IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1526 

Recognizing the week of September 30th as ‘‘National Orange Shirt Week’’ 

or ‘‘National Week of Remembrance’’, which aims to honor those who 

were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to recognize the 

experience of Indian boarding school victims and survivors. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 1, 2024 

Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the week of September 30th as ‘‘National Orange Shirt Week’’ or ‘‘National Week of Remembrance’’, 

which aims to honor those who were forced to attend 

Indian boarding schools, and to recognize the experience 

of Indian boarding school victims and survivors. 

Whereas assimilation processes, such as the Indian Boarding 

School Policies, were adopted by the United States Government to strip American Indian, Alaska Native, and 

Native Hawaiian children of their Indigenous identities, 

beliefs, and languages to assimilate them into non-Native 

culture through federally funded and controlled Christian-run schools, which had the intent and, in many 

cases, the effect, of termination, with dire and intentional 


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consequences on the cultures and languages of Indigenous peoples; 

Whereas assimilation processes can be traced back to— 

(1) the enactment of the Act of March 3, 1819 (3 

Stat. 516, chapter 85) (commonly known as the ‘‘Indian 

Civilization Fund Act of 1819’’), which created a fund to 

administer the education, healthcare, and rations promised to Tribal nations under treaties those Tribal nations 

had with the United States; and 

(2) the Grant Administration’s peace policy with 

Tribal nations in 1868, which, among other things, authorized amounts in the fund established under the Act 

of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85) (commonly 

known as the ‘‘Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819’’), 

to be used by churches; 

Whereas, according to research from the National Native 

American Boarding School Healing Coalition, the Federal 

Government funded church-run boarding schools for Native Americans from 1819 through the 1960s under the 

Act of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85), which 

authorized the forced removal of hundreds of thousands 

of American Indian and Alaska Native children as young 

as 3 years old, relocating them from their traditional

homelands to 1 of at least 526 known Indian boarding

schools, of which 125 remain open today, across 38 

States; 

Whereas, beginning in 1820, missionaries from the United 

States arrived in Hawai’i, bringing a similar desire to civilize Native Hawaiians and convert ‘‘Hawaiian heathens’’ 

to Christians, establishing day schools and boarding 

schools that followed models first imposed on Tribal nations on the East Coast of the United States; 


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Whereas, as estimated by David Wallace Adams, professor 

emeritus of history and education at Cleveland State University in Ohio, by 1926, nearly 83 percent of American 

Indian and Alaska Native school-age children were enrolled in Indian boarding schools in the United States, 

but, the full extent of the Indian Boarding School Policies has yet to be fully examined by— 

(1) the Federal Government or the churches who 

ran those schools; or 

(2) other entities who profited from the existence of 

those schools; 

Whereas, in 1878, General Pratt brought a group of American Indian warriors held as prisoners of war to what was 

then known as the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial 

School in Hampton, Virginia, for a residential experiment 

in the education of Indigenous people; 

Whereas, prior to arriving to the Hampton Agricultural and 

Industrial School in 1878, the American Indian warriors 

held as prisoners of war had already spent 3 years imprisoned, during which time they were forced to shave 

their traditionally grown hair, dress in military uniforms, 

participate in Christian worship services, and adopt an 

English name; 

Whereas General Samuel C. Armstrong, founder and, in 

1878, principal, of the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, was influenced by his parents and other missionaries in the United States involved in the education 

of Native Hawaiian children; 

Whereas General Armstrong modeled the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School after the Hilo Boarding 

School in Hawai’i, a missionary-run boarding school that 

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doctrinated in Protestant ideology, which was similar to 

boarding schools led by missionaries in the similarly sovereign Five Tribes of Oklahoma, including the Cherokee 

and Chickasaw; 

Whereas, in addition to bringing a group of American Indian 

warriors held as prisoners of war to the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School in 1878, General Pratt influenced Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary 

who, in 1885, was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to be a General Agent of Education in the Alaska 

Territory; 

Whereas Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School continued as a boarding school for American Indians, Alaska 

Natives, and Native Hawaiians until 1923; 

Whereas, founded in 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial 

School set the precedent for government-funded, off-reservation Indian boarding schools in the United States, 

where more than 10,000 American Indian and Alaska 

Native children were enrolled from more than 140 Indian 

Tribes; 

Whereas Indian boarding schools, and the policies that created, funded, and fueled their existence, were designed to 

assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native 

Hawaiian children into non-Native culture by stripping 

them of their cultural identities, often through physical, 

sexual, psychological, industrial, and spiritual abuse and 

neglect; 

Whereas many of the children who were taken to Indian 

boarding schools did not survive, and of those who did 

survive, many never returned to their parents, extended 

families, and communities; 


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Whereas at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School alone, approximately 180 American Indian and Alaska Native children were buried; 

Whereas, according to research from the National Native 

American Boarding School Healing Coalition— 

(1) while attending Indian boarding schools, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children suffered additional physical, sexual, psychological, 

industrial, and spiritual abuse and neglect as they were 

sent to non-Native homes and businesses for involuntary 

and unpaid manual labor work during the summers; 

(2) many American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children escaped from Indian boarding 

schools by running away, and then remained missing or 

died of illnesses due to harsh living conditions, abuse, or 

substandard health care provided by the Indian boarding 

schools; 

(3) many American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children died at hospitals neighboring Indian boarding schools, including the Puyallup Indian 

School that opened in 1860, which was first renamed the 

Cushman Indian School in 1910 and then the Cushman 

Hospital in 1918; and 

(4) many of the American Indian and Alaska Native 

children who died while attending Indian boarding 

schools or neighboring hospitals were buried in unmarked 

graves or off-campus cemeteries; 

Whereas, according to independent ground penetrating radar 

and magnetometry research commissioned by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, evidence of those unmarked graves and off-campus 

cemeteries has been found, including— 


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(1) unmarked graves at Chemawa Indian School in 

Salem, Oregon; and 

(2) remains of children who were burned in incinerators at Indian boarding schools; 

Whereas, according to research from the National Native 

American Boarding School Healing Coalition, inaccurate, 

scattered, and missing school records make it difficult for 

families to locate their loved ones; 

Whereas parents of the American Indian, Alaska Native, and 

Native Hawaiian children who were forcibly removed 

from or coerced into leaving their homes and placed in 

Indian boarding schools were prohibited from visiting or 

engaging in correspondence with their children; 

Whereas parental resistance to compliance with the harsh nocontact policy resulted in the parents being incarcerated 

or losing access to basic human rights, food rations, and 

clothing; 

Whereas, in 2013, post-traumatic stress disorder rates among 

American Indian and Alaska Native youth were 3-times 

the general public, the same rates for post-traumatic 

stress disorder among veterans; 

Whereas, in 2014, the White House Report on Native Youth 

declared a state of emergency due to a suicide epidemic 

among American Indian and Alaska Native youth; 

Whereas the 2018 Broken Promises Report published by the 

United States Commission on Civil Rights reported that 

American Indian and Alaska Native communities continue to experience intergenerational trauma resulting 

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tions on American Indian and Alaska Native children and 

families; 

Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study 

shows that adverse or traumatic childhood experiences 

disrupt brain development, leading to a higher likelihood 

of negative health outcomes as adults, including heart 

disease, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and early 

death; 

Whereas American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians suffer from disproportional rates of each of the 

diseases compared to the national average; 

Whereas the longstanding intended consequences and ramifications of the treatment of American Indian, Alaska 

Native, and Native Hawaiian children, families, and communities because of Federal policies and the funding of 

Indian boarding schools continue to impact Native communities through intergenerational trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, health disparities, substance abuse, premature deaths, additional undocumented 

physical, sexual, psychological, industrial, and spiritual 

abuse and neglect, and trauma; 

Whereas, according to the Child Removal Survey conducted 

by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, the First Nations Repatriation Institute, 

and the University of Minnesota, 75 percent of Indian 

boarding school survivors who responded to the survey 

had attempted suicide, and nearly half of respondents to 

the survey reported being diagnosed with a mental health 

condition; 


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Whereas the continuing lasting implications of the Indian 

Boarding School Policies and the physical, sexual, psychological, industrial, and spiritual abuse and neglect of 

American Indian and Alaska Native children and families 

influenced the present-day operation of Bureau of Indian 

Education-operated schools; 

Whereas Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools have 

often failed to meet the many needs of nearly 50,000 

American Indian and Alaska Native students across 23 

States; 

Whereas, in Alaska, where there are no Bureau of Indian 

Education-funded elementary and secondary schools, the 

State public education system often fails to meet the 

needs of Alaska Native students, families, and communities; 

Whereas the assimilation policies imposed on American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians during the 

Indian boarding school era have been replicated through 

other Federal actions and programs, including the Indian 

Adoption Project in effect from 1958 to 1967, which 

placed American Indian and Alaska Native children in 

non-Indian households and institutions for foster care or 

adoption; 

Whereas the Association on American Indian Affairs reported 

that the continuation of assimilation policies through 

Federal American Indian and Alaska Native adoption 

and foster care programs between 1941 to 1967 separated as many as one-third of American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families in Tribal communities; 


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Whereas, in some States, greater than 50 percent of foster 

care children in State adoption systems are American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian children, including in Alaska, where over 60 percent of children in foster 

care are Alaska Native; 

Whereas the general lack of public awareness, accountability, 

education, information, and acknowledgment of the ongoing and direct impacts of the Indian Boarding School 

Policies and related intergenerational trauma persists, 

signaling the overdue need for an investigative Federal 

commission to further document and expose assimilation 

and termination efforts to eradicate the cultures and languages of Indigenous peoples implemented under Indian 

Boarding School Policies; and 

Whereas, in the secretarial memorandum entitled ‘‘Federal 

Indian Boarding School Initiative’’ and dated June 22, 

2021, Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland stated the 

following: ‘‘The assimilationist policies of the past are 

contrary to the doctrine of trust responsibility, under 

which the Federal Government must promote Tribal selfgovernance and cultural integrity. Nevertheless, the legacy of Indian boarding schools remains, manifesting itself 

in Indigenous communities through intergenerational 

trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, premature deaths, and other undocumented bodily and mental impacts.’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives recog2 nizes ‘‘National Orange Shirt Week’’ or ‘‘National Week 

3 of Remembrance’’, which aims to honor those who were 

4 forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to recognize 


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1 the experience of Indian boarding school victims and sur2 vivors. 

Æ 


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