual labor and discouraging or preventing American 
Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages, religions, and 
cultural beliefs; and,

    WHEREAS, children attended federal Indian boarding schools, many 
endured physical and emotional abuse and, in some cases, died; and,

    WHEREAS, many lives were lost, yet other lives were saved by 
boarding schools in the past, the assembly recognizes federal boarding 
school policies of past eras focused on assimilation and other harmful 
practices, and these policies caused harm for many; and

    WHEREAS, from 1819 to 1969, the federal Indian boarding school 
system consisted of 408 federal schools across 37 states or then 
territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii. 
The investigation identified marked or unmarked burial sites at 
approximately 53 different schools across the system; and,

    WHEREAS, this report lays the groundwork for the continued work of 
the Interior Department to address the intergenerational trauma created 
by policies supporting the historical federal Indian boarding school 
system; and,

    WHEREAS, the report reflects an extensive and first-ever inventory 
of federally operated Indian boarding schools, including summary 
profiles of each school and maps of general locations of schools in 
current states; and,

    WHEREAS, the first boarding school established by Americans in 
Alaska occurred at Sitka in 1878 by Presbyterian missionaries, but in 
the decades that followed boarding schools opened across Alaska; and,

    WHEREAS, the courts upheld the rights of Tlingit families initially 
(District Court case file for United States vs. Sheldon Jackson in 1885 
that documents a Tlingit family and individual's attempt to free their 
children from the Presbyterian Boarding School at Sitka. This case 
concerns how the boarding school had claimed legal custody of the 
children attending the school and would not let families visit their 
children. In this case a Tlingit family and individual each issued a 
writ of habeas corpus, arguing the children were being held against 
their will by the school. Judge Ward McAllister ruled in favor of the 
Tlingit family and individual, allowed the children to return home, and 
informed the school they could not claim full custody of children 
attending the school.), only to later rescind those rights in 1886 
(District Court case file that documents a Tlingit mother's attempt to 
free her child from the Presbyterian Boarding School at Sitka. This 
case emerged because the school had claimed custody of the children 
attending the school and would not let families visit their children, 
even though the school was ordered by the court to stop such actions in 
1885. In this case Can-ah-couqua issued a writ of habeas corpus, 
arguing her son was being held against his will by the school. The case 
file contains a letter from her son asking to be released and returned 
to his family. Judge Ward McAllister initially heard part of the case, 
but missionary Sheldon Jackson lobbied for a new judge. Lafayette 
Dawson was installed as the new judge in Sitka and he eventually ruled 
against Can-ahcouqua and in favor of the school, arguing that the 
boarding school needed authority to carry out its educational 
mission.); and,

    WHEREAS, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies in the United States Act, legislation that seeks healing for 
stolen Native children and their communities has been reintroduced in 
Congress; and,

    WHEREAS, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on 
June 22, 2022 with testimony from Senator Warren, the Honorable Deb 
Haaland, and several members from tribal nations greatly impacted by 
the forced removal and education of their children, and a vote on 
Senate Bill 2907 is expected.

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Assembly of the City and 
Borough of Sitka that the community stands in full support of the 
passage of Senate Bill 2907 Truth and Healing Commission by committee, 
the full Senate, the House of Representatives and signed by the 
President of the United States.

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the community of Sitka offers to host 
Commissioners on Tlingit Aanf immediately upon passage of the bill.

    PASSED, APPROVED, AND ADOPTED by the Assembly of the City and 
Borough of Sitka, Alaska on this 26th day of July, 2022.

        *A few hand written testimonies, articles, and photos, have 
        been retained in the Committee files.*
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Brian Schatz to 
                           Hon. Kirk Francis
    Question 1. The Committee has heard concerns that the definition of 
``Indian boarding school'' in Interior's report may not be broad enough 
to capture the range of institutions that participated in the boarding 
school system. Do you agree? If so, how can the definition be improved?
    Answer. I initially liked the definition of ``Indian Boarding 
School'' in Interior's report and first thought it was broad enough to 
capture the range of institutions that boarded Native American children 
and sought to assimilate them. But, since the Committee's hearing, I 
have learned of schools that may not be covered by Interior's 
definition. I think for purposes of S. 2907, the legislation should 
include Interior's definition as a baseline for which schools are 
covered, but provide flexibility to the Commission to examine any 
schools that were intended in policy or practice to assimilate Native 
American children, regardless of who funded such schools or operated 
them. The federal policy was to assimilate Native American children, 
and that policy and practice by the federal government encouraged state 
governments, churches and private citizens to do the same. Thus, the 
primary goal of S. 2907 should be to cover all schools that had a 
policy or practice of trying to assimilate Native American children. I 
do not think we fully know the extent of these schools until the 
Commission is able to conduct its work.

    Question 2. How do you see the work of the Department of the 
Interior being integrated into the work of the Commission proposed in 
S. 2907?
    Answer. I see the Interior Department's work as being useful to the 
Commission established by S. 2907, but really only serving as a 
starting point. Interior's focus is on reviewing federal documents and 
schools that were primarily operated by the federal government. There 
were so many more schools that sought to implement the federal policy 
of assimilating Native American children. The Interior Department's 
current work is really merely laying the foundation for which the 
Commission can begin its work. The Commission's work for S. 2907 is 
much broader than what the Interior Department is currently doing. It 
will be useful to the Commission, but the Interior Department is 
limited in the amount of time and energy it can focus on this effort. 
Having a commissioner and staff dedicated to this effort is what is 
needed in order for a comprehensive review to be conducted and concrete 
recommendations for how to start mitigating the harmful impacts of the 
Boarding Schools.

    Question 3. In addition to incorporating federal native language 
programs into a truth and healing process, are there other related 
areas, like education, that should be incorporated into a healing 
process and receive additional support to meet that goal?
    Answer. One of the main things I have seen serving as a tribal 
leader for more than 20 years are the number of Penobscot people coming 
home to learn their identity as a Penobscot person and to connect or 
reconnect to family and culture. Some of these people are enrolled 
members, who moved away from the community when they were children or 
whose parents enrolled them although they did not live in our 
community. Some of them have never been enrolled and are just now 
trying to learn what means to be Penobscot. Most of them do not know 
the language, do not know the culture or the lands, and they come back 
or come for the first time hungry to learn their history, culture and 
language, and to learn what it means to be Penobscot. Many also want to 
know the history and experiences of their parents and grandparents; why 
their parents never mentioned being Native American, why their parents 
were guarded and distant, or why their parents suffered from substance 
abuse. Unfortunately, these individuals are not always welcomed with 
open arms by those who grew up in the Penobscot community, and 
sometimes are greeted by hesitant Penobscot people who are cautious 
about why they came home. But these individuals have a birth right to 
be in our community, on our lands, and to learn our language and 
culture. And, I believe the federal government has an obligation to try 
to restore to them their identity, language and culture, and family 
that was taken away by the federal government. I do not want to get out 
in front of the Commission's work in developing recommendations for 
mitigating the assimilationist policies of Boarding Schools, but I do 
think that more than language programs need to be a part of the 
mitigation policies of Boarding Schools. For example:

   The Commission's work will be a traumatic experience for 
        many who participate and engage in it. There needs to be mental 
        health support any and all participants, and it should be 
        support that goes beyond just a meeting or two. Support for 
        those who participate and engage in the Commission's process 
        should be available for the entire term of the Commission, and 
        maybe longer.

   The policies and practices of the Boarding Schools 
        contributed to the intergenerational trauma that plagues many 
        tribal communities, survivors and descendants of survivors 
        today. There needs to be more federal support focused on 
        mitigating intergenerational trauma for all tribal communities, 
        survivors and descendants of survivors of Indian Boarding 
        Schools. One of the things I have learned is that many 
        descendants are not enrolled in a tribal government. In many 
        instances, the assimilation policies of the Indian Boarding 
        Schools worked, and those individuals never returned to their 
        tribal communities. In some instances, Native individuals who 
        assimilated became ashamed of their tribal cultures and 
        languages and never spoke of them to their descendants. This 
        has created another form of trauma for descendants who now feel 
        lost in society and have no knowledge of their ancestors, 
        culture or history.

   More assistance needs to be provided to tribal governments 
        to strengthen Native culture, which includes language but also 
        traditional cultural practices.

   More federal assistance needs to be provided to help 
        individuals return to their tribal communities. Indian Boarding 
        Schools were a form of relocation and assimilation. In order to 
        reverse the impacts of those policies, the federal government 
        needs to help Native American individuals return to their 
        tribal communities. Specific programs should be established to 
        help survivors and descendants of survivors of Boarding Schools 
        return home. This would include assistance with relocation 
        costs and housing.

    Question 4. You testified that while the Maine Wabanaki-State Child 
Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission was generally a success, it 
also created challenges that required the Penobscot Tribe to provide 
additional resources for survivors and Commissioners that extended 
beyond the time-frame of the Commission. What additional resources 
should Congress be mindful of as it considers S. 2907?
    Answer. Both Commissioners and participants experience trauma from 
the experience of going through a truth and reconciliation process. It 
is important that people planning to participate in the process 
understand that they may experience trauma and learn to be trauma-
informed. There needs to be transparency up front with those who 
participate and engage in the commission process that old wounds may be 
opened and new ones may be formed. Fact finding and truth revealing can 
be painful for many people. People need to understand up front that 
there may be some trauma, but that there will also be resources 
available not just on the day they are testifying but also after. The 
more individuals and tribal government leaders understand the 
commission process ahead of time, the better they can plan for it. And, 
additional federal resources need to be made available. Mental and 
behavioral health resources need to be available during the Commission 
process, but also after. The Commission process is really focused on 
uncovering the truth and acknowledging it, and documenting it. But 
there then needs to be a process to mitigate the harms, and that is a 
longer term process. Reading the initial draft report and final report 
will be traumatizing for some people. The reports will be the first 
time there is a culmination of research and testimonies into one 
document that will allow those who have heard the stories all of their 
life actually see it for the first time in writing and as a part of a 
systemic policy or system. This will be traumatizing for some people. 
Previously unknown facts and circumstances will likely be uncovered 
during the commission process. And there should be some acknowledgement 
of that up front, during the process and after the final report is 
released. Those who live in or near tribal communities need to know 
that additional mental and behavioral health resources will be 
available and how to access them. Those people who live outside of 
their tribal communities need to know how to obtain mental and 
behavioral health resources if they experience trauma from 
participating in the commission process. Additionally, having 
counselors and traditional healers available to help individuals 
navigate their experiences is helpful.
    Participants in the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth & 
Reconciliation Commission provided testimony to the Commission that 
reopened wounds from past experiences that many people had tried to 
forget and didn't want to remember. The priority was to adequately 
prepare and support people throughout the process by promoting healing 
and restoration by engaging professionals and building the capacity of 
community members to listen with compassion and offer comfort to each 
other. Most participants chose to have their testimony available to the 
public without anonymity, even if they hadn't shared their story with 
family. When asked why, the consistent reply was ``I want people to 
learn from my story so it doesn't happen to any other children.'' 
Wabanaki values of generosity, reciprocity, and care of the children 
made this truth seeking work possible. I think the Commission 
established by S. 2907 needs to have these type of resources available 
to it and the tribal communities and urban Indian communities in which 
the Commission does its work needs to be adequately prepared.

    Question 5. Can you describe how the Maine Wabanaki-State Child 
Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission developed and formalized a 
process that was meaningful to all participants?
    Answer. The Governor of Maine and Chiefs of the Wabanaki Nations 
each nominated individuals to serve on the Commission Selection Panel 
and this Selection Panel chose the five members of the Commission by 
consensus. The State and Tribal governments authorized the Commission 
to investigate Wabanaki experiences with the State child welfare agency 
and to make recommendations that promote individual, relational, 
systemic and cultural reconciliation. The State legislature was not 
involved in the creation of the Commission, but Secretary of State 
Matthew Dunlap served as a Commissioner. Two of the Commissioners were 
Indigenous but were not Wabanaki. While this decision to not have any 
Wabanaki on the Commission was initially met with mixed reviews, this 
composition of the Commission provided a safe space for Wabanaki 
participants to share their stories.
    I think having Commissioners from both the Native communities and 
the State government was helpful, but it only worked because the 
Commissioners from the State side were really compassionate and 
invested in the process. It was important for the Native American 
participants to see people serving on the Commission from the State 
government and to see that the State government was invested in the 
process and the results. It showed that the process was more than just 
Native Americans talking to Native Americans. People really felt like 
the Commission process was going to result in changes, and it did. The 
most significant change has been ensuring maximum participation by 
every Wabanaki government in all aspects of State child welfare cases 
involving Wabanaki children by implementing a standard of co-case 
management. Carrying out the goals of truth, healing, and change, the 
Commission process provided an opportunity for both sides to learn the 
history of forced assimilation of Wabanaki people and to share their 
experiences and perspectives to better understand each other and the 
system in which they operate, which allows for shared accountability 
moving forward as it relates to child welfare issues.

    Question 6. How did the structure of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child 
Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission contribute to its overall 
success?
    Answer. What I think made the Commission successful was: (1) the 
resolve of the tribal and State child welfare workers to keep showing 
up to make changes no matter how difficult the process became; (2) the 
commitment from the State Governor and Wabanaki governments in the 
Commission process; (3) the focus of the Commission's investigation was 
specific to one topic; and (4) the Commission focused its work on the 
voices of survivors and their descendants while compiling factual 
information about the child-welfare system. The Commission did a good 
job of transforming their investigation into a conversation and 
presenting their findings as a matter of fact, without judgment.

    Question 7. What additional steps can Congress take to ensure a 
U.S.-based truth and healing process is meaningful and long-lasting? Do 
you have specific suggestions on how to incorporate these ideas into S. 
2907?
    Answer. I think it is important for Native Americans to feel like 
the federal government is invested in the S. 2907 Commission process. 
As the Commission performs its work, it would be good for senior level 
federal government officials to express continuous support for the 
process, without regard for what the final report may or not conclude. 
Additionally, Native Americans need to feel like there is a good faith 
commitment to try to implement the findings and recommendations of the 
Commission, no matter what they may be. Building trust in the 
Commission process is important, but it is also important to build 
trust in whatever comes after the Commission's final report and that 
there will be action after the final report is issued.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Brian Schatz to 
                           Sandra White Hawk
    Question 1. How important is the Commission's subpoena power to the 
effectiveness of S. 2907? What challenges would the Commission face if 
it were to operate without this authority?
    Answer. We would hope that private institutions that operated 
boarding institutions, as well as institutions that hold boarding 
school records and actively benefit from them would be eager to share 
their collections with the commission. The reality is that we are 
unlikely to see a situation where every collection of boarding school 
records will be immediately made available. There are a variety of 
factors why boarding school records would not be immediately produced: 
they haven't been cataloged, they are disorganized, or curators/owners 
are unwilling.
    It is for these reasons that subpoena power is of central 
importance to the work of the commission. The Department of the 
Interior's first volume of the Federal Boarding School Truth Initiative 
report recently identified 408 federally supported and/or federally 
funded boarding school institutions, of which many were operated by 
non-federal entities. The resources that the government of the United 
States utilized toward the operation, maintenance, and sustainability 
of these 408 institutions place a level of responsibility with the 
federal government that demands the ability to compel documents to be 
brought forward in this commission. Simply put, United States taxpayers 
funded much of the Indian boarding school system, and these documents 
should be able to be retrieved, as they were created utilizing 
government funds.

    Question 2. You work closely with boarding school survivors and 
have seen first-hand how reliving these stories can be traumatizing for 
both survivors and staff. Are there best practices for facilitating 
these types of engagements and how those discussions should be framed? 
Should these practices be included in S. 2907? If so, how?
    Answer. There are absolutely best practices that can and should be 
brought into the process to care for boarding school survivors, their 
families and staff. It is also essential to remember that with over 400 
boarding school institutions and nearly 578 federally recognized tribes 
in the United States that there exist different practices, protocols, 
and methods that Native people can recognize as healing and 
restorative. Given this diversity, it is really important that the 
advisory council of the commission, as well as the commissioners 
themselves, be able to reflect the diversity of Indian Country 
throughout the process of the commission. Generally speaking, I am 
referring to a diversity of traditional healers and licensed 
counselors, who are capable of supporting Native people while 
minimizing the harm that sharing one's story in this setting can often 
provoke. Lastly, an adequate amount of resources to get this done is 
likely the most important. There are skilled Native practitioners who 
can support in powerful ways. It should be the role of the advisory 
council and the commissioners--a diverse body of Native people-to be 
able to select healers and counselors to support this process in a good 
way.

    Question 3. You testified that that S. 2907 builds on lessons from 
Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Can you provide examples 
of how those lessons are incorporated into S. 2907?
    Answer. Subpoena power was not included in the Canadian TRC. 
Documents are still being found and brought forth by private/Christian 
institutions to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to be 
included in their digital archive. These documents are essential in 
identifying where our children are. When the final report was published 
in 2015, an estimated 6000 children deaths were identified. Since the 
finding of the 215 children buried in a mass grave in Kamloops, Canada, 
it has been estimated that the total number of children deaths lie 
between 10,000 and 25,000. Subpoenaed documents could have identified 
these children far before the release of the TRC report. First Nation 
leaders have expressed that having subpoena power would have guaranteed 
they could have received access to records from those unwilling to 
voluntarily share their documents.

    Question 4. In your testimony, you acknowledged the importance of 
creating multi-generational spaces for sharing and healing. Does S. 
2907 do this? If so, how?
    Answer. S. 2907 is critical, as it invites Tribal leaders in Indian 
Country to come together to make sure that multi-generational spaces 
are honored in this commission process. These kinds of spaces are 
central to all that we do, to make sure that the next generations can 
continue to grow our Nations and our communities in strong ways. S. 
2907 allows these processes to unfold in a way that is consistent with 
our lifeways. Historical trauma does not stop with the boarding school 
survivors, it is passed on to their child, who passed it on to their 
children. In 2022, we are still seeing the negative impacts on native 
children who did not know their grandparents went to Indian Boarding 
Schools. These schools broke our elders and the generations who 
followed them.

    Question 5. Based on your experience, what steps should Congress 
take to ensure survivors, their families, and their communities are 
supported following the release of the Commission's Report? Do you have 
specific suggestions on how to incorporate these ideas into S. 2907?
    Answer. Most immediately, boarding school survivors and families 
should have appropriate access to healers and counselors throughout the 
process and even for a time after they have shared. The wounds of 
boarding school run deep and the impacts of this trauma cannot be 
tokenized nor trivialized. Congress will need to listen to boarding 
school survivors and respond with swift and decisive action. There 
isn't one Native community in the US that hasn't been affected by 
boarding schools. The moment that Congress receives a final report 
including recommendations from the commission will be a moment that 
demands their response in action. This Commission cannot be a symbolic 
talking space that merely hears from survivors, documents the stories 
and moves on to the next issue. There should be therapists who 
understand intergenerational trauma, proactive training made available 
before the report comes out for tribal citizens to learn about how 
intergenerational traumas impacts them, and access to cultural 
ceremonies. Funding for traditional wellness centers/programs should be 
provided to each Tribe and urban Native centers.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Brian Schatz to 
                       Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong
    Question 1. You testified that, in addition to large public 
hearings, community and individual-centered approaches should be 
considered as part of any reconciliation process. Can you provide 
concrete examples of how S. 2907 can be amended to incorporate this 
approach?
    Answer. As a predicate, it should be noted that forced assimilation 
has resulted, among other conditions, in gender-based violence, 
houselessness, health and mental health issues, and generalized 
disconnection. For example, there may very well be a one-to-one 
correlation between a survivor of sexual assault and a specific 
boarding school-related trauma to that survivor or to an ancestor of 
that survivor. Many Native peoples are already in relationship to 
community groups, organizations, programs, and healers or have ``local 
knowledge'' of these service providers even if they aren't specific 
clients. Publicity about the boarding schools and the investigation 
will magnify existing trauma.
    S. 2907 can provide for testimony, stories, documentary and oral 
history evidence to be facilitated and curated by indigenous groups, 
organizations, and programs and teams of indigenous in partnership with 
non-indigenous organizations and programs on behalf of and in addition 
to efforts by the Commission and the Department of Interior. This will 
need $.
    The legislation should be clear that health, mental health, healing 
and restorative work will occur on a parallel basis with the truth-
telling and evidentiary collection, including in advance of and in the 
wake of official proceedings. In this regard, there are a vast variety 
of groups, organizations and programs that are already in relationship 
with people who will be the most impacted. Funding will be needed to 
increase the reach and level of programming. Consider authorization and 
funding for multi-year restorative demonstration projects. Innovations 
will be needed to reach people who are in urban areas and in rural 
settings that are not a part of or in proximity to Native communities, 
reservations, or programs. Consider authorization and funding for these 
specific innovations. It should be noted that testimony, stories, and 
documentation may very well be collected as part of care and healing 
work.
    Publicity will awaken memories and needs. Is the hotline intended 
to be the primary means by which the unassociated Native person 
connects? Is the hotline a referral service? A one-stop truth-telling 
and story-gathering center? The purpose of the hotline should be 
clarified. Hot-lines are an on-ramp, not an endpoint. For a hotline to 
work moderately well, it needed to be in coordination with multiple 
services and resources on the ground, complicated here by geography, 
culture, generation differences, and governance jurisdictions.

    Question 2. Do you have suggestions on how to ensure S. 2907 is not 
duplicative of the Department of the Interior's ongoing efforts through 
its Initiative?
    Answer. Consider a separate section in S. 2907 that establishes/
recognizes the Department of Interior's initiative, including the 
primary scope of the Department's work. A practical sorting out should 
occur using the legislation as the canvas. Some of the Commission's 
scope may be designated as led by the Department and submitted to the 
Commission. Within this section, there should also be a naming of 
agencies that would take significant roles within the all-of-government 
approach that Secretary Haaland spoke to. Among those agencies may be 
DHHS (including CDCP), DOE, HUD, DOJ, and OVW. If authorization is 
needed, establish an interagency task force or working group. If 
authorization is needed, allow for cross-agency programming and 
funding. It is possible that a White House Advisor may be needed--I 
defer to Secretary Haaland. Name in the legislation the importance of 
coordinating public hearings and the gathering of testimony and 
information, and place that function in the Department of Interior.

    Question 3. You testified about the importance of including non-
Native Americans in the healing process. Could actions taken by the 
Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission be instructive to the 
process the Department of the Interior has begun and Congress is 
currently considering? If so, how?
    Answer. In conversations with non-Native allies of Native peoples 
in Canada, there are a few observations that may be instructive to the 
U.S. process. First, that the Canadian process--like the one 
contemplated by the Department of Interior and S. 2907--was heavily 
front-loaded by the public collection of the experiences of survivors. 
These proceedings were extensively covered by local and national media. 
However, that was the extent of the involvement of non-Native people--
readers (or non-readers) of media coverage. Some non-Native allies say 
that, in hindsight, that what was thought of as respectful distance and 
witnessing also missed opportunities for deeper understanding. Media 
accounts may or may not--and apparently mostly did not--report the news 
in ways that would create greater understanding. There wasn't 
structured encouragement of non-Native conversations--not as testimony 
or public comment, but as educational efforts to promote understanding 
and interrupt mis-held views. The observation is that although 
policymakers accepted the results of the Commission and its processes, 
that conditions on the ground and between Native and non-Native peoples 
have not demonstrably shifted. Also, only the symbolic recommendations 
of the Commission have been implemented so far, with little political 
movement on those recommendations that named substantive repair and 
structural changes. Non-Native allies believe that part of the reason 
for the slowness is the lack of organized non-Native support, which 
wasn't built in the mostly compartmentalized process. This has left 
recommendations to the whims of negotiations between First Nations and 
the Canadian government.
    In the U.S. process, consider providing resources and support for 
conversations, education, and reconciliatory repair with non-Natives. 
This can be done on a demonstration basis and should include teams that 
include Native and non-Native providers. Begin these experiments on a 
parallel basis, with a plan to expand from the learnings as there is 
more demand. In other words, start with non-Native individuals and 
communities that are desirous of learning more, being better friends, 
neighbors, and allies.
    There should be an educational effort that isn't just about 
publicizing the process. This effort should tell the story not only of 
what happened, but also make the case as to why it is important and 
beneficial to Native and non-Native peoples that this accounting and 
repair occur, and what needs to be transformed in our views and 
relationships in the process.

    Question 4. In addition to boarding schools, Native communities are 
also grappling with multiple, ongoing harmful federal policies, such as 
Red Hill. How do we focus reconciliation efforts to make progress where 
we can?
    Answer. In presenting the question in this way, you are recognizing 
that the water contamination descending from Red Hill is a harm to 
Native communities. But this is neither a widely held nor well 
understood view. While federal agencies may politically respond to 
Native Hawaiians as a matter of improving public relations, that alone 
does little to reconcile. (It is also nearly impossible to be in 
consultation as the federal government understands that process, as 
Native Hawaiians have been thwarted from the aspiration of governance 
formation.) Reconciling requires re-mending the reciprocal relationship 
of peoples and the land, and the stewardship responsibilities that 
arise as a result. The act of water contamination--especially at the 
level and scale of harm descending from Red Hill--is not only a 
continuing threat to the environment and public health. Continuing 
contamination severs the reciprocal relationship between peoples and 
the land. The severing happens when land and water are property and 
resources to be used and misused by competing interests. As property 
and resources, bargains are made as to which use supersedes another. A 
fuel tank farm is seen as a higher use in the interest of national 
security. A certain level of contamination is deemed within the margin 
of public health risk. A spill that is mishandled is viewed as a threat 
to the continuation of the facility and the reputation of the Navy. The 
Navy and other agencies respond in a stance of risk mitigation. These 
are the kinds of choices that are made when land is property and water 
is a resource. Many Native Hawaiians and many local residents have 
reacted viscerally to the water contamination and to the unfolding 
facts of what has happened over a long period of time without alarm or 
attention. They believe and understand that the water has not been 
cared for as a living being that we are in relationship to, even if 
they don't articulate it in this way. To reconcile, the entire process 
of what happens from here on in would need to come into mutual 
stewardship ways and means. Entire cohorts of people would need to be 
educated, and those who may come into understanding would be those who 
would take charge of next steps. The recognition of being a guest, that 
being on the land is a privilege, not a right. That stepping into 
stewardship is about restoring and maintaining thriving. Stewardship 
would be a matter of pride, an application of knowledge in concert with 
many. The life of the water--and therefore the life of the people--
would need to be center to strategies and decisions. It would be 
insufficient and unacceptable for the tanks to be drained and removed, 
only to have fuel continue to seep through the soil and rock until it 
has permanently despoiled the water, or for mitigation efforts to fall 
short of restoring clean, dependable water now and into the future.

    Question 5. Do you have recommendations for how the various federal 
agencies in Hawai`i should coordinate on a reconciliation process like 
this?
    Answer. The cleanup and restoration may be the largest in U.S. 
history, certainly the largest undertaken on an island. This should be 
an all hands-on-deck endeavor that can draw expertise and assets from 
different agencies, including engineers, hydrologists, scientists. 
Consider a federal team approach with leads for certain aspects. There 
is a serious question as to whether the U.S. Navy should be the lead 
agency in the effort. When a mission is ancillary to the core mission 
of an agency, they may have responsibility but may not have the 
combination of sustained focus, organizational and leadership 
structure, and policy approach needed to successfully execute the 
mission. For example, it was difficult to keep the Navy's command 
attention on the cleanup of Kaho`olawe through the course of the 
effort, even though there was specific congressional authorization, 
appropriation, and staff oversight.
                                 ______
                                 
   Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Ben Ray Lujan to 
                       Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong
    Question . Based on your experience, how could additional funding 
for Native education be integrated into a broader reconciliation 
framework?
    Answer. The connection between the contemporary conditions of 
native peoples and the systemic historical termination of language and 
cultural ways is intrinsically understood and accepted in native and 
tribal communities, but not among non-native institutions, civic, and 
political leaders. This is a consequential disconnect as most native 
children in the United States are in educational institutions outside 
of tribal control or influence. If public schools--disaggregated across 
over 13,800 school districts--aren't desirous or motivated, or have the 
curricula or teachers, then most native children will continue to be 
systemically separated from language and culture.
    In a broader reconciliation framework, the connection and the case 
would be made by educational leaders and scholars, including 
researchers and prestigious institutions as part of the Commission's 
core findings. To restore the connection and interrupt the harm of 
cultural and linguistic termination practices would require investment 
in complex infrastructure, such as: the documentation and restoration 
of those languages that are on the verge of disappearing; supporting 
teacher recruitment and training; experimentation with traveling 
teacher corps, and the pairing of elders who hold the wisdom and young 
adult teachers-in-training; funds to support successful, mature 
programs such as those in New Mexico and Hawaii to be support centers 
for the revitalization of language and cultural ways for other native 
peoples. These are a few examples. Such investment needs to be 
sustained and will require energy and support over a long period of 
time. Consider the establishment of a non-lapsing fund, with an initial 
investment that would support substantial progress in a decade. In 
Hawaii's case, it took public policy, institutional and community 
support to reverse the course of decline, from less than 8000 native 
speakers to about 40,000 native speakers over the course of 25 years.
                                 ______
                                 
    Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Brian Schatz to 
                            Hon. Deb Haaland
    Question 1. You testified that you will be leading a year-long 
listening tour to hear directly from boarding school survivors, and 
that while the first listening session will take place in Oklahoma, you 
are working with Tribes to decide upon locations for future listening 
sessions. a) If available, please provide timing and location details 
on the first session in Oklahoma. How are you conducting Tribal 
engagement for listening session location--though formal consultations, 
or some other process? If through formal consultation, have Dear Tribal 
Leader Letters been sent? What is the timeframe for these 
consultations?
    Answer. The first visit of The Road to Healing tour was held at the 
Riverside Indian School, the nation's oldest federally operated Indian 
boarding school, in Anadarko, Oklahoma on Saturday, July 9, 2022. The 
Department has conducted three consultation sessions regarding the 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative with Indian Tribes, Alaska 
Native Villages, Alaska Native Corporations, and the Native Hawaiian 
Community. The Department has sent, or will send, Dear Tribal Leader 
letters to Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native 
Hawaiian Community, near each stop on The Road to Healing tour.

    Question 2. You testified that the Department will receive 
testimony from survivors both publicly or privately, depending on an 
individual's preference, at the listening sessions. a) Will the 
contents of the private sessions fall within one of the nine Freedom of 
Information Act (FOIA) exemptions? If so, which exemption or exemptions 
would apply? If these discussions are subject to FOIA, how will the 
Department ensure the privacy of this testimony? If some, or all, 
survivors wish to speak in private, how will their testimonies be used, 
or not used, to build a public record? What protocols will be in place 
to protect this information?
    Answer. At each visit on The Road to Healing tour, members of the 
media will be present for the first hour of the event. During the first 
break, media will be escorted out of the visit and the remainder of the 
day will be closed to press. A court reporter will transcribe the 
entire visit, and a full transcript of the event may be released, to 
the extent permitted by federal law, if requested. We will not know the 
substance of the private sessions in advance, so we cannot say which, 
if any, FOIA exemptions could apply. However, the Department will 
ensure the privacy of all testimony consistent with the law.
    The testimony may contain information about Federal Indian boarding 
school system burial sites, both marked and unmarked. The Department 
supports Congressional action to protect sensitive information 
identifying burial sites of Indian children associated with the Federal 
Indian boarding school system by developing new or amending existing 
FOIA exemptions. Doing so would assist in preventing grave-robbing, 
vandalism, and other disturbances to Indian burial sites, which are 
already well documented and could be likely to occur.

    Question 3. Does the Department intend to receive testimony from 
descendants of survivors, representatives of organizations that 
participated in, or have historical connections to, boarding schools? 
Others?
    Answer. The Road to Healing tour provides survivors of the Federal 
Indian boarding school system and their descendants and families an 
opportunity to share their stories and experiences in a safe and 
supportive environment. The Department believes that this approach will 
help better inform the Federal Government about subsequent work of the 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
    Outside of the Road to Healing Tour, the Department welcomes non-
federal entities to provide feedback or information on their role in 
the Federal Indian boarding school system.

    Question 4. Please describe, in as much detail as possible, how the 
listening sessions will be structured and how the Department intends to 
facilitate them.
    Answer. For each of The Road to Healing tour stops, the Department 
plans to coordinate a local Tribal or Native Hawaiian blessing, as 
appropriate, remarks from Secretary Haaland, Assistant Secretary 
Newland, or both, before then focusing on open discussion with 
survivors of the Federal Indian boarding school system and their 
descendants and families about their experiences. Members of the media 
will be allowed for the first hour of the event. During the first 
break, any media will be escorted out of the visit and the remainder of 
the visit will be closed to the press. A court reporter will transcribe 
the entire visit and a full transcript of the event may be released, 
under applicable authorities, if requested.

    Question 5. Please describe the mental health resources the 
Department plans to provide to survivors and staff during and after 
your listening sessions. Are there organizations the Department is 
working with to assist in facilitating discussions?
    Answer. To help fulfill the U.S. trust responsibility to Indian 
Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community, the 
Department is collaborating with other Federal agencies to support the 
Department's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. The Department 
of Health and Human Services (HHS), including through the Indian Health 
Service (IHS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration (SAMHSA), is providing trauma-informed and on-site 
support throughout the tour. HHS will also connect survivors and their 
families with follow-up support, as requested.

    Question 6. Beyond creating a public record, how will the 
Department use the information gathered during the listening sessions?
    Answer. The Road to Healing tour is the first time the Federal 
Government has provided survivors of Federal Indian boarding schools 
and their descendants and families an opportunity to directly share 
their stories and experiences. As the Department continues its 
investigation of the Federal Indian boarding school system, the 
individual experiences of survivors at specific schools can help paint 
a picture of the overall system that the archives alone cannot fully 
provide. In addition to advancing our priorities for Volume II of the 
Report, which includes identifying marked and unmarked burial sites and 
documenting methodologies and practices that discouraged or prevented 
the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian 
languages or cultural or religious practices, the first-hand accounts 
of survivors and their families may assist the Department in 
identifying additional aspects of the Federal Indian boarding school 
system that warrant examination.

    Question 7. You testified that the Department's current work 
through the Boarding School Initiative is complementary to the work 
contemplated in S. 2907. How so? Please explain.
    Answer. The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative is the 
Federal Government's first effort to comprehensively examine the 
establishment, operation, and impacts of the Federal Indian boarding 
school system. The Department is currently focused on two things: 
identifying, digitizing, examining, and evaluating records under its 
control, including at the Department of the Interior Library and 
American Indian Records Repository (AIRR) relating to the Federal 
Indian boarding school system, and hearing directly from survivors and 
their families about their experiences. The Department is also 
coordinating with the National Archives and Records Administration 
(NARA) to identify, digitize, examine, and evaluate records under 
NARA's control relating to the Federal Indian boarding school system.
    S. 2907 would complement the Department's Federal Indian Boarding 
School Initiative by creating an independent voice that could make 
recommendations, establish resources for survivors, and seek records in 
ways that the Department cannot.
    The Administration further supports S. 2907 because it would 
increase access to records pertaining to the Federal Indian boarding 
school system that are not under the Department's control but are 
instead under the control of other Federal agencies or non-federal 
entities. This would include through the use of subpoenas, which may in 
some cases be helpful or necessary to acquire important information 
that remains inaccessible to the Department. S. 2907 would also develop 
national survivor resources to address intergenerational trauma.

    Question 8. Are there any Boarding School Initiative-related 
activities that would benefit from additional resources or statutory 
authorizations?
    Answer. The Department supports possible Congressional action:

         (1) To clarify the applicability of the Native American Graves 
        Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) as it relates to 
        Federal agencies;

         (2) To increase appropriations and professional staffing for 
        programs in Federal agencies that are responsible for agency 
        compliance with NAGPRA;

         (3) To strengthen the repatriation process of funerary objects 
        and human remains for Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, 
        and the Native Hawaiian Community, including Indian children in 
        marked and unmarked burial sites associated with Indian 
        boarding schools; (4) To direct Federal agencies that control 
        cemeteries to allow the reburial of remains of Indian children 
        and funerary objects repatriated pursuant to NAGPRA, and 
        consistent with specific Tribal practices. An amendment of the 
        Recreation and Public Purposes Act may be needed to facilitate 
        the use of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands for this 
        purpose.

         (5) To authorize the protection, preservation, reclamation, 
        and Tribal co-management or costewardship of sites across the 
        Federal Indian boarding school system where the Federal 
        Government has jurisdiction over a location;

         (6) To fund the expansion and development of programs 
        implementing or supporting Native language revitalization for 
        Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-operated and funded schools, 
        as well as non-BIE Tribally operated schools;

         (7) To fund the expansion and development of programs outside 
        BIE schools that implement or support Native language 
        revitalization, including language immersion schools and 
        community organizations;

         (8) To authorize federally funded scientific and medical 
        research on the Federal Indian boarding school system, 
        including health impacts on Indian Tribes, Alaska Native 
        Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community and individual 
        American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and

         (9) To increase the provision of trauma-informed support and 
        mental health care to Indian boarding school survivors and 
        their families, and students at BIE-operated or funded schools, 
        by other agencies responsible for the health care of American 
        Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

    Question 9. A 2019 High Country News article estimated that, for 
every dollar the U.S. spent on federal Indian boarding schools, it has 
spent less than seven cents ($0.07) on Native American language 
revitalization. \1\ Will the Department's future work look into data 
points like this? For example, will it try to document the full scope 
of federal investments in boarding schools? Or, examine the cultural 
and linguistic impacts of the boarding school policies on Native 
communities in more depth?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ The article estimates that the U.S. spent almost $3 billion--
adjusted for inflation--on federal Indian boarding schools between 1877 
and 1918 and $180 million on Native language revitalization between 
2005 and 2019. https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.21-22/indigenous-affairs-
the-u-s-has-spent-more-monev-erasing-native-languagesthan-saving-them.
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    Answer. The Department believes that it is important to gather this 
information to understand the scope of the Federal Indian boarding 
school system, and is working to determine the scope of federal 
investments in these schools--including financial, property, livestock 
and animals, equipment, and personnel for the Federal Indian boarding 
school system, recognizing that some records are no longer available.
    The Department is currently identifying, examining, and evaluating 
records that document methodologies and practices used in the Federal 
Indian boarding school system that discouraged or prevented the use of 
American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages or 
cultural or religious practices.

    Question 10. The U.S. Army has, and continues to engage in, a 
lengthy and complicated process of returning the remains of children 
buried at the Carlisle Industrial School to their home communities. 
While this process was a voluntary one on the part of the Army, the 
Army has also stated that the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act does not apply to these circumstances and instead 
chooses to follow Army Regulation 290-5. These regulations require that 
a request for disinterment be made by a lineal descendant. It is the 
Committee's understanding that in terms of the disposition of remains 
at Carlisle, Interior deferred to the Army's decision to follow its own 
regulations and not NAGPRA. How, if at all, is the Department engaging 
the Army to clarify if, how, and when NAGPRA would apply in the 
boarding school cemeteries located on lands currently controlled by the 
Department of Defense?
    Answer. The Department recognizes the work of the Department of 
Defense (DOD), in coordination with Indian Tribes and Alaska Native 
Villages, and individuals from those Tribes and Villages, to disinter 
human remains from military installations or other lands under DOD's 
control. This work is critical to addressing the Federal Indian 
boarding school system. As stated in points (1)-(5) in the response to 
Question 8 above, the Department would welcome Congressional 
legislationto ensure clarity on NAGPRA's application and provide 
support for its implementation.

    Question 11. How does the Department envision the survey and 
discovery of marked and unmarked burials taking place? Will the 
Department engage Tribal Historic Preservation Officers to conduct this 
work? If so, will the Department be requesting additional funding for 
Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) to cover the additional 
administrative and workforce burdens these offices will face?
    Answer. The Department has identified marked and unmarked burial 
sites at approximately 53 different Federal Indian boarding school 
system sites thus far and we expect this number to increase as our 
investigation continues. The Department is identifying, examining, and 
evaluating potentially responsive records to locate additional marked 
and unmarked burial sites.
    The Department supports increased Congressional appropriations for 
programs in Federal agencies responsible for compliance with NAGPRA and 
for the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) under the National Park 
Service (NPS) for THPOs to increase professional staffing and program 
activities as highlighted in the response to Question 8.

    Question 12. The Department makes several NAGPRA related 
recommendations. Can you provide more details on the specific 
legislative changes to adopt these recommendations? And, has the 
Department worked with Tribes, THPOs, and Native community members in 
developing these NAGPRA-related proposals?
    Answer. In addition to points (1)-(5) in the response to Question 
8, the Department would also support Congressional activity to exempt 
from the Freedom of Information Act information on burial locations 
across the Federal Indian boarding school system that contain remains 
of Indian children to protect these sensitive areas and prevent grave-
robbing, vandalism, and other kinds of disturbances to Indian burial 
sites that have been all too common.
    As stated in our response to Question 11, the Department also 
supports Congressional activity to increase appropriations and 
professional staffing for programs in Federal agencies responsible for 
compliance with NAGPRA and for the HPF under the NPS for THPOs.
    In July 2021, the Department invited Indian Tribes, Alaska Native 
Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community to consult on revisions to 
the NAGPRA regulations. By September 2021, the Department had received 
over 700 comments from Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and 
Native Hawaiian organizations, all of which were reviewed and 
considered in drafting a proposed regulation. The Department hopes to 
publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register soon for a 90-day 
public comment period and will conduct additional consultation with 
Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and Native Hawaiian 
organizations.

    Question 13. Is there anything else the Department would like to 
add to the record? Are there any parts of the record the Department 
would like to correct for this hearing?
    Answer. The Department supports Congressional action to create a 
memorial to recognize the generations of American Indian, Alaska 
Native, and Native Hawaiian children who experienced the Federal Indian 
boarding school system.
    The Department also recommends that Congress consider the 
Department's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative 
Report and the Running Bear studies, \2\ watershed quantitative 
research based on now-adult Federal Indian boarding school attendees' 
medical status, which indicate that the Indian boarding school system 
continues to impact the present-day health of Indians who participated 
in the studies.
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    \2\ Ursula Running Bear et al., The Impact of Individual and 
Parental American Indian Boarding School Attendance on Chronic Physical 
Health ofNorthem Plains Tribes, 42 Fam. Community Health 1, 3-4 (2019); 
Ursula Running Bear et al., Boarding School Attendance and Physical 
Health Status of Northern Plains Tribes, 13 Applied Res. Qual. of Life 
633 (2018); Ursula Running Bear et al., The relationship of five 
boarding school experiences and physical health status among Northern 
Plains Tribes, 27 Applied Res. in Qual. of Life 153 (2018).
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                                 ______
                                 
   Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Ben Ray Lujan to 
                            Hon. Deb Haaland
    Question 1. As part of its Federal Indian Boarding School 
Initiative, the Department prepared Volume 1 of its report as part of 
an initial investigation of the federal Indian boarding school system. 
Volume 1 notes that you anticipate future site work and investigations 
and mentions the development of a second report. Secretary Haaland, the 
president requested an additional $7 million in his Fiscal Year 2023 
Budget Request to continue the Federal Boarding School Initiative. Is 
this funding sufficient to complete the Initiative's work, or will 
future funding also be instrumental in achieving the Initiative's 
goals? Can you explain what Congress's initial $7 million appropriation 
in Fiscal Year 2022 has meant for the Initiative?
    Answer. Congress's initial $7 million appropriation for Fiscal Year 
2022 is advancing the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative by: (1) 
supporting the identification, digitization, examination, and 
evaluation of millions of records in the American Indian Records 
Repository (AIRR) related to the Federal Indian boarding school system; 
and (2) supporting The Road to Healing, a year-long tour across the 
country to provide survivors of the Federal Indian boarding school 
system and their descendants an opportunity to share their experiences. 
As part of the trust responsibility to Indian Tribes, Alaska Native 
Villages, and the Native Hawaiian Community, the Department would 
welcome long-term investment in the Federal Indian Boarding School 
Initiative by Congress.

    Question 2. Secretary Haaland, you note in Volume 1 of the 
Initiative's report that the agency has a substantial number of records 
to review to complete its work. Does Interior have an estimate of how 
many records it needs to analyze, organize, preserve and potentially 
make available for families of survivors? What agencies and departments 
outside of Interior require future appropriations to move this effort 
forward?
    Answer. For Volume I, the Department, through the Bureau of Trust 
Funds Administration, identified 39,385 boxes in the AIRR that have 
potentially responsive documents (approximately 98.4 million sheets of 
paper). The Department is currently digitizing, examining, and 
evaluating these records.
    Additionally, the Department, in collaboration with NARA, will 
identify, examine, and evaluate potentially responsive records under 
NARA' s control.
    The Department supports Congressional activity that would allow the 
Department and other Federal agencies that control potentially 
responsive records, including those that control sites on current or 
former military installations; those that provide health care to 
American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and NARA, to 
further identify, digitize, examine, and evaluate the millions of 
potentially responsive records relating to the Federal Indian boarding 
school system.

    Question 3. Will subsequent volumes of federal Indian boarding 
school reports try to estimate total federal spending on federal Indian 
boarding schools? Why is it important that we have an estimate of this 
spending?
    Answer. For the first time, the Department is identifying, 
digitizing, examining, and evaluating responsive records to approximate 
the amount of Federal support, including financial, property, livestock 
and animals, equipment, and personnel, allocated to the Federal Indian 
boarding school system, recognizing that some records are no longer 
available.
    These responsive records document methodologies and practices used 
in the Federal Indian boarding school system that discouraged or 
prevented the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native 
Hawaiian languages or cultural or religious practices.
    The Department believes that it is important to gather this 
information to understand the scope of the Federal Indian boarding 
school system and its impact, which will ultimately inform Congress on 
future activity it may undertake to address the intergenerational 
trauma created by historical federal policy.

    Question 4. In keeping with recommendations outlined in Volume 1, 
should Congress make bold, substantial investments in Native American 
language immersion, preservation and maintenance programs?
    Answer. Yes, the Department encourages Congress to support the 
expansion and development of Native language revitalization programs 
within Native communities and their schools, including accepting the 
Department's fiscal year 2023 budget request to provide at least $4 
million in new funding for Native Language Development at the Bureau of 
Indian Education (BIE) operated and funded schools. The Department's 
fiscal year 2023 budget request also proposes at least $21 million for 
grants and technical assistance to support Native language 
revitalization provided through non-BIE language immersion schools and 
community organizations. Congress should consider supporting all 
avenues to revive Native languages.

    Question 5. Will future volumes from the Initiative's investigation 
make recommendations to improve federal Native American language 
program funding? Why is it important that we make federal funding for 
Native American languages more robust and accessible for Tribes and 
Native communities?
    Answer. The Department is identifying, examining, and evaluating 
responsive records that document methodologies and practices used in 
the Federal Indian boarding school system that discouraged or prevented 
the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian 
languages or cultural or religious practices. The Federal Indian 
boarding school system played a large role in breaking up families and 
preventing or discouraging the use of Native languages.
    This has led to a dramatic reduction in the number of fluent 
language speakers in Tribal communities. As stated in the hearing, I 
believe that our obligation to Native communities means that federal 
policies should fully support and revitalize Native health care, 
education, languages, and cultural practices that prior federal Indian 
policies, like those supporting Indian boarding schools, sought to 
destroy. We need to make investments in Tribes and Tribal organizations 
to revitalize their languages and preserve their cultural practices.

    Question 6. How would a federal Truth and Healing Commission 
supplement Interior's current Initiative? How does the scope of the 
Initiative compare to the proposed work of the federal Truth and 
Healing Commission under S. 2907?
    Answer. The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative is the 
Federal Government's first effort to comprehensively examine the 
Federal Indian boarding school system. The Department is focused on 
identifying, digitizing, examining, and evaluating our records relating 
to the Federal Indian boarding school system and coordinating with NARA 
to do the same with NARA's potentially responsive records. The 
Department is also conducting The Road to Healing, a yearlong tour 
across the country to provide survivors of the Federal Indian boarding 
school system and their descendants an opportunity to share 
experiences.
    S. 2907 would create a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 
Boarding School Policies in the United States, an independent voice 
with subpoena power that would, among other things, develop 
recommendations for the Federal Government to acknowledge and heal the 
historical and intergenerational trauma caused by the Indian Boarding 
School Policies and other cultural and linguistic termination practices 
carried out by the Federal Government and State and local governments, 
including recommendations for resources for survivors. The Commission's 
subpoena power is notable in that the Commission would be able to 
obtain records, testimony, and evidence in ways that the Department 
cannot. The Commission's work with survivors would also be a benefit 
to, and benefit from, The Road to Healing currently undertaken by the 
Department.
    The Administration strongly supports S. 2907, especially the steps 
taken toward the development of national survivor resources to address 
intergenerational trauma, and the inclusion of the Commission's formal 
investigation and documentation practices.
                                 ______
                                 
   Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Ben Ray Lujan to 
                           Sandra White Hawk
    Question 1. In New Mexico, Tribes and Pueblos crafted a Tribal 
Remedy Framework to respond to a legacy of underinvestment in Native 
education. The framework recommends investing in Native teacher 
pipelines, investing in curriculum development centers controlled by 
Tribal Colleges and Universities and Tribes, and ensuring Native 
American language programs receive additional funding--all 
recommendations echoed in Canada's Truth and Healing Commission's 
recommendations to address the legacy of residential schools. What 
roles have reconciliation commissions like those in Maine and Canada 
had in influencing investments in Native youth and education programs?
    Answer. I have seen how truth commissions have played a significant 
role in building awareness and drawing attention to the healing in our 
communities. A powerful lasting impact of these commissions is how the 
next generation has responded. Our youth on the Rosebud reservation, 
the Sicangu Youth Council, really did single handedly open the area of 
boarding school issues for us here. They did this because they were led 
by spirit, and also because they were witnessing their relatives who 
were in hard places emotionally, spiritually, and physically. The more 
they understood the boarding school issue, the more they understood 
their relatives. Education helps people understand. It doesn't excuse 
behavior, or even change it directly, but it does help provide insight 
as to how it happened. Now, the youth council is engaged with the 
community. There are youth councils across Indian Country that are 
asking similar questions. They are ready to be engaged and help their 
nations heal. There could be even more youth councils that form across 
the country given the opportunity to be a part of a US national truth 
and healing initiative. Being descendants of boarding school survivors, 
the youth are given information that we as elders didn't have about why 
our people are who they are. They are asserting that we can heal, we 
can be stronger, and we can leave a better generation behind them.
    Science continues to provide insight into how childhood trauma and 
abuse will form our brains and even create our personalities as adults. 
When an entire Tribe has been victimized, the survival behaviors become 
normalized because everyone is carrying these trauma traits which 
present themselves as PTSD and other mental health issues, diabetes, 
heart/lung problems, obesity, and etc. As the younger generations 
question ``why'' do my parents and grandparents act this way, it's 
providing a non judgmental lens for Tribes to evaluate the mental 
health and safety needs of their community. Our communities are 
evolving around trauma instead of rising out of it. This responsibility 
should not fall on the youths shoulders alone but they should be given 
a healthy chance to be raised in a Tribe without trauma. Access to 
healthy communities, healthy youth programs (physical/mental), healthy 
education systems, traditional foods, empowered language programs, 
accurate curriculum, and etc are needed to begin to repair the damage 
that has been done for over 200 years.

    Question 2. How would establishing a federal Truth and Healing 
Commission change the scope of the work Interior has begun with its 
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative?
    Answer. The Department of Interior (DOI) is doing amazing work with 
regards to their Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. This work 
must continue on. The DOI report, Volume 1 is historic in providing an 
adequate timeline of federal leadership, oversight, policy direction, 
funding, and acceptance of how Indian Boarding Schools were run and 
operated from 1800 to 1960's. The intent of these Indian Boarding 
Schools were to take land away from Native peoples, remove Native 
peoples from hunting and fishing areas, death- if a child died while 
being taken away,removed, transported to Indian boarding schools and/or 
died while attending, running away, and/or disappeared from such 
schools.it was okay. Every school had a cemetery, the ability to burn 
their bodies, and/or mass unmarked graves to dispose of nameless 
children without a record of their lives.
    S. 2907 will address what the DOI cannot. For example, there are 
over 1,000+ day schools, orphanages, asylums,sanitariums, and stand-
alone dormitories as the definition for Indian Boarding Schools is 
limited in scope. The DOI report does not cover an exhaustive list of 
burial sites across the Federal Indian Boarding School systems. Nor 
does it identify the children who were placed in or attended Federal 
Indian boarding schools. Further review is needed to understand the 
impacts of violence and trauma inflicted on Indian children, DOI did 
recognize that targeting Indian children for federal assimilation 
contributed to: (1) Loss of Life; (2) damage to physical & mental 
health; (3) loss of territories & wealth; (4) demolish of tribal & 
family relations; and (5) eradication of use of Tribal languages.
    S. 2907 will Inquiry into the Assimilative Policies of the U.S. 
Indian Boarding Schools which go beyond the DOI. This will include all 
the federal cabinet's departments for example the War Department, 
Education, Treasury, and etc who assisted in support of this genocide 
thorugh Indian Boarding Schools as well as state, local and county 
governments who participated in this time period.
                                 ______
                                 
   Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Ben Ray Lujan to 
                           Hon. Kirk Francis
    Question 1. S. 2907 directs a federal Commission to investigate 
schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but some schools such 
as Carlisle were operated by other federal agencies such as the U.S. 
Army, or were funded by the federal government and operated by states 
or religious institutions. Should a definition of federal Indian 
boarding schools be added to S. 2907 to capture these circumstances, 
the criteria used by the Department of Interior's Initiative, and 
further criteria as defined by a robust Tribal consultation process?
    Answer. I agree that the language of S. 2907 is not broad enough to 
encompass all the schools that were implementing the federal policy of 
assimilation of Native American children. S. 2907 focuses on Bureau of 
Indian Affair schools and church-operated schools, but volume 1 of 
Interior's report identifies multiple schools that were operated by 
other federal agencies and by state governments. I am also cognizant 
that some schools were operated by individual members of a church or 
religion, and not necessarily by ``the church'' itself. These schools 
needs to be covered by S. 2907.
    A definition of Indian Boarding School should be added to S. 2907, 
but I also agree that the Commission should be provided the flexibility 
to review any schools where evidence can be shown that the school was 
trying to implement the federal policy of assimilation. The Interior 
Department developed a definition for what constitutes a Federal Indian 
Boarding School and says it's any school that meets four criteria: (1) 
provided on-site housing or overnight lodging; (2) was described in 
records as providing formal academic or vocational training and 
instruction; (3) was described in records as receiving Federal 
government funds or other support; and (4) was operational before 1969. 
Initially, I liked the Interior Department definition, but upon 
reflection and hearing from other tribal leaders since the Committee's 
hearing on S. 2907, I think even the Interior Department definition is 
too narrow for purposes of the legislation. Given that the federal 
policy towards Native children during the relevant timeframe was one of 
assimilation, I think it should be assumed that any school targeting 
Native children was trying to assimilate them into the non-Native 
society, unless the evidence shows otherwise.
    The purpose of S. 2907 is to conduct a comprehensive review and 
compilation of Indian Boarding Schools, for the first time ever. Given 
this, we do not yet know the full scope of schools that targeted Native 
children for assimilation purposes. Upon reflection, I think S. 2907 
should cover any schools that meet criterion #1, 2 and 4, and it should 
be presumed that some sort of federal support existed for these schools 
given the federal policy of assimilation. I also think that the 
Commission should have the flexibility to examine any schools were any 
evidence shows that one of the purposes or practices of the school was 
to assimilate Native children, and to consult with Indian Country about 
what other schools may be out there. Essentially, I recommend that S. 
2907 provide some minimum standards for what constitutes an Indian 
Boarding School, but also flexibility to the Commission to go beyond 
that. S. 2907 should cover any schools operated by any federal agency, 
or church or state or private individuals or organizations. The focus 
should be on schools that were intended to assimilate Native children, 
regardless of who operated them.

    Question 2. Based on your experience, why is it important that S. 
2907 identify next steps for the final report that the federal 
Commission develops?
    Answer. S. 2907 presents the first time a comprehensive review is 
conducted on schools that tried to assimilate Native children. It would 
be shameful to spend so much time and effort in conducting such a 
review and not have mechanisms in place to implement whatever 
recommendations get included in the final report. Too often, I have 
seen reports developed with no consequence or action items to ensure 
change. As the findings of S. 2907 indicate, the limited research 
available shows that historic Indian Boarding Schools contribute to the 
intergenerational trauma that plaques much of Indian Country. There 
needs to be some accountability for these failed federal policies that 
focused on assimilating Native American children, and there should be 
some processes added to the legislation to ensure that continued 
consultation occurs after the final report is issued and that actions 
are finally taken that focus on mitigating the harms of these schools.
    My recommendation is for S. 2907 to be expanded to include the 
following action items once a final report is issued by the Commission:

   The term of the Commission should be extended for two years 
        after its final report is issued so that the Commission can 
        hold hearings throughout Indian Country about the findings and 
        recommendations contained with the final report. These 
        consultations should be focused on (1) educating and informing 
        about the contents of the final report, and (2) developing 
        action items to implement the recommendations in the final 
        report.

   Any federal agency that is identified as operating or 
        funding an Indian Boarding School should be required to conduct 
        separate consultations with Indian Country about the findings 
        in the final report and any how the agency can help implement 
        any recommendations contained in the final report. This should 
        include the federal agency including within its annual budget 
        proposals to the White House and Office of Management and 
        Budget funding to help mitigate the impacts of the agency's 
        historical assimilation activities and support, and a mandate 
        for the agencies to address the final report in any testimony 
        before the Congressional Appropriations Committees for the five 
        fiscal years after the date of issuance of the final report.

   The final report should go to the Office of Management and 
        Budget, and the Office should be required to conduct 
        consultations with Indian Country on how to implement the 
        recommendations contained in the final report.

   The final report should go to the Committee on Indian 
        Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of 
        the House of Representatives, and to the Appropriations 
        Committees of both chambers and such Committees should be 
        required to conduct hearings on the final report for at least 
        several fiscal years after the report is issued.

   Any federal agency who owns lands on which the remains of 
        Native children who attended Boarding Schools are believed to 
        be located shall develop policies to repatriate such remains in 
        a culturally appropriate manner to the tribal governments or 
        descendants of those children, at the cost of the federal 
        government.

   Any federal agency that owns lands on which historic 
        Boarding Schools were located shall, in consultation with 
        Indian Country, develop mechanisms for informing the general 
        public about the history of such schools that were located on 
        such lands.

    Question 3. How long should the timeframe for the federal Truth and 
Healing Commission proposed by S. 2907 be extended?
    Answer. If the recommendations in my testimony are followed to 
ensure that the Commission can begin its work in a timely fashion and 
begin its work once a majority of Commissioners are appointed, then I 
think the term of the Commission should be extended for two years for a 
total of 7 years. This will account for any small delays in getting a 
majority of Commissioners appointed, and will also allow the Commission 
to hold hearings and conduct consultations on the final report. 
Currently, S. 2907 requires that the Commission terminate 90 days after 
the date of issuance of its final report. That makes no sense because 
the Commissioners should be available to testify about its final report 
before Congress and any agencies, but it should also conduct meetings 
and consultations with Indian Country to educate stakeholders about 
what is in the final report.