# American Indian boarding school gravesites

Part of a series on :
Native Americans
in the United States :
History
Paleo-Indians
Lithic stage
Archaic period in the Americas
Formative stage
Classic stage
Post-Classic stage
Woodland period
Age of Discovery
European colonization of the Americas
Population history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Genocide
Paper genocide
Slavery
Slavery in the United States
Partus sequitur ventrem
Indian Removal Act
Trail of Tears
Native American slave ownership
Indian Territory
American Civil War
Dawes Rolls
Cultural assimilation of Native Americans
Racism against Native Americans
Indian Appropriations Act
Racial Integrity Act
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
Jim Crow laws
Blood quantum laws
Native Americans and World War II
American Indian boarding schools
Civil rights movement
Red Power movement
Native American rights
Alcohol and Native Americans
Native American temperance activists :
Culture
Mississippian culture
Adena culture
Hohokam culture
Iroquois culture
Art
Food
Music
Pow wow
Dance
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Film
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Literature
Fashion
Neighborhoods
Health
Tribal sovereignty :
Wars
Beaver Wars
Anglo-Powhatan Wars
Pequot War
Kieft's War
Peach Tree War
Esopus Wars
King Philip's War
Tuscarora War
Yamasee War
Dummer's War
Pontiac's War
Lord Dunmore's War
American Revolutionary War
Cherokee–American wars
Northwest Indian War
War of 1812
Creek War
Arikara War
Seminole Wars / Second Seminole War
Osage Indian War
American Civil War
Texas–Indian wars (1836–1877) / Comanche Wars (1836–1877) / (1858)|Antelope Hills expedition / Comanche Campaign (1867–1875) / Red River War (1874–1875) / Buffalo Hunters' War (1876–1877)
Cayuse War
Apache Wars (1849–1924) / Jicarilla War (1849–1855) / Chiricahua Wars (1860–1886) / Tonto War (1871–1875) / Victorio's War (1879–1880) / Geronimo's War (1881–1886) / Post 1887 Apache Wars period (1887–1924)
Yuma War
Ute Wars(1850–1923) / Battle at Fort Utah (1850) / Walker War (1853–1854) / Tintic War (1856) / Black Hawk War (1865–1872) / White River War (1879) / Ute War (1887) / Bluff War (1914–1915) / Bluff Skirmish (1921)
Posey War (1923)
Sioux Wars (1854–1891) / First Sioux War (1854-1856) / Dakota War (1862) / Colorado War (1863–1865) / Powder River War (1865) / Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) / Great Sioux War (1876–1877) / Northern Cheyenne Exodus (1878-1879) / Ghost Dance War (1890–1891)
Rogue River Wars (1855–1856)
Yakima War (1855–1858) / Puget Sound War (1855–1856) / Coeur d'Alene War (1858)
Mohave War(1858–1859)
Navajo Wars (1849–1866)
Paiute War(1860)
Yavapai Wars(1861–1875)
Snake War (1864–1869)
Hualapai War (1865–1870)
Modoc War (1872–1873)
Nez Perce War (1877)
Bannock War (1878)
Crow War (1887)
Bannock Uprising (1895)
Yaqui Uprising (1896)
Battle of Sugar Point (1898)
Crazy Snake Rebellion (1909)
Last Massacre (1911)
Battle of Kelley Creek (1911)
Battle of Bear Valley (1918) :
Political movements
Civil rights movement
Self-determination
Women in politics
Nationalism
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Red Power Movement
Occupation of Alcatraz
Trail of Broken Treaties
Occupation of Wounded Knee
MMIW (Red handprint) :
Religion
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
Christianity
Eagle Feather law
Mormonism
Traditional religions
Native American Church
Longhouse Religion
Sun Dance
Keetoowah Society
Midewiwin
Wabunowin
Wocekiye :
Groups
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
National Congress of American Indians
National Indian Youth Council (NIYC)
Women of All Red Nations (WARN)
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) :
Ethnic subdivisions
Black Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Louisiana Creole :
Languages
English
American English
Native American languages :
Demographics
Neighborhoods
Societal statistics
Reservations
Tribal disenrollment
Reservation poverty :
Geography
by region
Great Basin
Northeastern Woodlands
Northwest Plateau
Pacific Northwest
The Great Plains
Southeastern Woodlands
Southwest
by state
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Florida
Hawaii
Iowa
Maryland
Michigan
Nebraska
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Oregon
Virginia
Wisconsin :
Lists
Native Americans
artists
actors
war leaders
musicians
congressional politicians
Native American Medal of Honor recipients
List of federally recognized tribes
List of federally recognized tribes by state
List of Indian reservations in the United States :
vte :
On 30 July 2024, a federal government investigation commissioned by United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland revealed that it had found gravesites at sixty-five of over 417 United States federal boarding schools used for forceful assimilation of Native American children into White American culture and society. As a result of the federal boarding school system, "at least" 973 Native American children were found to have died, many of whom were buried in unmarked or marked graves.

## Background

American Indian boarding schools were established in the United States from the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Native American children and youth into Anglo-American culture. In the process, these schools denigrated Native American culture and made children give up their languages and religion. They took classes on how to conduct manual labor, which included farming, housekeeping, brick-making, and railroad work. When not in class, they were expected to maintain upkeep of the schools. Unclean and overpopulated living conditions led to the spread of disease and many students did not receive enough food. Bounties were offered for students who tried to run away and many students committed suicide. Students who died were sometimes placed in coffins and buried in the school cemetery by their own classmates.
The schools were usually harsh, especially for younger children who had been forcibly separated from their families and forced to abandon their Native American identities and cultures. Children sometimes died in the school system due to infectious disease. Investigations of the later 20th century revealed cases of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
In the years following the school system's dismantling in 1969, several investigations opened up into hundreds of missing deceased children. An initial investigation launched in 2022 estimated that over five hundred children died while part of the school system.

## Investigation

An investigation by the federal government commissioned by United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland— the first Native American cabinet secretary— investigated over 400 American Indian boarding school sites to determine the location of deceased children, their gravesites, and details surrounding their life and death in the institutions.
On 30 July 2024, findings of the investigation were released. The findings indicated that at least 973 Native American children were discovered to have died in the boarding school system, with sixty-five of the surveyed schools possessing gravesites with buried children. Of these, twenty-one unmarked gravesites and fifty-three marked gravesites were found. The investigation determined that while specific causes of death could not yet be determined, that the primary causes of death were from illness and abuse. The investigation also noted that the true number of deaths could be higher based on unknown numbers of children who died from illness caught at the school after being sent away from it. Additional reasons for unaccounted deaths or gravesites included unrecorded deaths outside of the 1819-1969 period, deaths from non-federally funded schools, deaths in institutions without public records, and deaths in assimilatory institutions that were not schools including asylums, day schools, orphanages, and dormitories.
Deb Haaland characterized the boarding school system as a "concerted attempt to eradicate the 'Indian problem'" through assimilation or outright wiping out Native American culture. While expressing personal remorse, Haaland suggested that the United States federal government needed to make a formal apology on behalf of the abuse, death, and trauma caused by the school system. The Department of the Interior recommended compensation for the Native American communities with government spending proportional to the estimated US$23.3 billion (inflation-adjusted) federal expenditure granted to the federal boarding school system. It also recommended significant investment in programs to help the Native American communities recover from trauma caused by the federal boarding school system, placing government funding into education, violence prevention, and programs for revitalizing Indigenous languages.

## Tribe groups of the deceased children

The below table documents the associated tribes of each children that died in the federal boarding school system:
Deceased Students of Federal Indian Boarding Schools (FIBS) by Tribe Group :
| Tribe Group | Number of deceased students |
| Alaskan | 31 |
| Apache | 91 |
| Arapaho | 14 |
| Blackfeet | 8 |
| Caddo Confederacy | 1 |
| Cheyenne | 15 |
| Cheyenne Arapaho, Oklahoma | 3 |
| Comanche | 3 |
| Confederated Grand Ronde | 1 |
| Confederated Umatilla | 1 |
| Confederated Warm Springs | 3 |
| Confederated Yakama | 2 |
| Crow | 4 |
| Five Tribes - Cherokee | 18 |
| Five Tribes - Chickasaw | 2 |
| Five Tribes - Choctaw | 38 |
| Five Tribes - Creek, Muscogee, Seminole | 8 |
| Gros Ventre | 8 |
| Ho-Chunk, Winnebago | 2 |
| Iowa | 1 |
| Kickapoo | 2 |
| Kiowa | 4 |
| Klamath, Modoc, Yahooskin | 10 |
| Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara | 19 |
| Menominee | 2 |
| Navajo | 136 |
| Nez Perce | 15 |
| Northern Arapaho | 3 |
| Northern Cheyenne | 3 |
| Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi | 51 |
| Omaha | 2 |
| Oneida | 8 |
| Other | 6 |
| Catawba, Issa, Essa, Iswa | 1 |
| Umpqua | 1 |
| Other Tribes - Pacific (Karuk, Luiseno, Mission Indians, Quartz Valley, Klamath, Shasta, Tolowa Dee-ni', Smith River) | 9 |
| Other Tribes - Western (Havasupai, Yava Supai, Hualapai, Mohave, Mojave, Quechan, Yuma, Washoe, Washo) | 13 |
| Paiute, Shoshone, Bannock | 42 |
| Pawnee | 6 |
| Peoria, Miami, Illinois Confederacy | 1 |
| Pima, Maricopa | 23 |
| Pit River Tribe | 1 |
| Pomo | 1 |
| Ponca | 1 |
| Pueblo | 34 |
| Quapaw | 2 |
| Sac and Fox | 6 |
| Salish | 12 |
| Seneca | 4 |
| Shawnee | 2 |
| Sioux, Assiniboine | 67 |
| Tohono O'odham | 18 |
| Ute | 19 |
| Wichita | 4 |
| Not Yet Identified | 238 |