WASHINGTON (January 12, 2023) — On January 20 and 22, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland will travel to Phoenix, Arizona and the Navajo Nation for the next two stops on “The Road to Healing,” a year-long tour across the country to provide Native survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system and their descendants an opportunity to share their experiences.
Secretary Haaland launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to shed light on the troubled history of Federal Indian boarding school policies and their legacy for Indigenous Peoples. In May 2022, the Department released Volume 1 of an investigative report as part of the Initiative, which calls for connecting communities with trauma-informed support and facilitating the collection of a permanent oral history.
Trauma-informed support will be available on-site during the events, which will be memorialized as part of the effort to capture first-person stories.
Only the first hour of the events will be open to credentialed members of the media to allow space for the wishes of participants. A transcript will be available in the weeks following the visit.
The Road to Healing – Phoenix, Arizona
- WHAT: Meeting with survivors and descendants of the federal Indian boarding school system as part of “The Road to Healing”
- WHEN: January 20, 2023, at 10:00 AM MT
- WHERE: Phoenix, Arizona
The Road to Healing – Navajo Nation
- WHAT: Meeting with survivors and descendants of the federal Indian boarding school system as part of “The Road to Healing”
- WHEN: January 22, 2023, at 10:00 AM MT
- WHERE: Many Farms, Arizona
RSVP: Credentialed members of the media interested in attending must RSVP to Giovanni_Rocco@ios.doi.gov