Native American Boarding Schools
Libby Comeaux, Loretto Co-Member and Brenna Cussen Anglada, Catholics for Boarding School Accountability
The recent discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada shocked the conscience. Administered by Catholic religious, the school was one of hundreds across Canada and the United States designed by these nations’ governments to forcibly assimilate Native Americans into dominant society. On June 22, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) now asks for our truth-telling, repentance, apology, amends, and advocacy for a US Truth and Healing Commission.