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Statement from NABS: Indian boarding school survivors give testimony at DOI-run event at Gila River Indian Community
Photo: National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
For Immediate Release—January 20, 2022
Organization attends event to capture stories for first-of-its-kind archival database
Gila River Indian Community, AZ — As part of a year-long tour across the country, Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), visited the Gila River Indian Community today to hear from Indian boarding school survivors and their descendants. The O’odham bands were most impacted by Indian boarding schools in the area, which consisted of the Gila River Indian Community, Tohono O’odham Nation, Ak-Chin Indian Community, and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. The DOI will visit the Navajo Nation on Sunday, January 22 for the next stop of its tour. The following quote from Deborah Parker (Tulalip), CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), can be quoted in part or in full.
“NABS is grateful to all the individuals, families, and Tribal leaders who have shared their experiences of abuse, suffering, and attempted genocide because of Indian Boarding School policies. To relive these traumatic experiences should be recognized as not only brave, but as a heroic act. Breaking the silence is not easy, but the time is now to bear our testimony.”
NABS continues to show our support for Secretary Haaland and the DOI as they continue to acknowledge the government’s responsibility in the colonization and assimilation of Native children to ensure the injustices suffered are not forgotten and responsibility of making whole again are in the forefront of the agency’s role.
NABS is doing all we can to ensure that the stories told at these events don’t go unheard. We have attended all of the DOI’s tour events to date in order to capture testimony from boarding school survivors. These stories will be part of an archival database that we will launch in 2023. The database is the first time anyone has compiled pictures, documents, and information in one place from all known Indian boarding schools across the U.S.
Launching this first-of-its-kind database, we know it will take Congress to act in order to know the full story and get all the records pertaining to our Native children. There are a number of educational and religious institutions that still hold historical documentation about Indian boarding schools, but are not required or willing to hand them over. This is why we need the ‘Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Policies Act’ reintroduced into Congress this year. Indian Country deserves truth, justice, and healing.”
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Contact:
Brad Angerman, Communications Director
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
702-218-4490