WASHINGTON (November 6, 2023) — Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland hosted the 12th and final stop on “The Road to Healing” yesterday.
In June 2021, 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, led by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland.
In response to recommendations from the report, Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland launched “The Road to Healing,” a year-long commitment to travel across the country to allow survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system the opportunity to share their stories, help connect communities with trauma-informed support, and facilitate the collection of a permanent oral history.
“The Road to Healing has been an incredible opportunity to share with folks from across the country – and one that has left an indelible mark on how we will proceed with our work,” said Secretary Haaland. “This is one step, among many, that we will take to strengthen and rebuild the bonds within Native communities that federal Indian boarding school policies set out to break. Those steps have the potential to alter the course of our future.”
Joining in many of the visits across the country were leadership from the Department’s Indian Affairs team including Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Wizipan Garriott and Bureau of Indian Education Director Tony Dearman, as well as representatives from Department of Health and Human Service’s Indian Health Service (IHS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), including IHS Director Roselyn Tso and NEH Chair Shelly Lowe. At every stop, IHS staff were on hand to offer trauma-informed support.
In addition to stops on “The Road to Healing,” Secretary Haaland held a meeting with members of the Native Hawaiian Community earlier this year to learn how boarding school and federal assimilation policies impacted Hawai’i, including subsequent prohibitions on the use of ʻŌlelo Hawai’i (the Hawaiian language).
Transcripts from each stop on “The Road to Healing” can be found on the Department’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative webpage.
Select media is below.
Native News Online: The Road to Healing: The Power of Tribal Communities
At all of the Road to Healing sessions, Native elders have testified about their experiences while attending Indian boarding schools, including incidences of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. I am always amazed at the raw candor of those making their oral testimonies at these listening sessions. The elders recount atrocities that happened decades ago in vivid details as if they occurred a week or two ago. It is as if they have played a tape recorder in their minds over and over for years and are finally allowed to hit the play button and turn up the volume.
Anadarko, Oklahoma
KSWO: Road to Healing tour visits Riverside Indian School in Anadarko for listening session
This morning the Road to Healing tour led by the Secretary of the Interior made its first stop in Anadarko at Riverside Indian School. The tour is aimed at shedding light on the history of federal Indian boarding schools. A history that’s painful for many Native Americans. “Through this effort we want to not only create a platform for people to share, but also help connect communities with trauma informed support and facilitate the collection of a permanent oral history,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
Pellston, Michigan
Up North Live: Boarding school survivors share stories of abuse during Secy. Haaland’s visit to South Dakota
Hundreds of people gathered at Pellston Public Schools Saturday for the Road to Healing. The Department of Interior (DOI) launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to bring awareness to the trauma that Indigenous people endure as a direct result of boarding schools. The investigation found that 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.
Rosebud, South Dakota
News Center 1: Boarding school survivors share stories of abuse during Secy. Haaland’s visit to South Dakota
It was a historic and emotional Saturday on the Rosebud Reservation, as boarding school survivors gathered to share their stories. Listening was U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. “It is a historical event for everybody here,” said Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Scott Herman.
Gila River Indian Community, Arizona
Arizona Mirror: Survivors, descendants of federal Indian boarding schools share experiences
Sitting on a chair in the middle of a crowded gym, Hopi woman Pershlie Ami talked softly into the microphone to share her experience about going to Phoenix Indian School when she was a kid. “I don’t speak my language, I don’t know my culture as well as I would like to, and that was the result of the boarding school era,” Ami said.
Many Farms, Arizona
Arizona Republic: ‘I can take this’: Former boarding school students tell Haaland about abuse, mistreatment
June Marie Wauneka was determined to tell Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs about the trauma of attending a Kayenta boarding school when she was a child. Wauneka drove to Arizona in from Cedar City, Utah, and stayed with her niece, Lynette Willie, in Window Rock so they could both attend Haaland’s “Road to Healing” tour at the Many Farms High School School gymnasium Sunday.
Tulalip Indian Reservation, Washington
Seattle Times: Interior secretary visits WA in wake of boarding school revelations
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland raised her hands as Hiahl-tsa’s “Welcome Song” echoed throughout the wood-paneled walls and century-old tree trunks of the Tulalip Tribes’ gathering hall Sunday. Songs like these “were things that our people had always had, and the boarding school era tried to take away,” said Glen Gobin, a longtime Tulalip tribal leader and former board member.
Onamia, Minnesota
Minnesota Public Radio: ‘Road to Healing’ tour makes Minnesota stops
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is in Minnesota this week to continue the department’s work with Indigenous communities. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe hosted an event on Saturday, the seventh stop on a year-long “Road to Healing” tour led by Haaland. Alongside Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland, Haaland heard from survivors of Indian boarding schools, and from descendants of survivors.
Riverside, California
Riverside Record: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland brings ‘Road To Healing’ Tour To Southern California
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland brought the “Road to Healing” tour to Southern California Friday morning to hear from Native American boarding school survivors and their descendants. “Federal Indian boarding school policies have impacted every single indigenous person I know,” she said. “Some are survivors, some are descendants, but we all carry this painful legacy in our hearts, regardless of who we are and how we got here.”
Rohnert Park, California
Santa Rosa Press Democrat: U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland hears stories of Bay Area survivors of federal Indian boarding schools
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland listened intently Sunday as survivors of federal Indian boarding schools and their descendants told her their stories during her stop at the Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park. Their accounts were filled with pain and grim memories, unanswered questions and the lingering anger shared by generations of Native Americans who have to grapple with the legacy of federal boarding schools.
Anchorage, Alaska
A crowd of nearly a hundred people gathered at the Native Heritage Center in Anchorage on Sunday to hear the stories from Alaska Native survivors as well as the descendants and ancestors of those who’ve been impacted by the federal Indian boarding school system. Sunday’s listening session was part of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
KRQE: Tour allows survivors to share trauma inflicted by Indian Boarding schools
The Interior Department’s “Road to Healing” tour made a stop in New Mexico, giving people a chance to share their stories about past trauma endured by the federal Indian Boarding School policies. The tour is a part of Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland’s 2021 “Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.” It recognizes the intergenerational impact and trauma associated with the policies.
Bozeman, Montana
AP: Survivors say trauma from abusive Native American boarding schools stretches across generations
Donovan Archambault was 11 years old in 1950 when he was sent from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana to a government-backed Native American boarding school in Pierre, South Dakota, where abusive staff forced him to abandon his community’s language and customs. Archambault emerged bitter from the experience and said he drank alcohol for more than two decades before he finally pulled his life together, earning a master’s degree in education and serving as chairman of the Fort Belknap tribes.