I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8420 

To establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 

Policy in the United States, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 

Ms. HAALAND (for herself, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. HECK, Ms. KENDRA S. HORN

of Oklahoma, Mr. MULLIN, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. 

DAVIDS of Kansas, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr. COLE, 

Mr. GALLEGO, Ms. MCCOLLUM, and Mr. LUJA ́N) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and 

in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be 

subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 

of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 

Boarding School Policy in the United States, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Truth and Healing 

5 Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds as follows: 

3 (1) The Indian Boarding School Policy was 

4 adopted by the United States Government to strip 

5 American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) chil6 dren of their indigenous identities, beliefs, and tradi7 tional languages to assimilate them into White 

8 American culture through federally funded Chris9 tian-run schools, which had the effect of cultural 

10 genocide. 

11 (2) For nearly a century, between 1869 and the 

12 1960s, the Federal Government implemented the In13 dian Boarding School Policy. This policy authorized 

14 the forced removal of hundreds of thousands of AI/ 

15 AN children, as young as 5 years old, relocating 

16 them from their homes in Tribal communities to one 

17 of the 367 Indian Boarding Schools across 30 

18 States. 

19 (3) By 1926, nearly 83 percent of AI/AN 

20 school-age children were enrolled in Indian boarding 

21 schools in the United States. However, because near22 ly 62 percent of the school records have been lost or 

23 destroyed, the full extent of the Federal Indian 

24 boarding school policy has not been identified. 

25 (4) Gen. Richard Henry Pratt, the founder and 

26 superintendent of the Carlisle Indian Industrial 


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1 School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, stated the ethos of 

2 this policy to ‘‘kill the Indian in him, and save the 

3 man’’. Founded in 1879, the Carlisle Indian School 

4 set the precedent as the first government-funded off5 reservation Indian boarding school in the United 

6 States where over 10,000 AI/AN children were en7 rolled from over 140 Tribes. 

8 (5) The Indian Boarding School policy was de9 signed to assimilate AI/AN children into White 

10 American culture by stripping them of their cultural 

11 identities, often through physical, sexual, psycho12 logical, and spiritual abuse and neglect. Many of the 

13 children who were taken to boarding schools never 

14 returned to their communities. At the Carlisle In15 dian School alone, approximately 180 AI/AN chil16 dren were buried. 

17 (6) While attending Indian boarding schools, 

18 AI/AN children suffered additional psychological 

19 abuses as they were sent to White-owned homes and 

20 businesses for involuntary and unpaid manual labor 

21 work during the summers. Many children ran away 

22 and remained missing, or died of illnesses due to 

23 harsh living conditions, abuse, and/or substandard 

24 health care provided by the schools. 


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1 (7) Many of the children were buried in un2 marked graves or off-campus cemeteries. Inaccurate, 

3 scattered, and missing school records make it nearly 

4 impossible for families to locate the final resting 

5 place of their loved ones, especially since only 38 

6 percent of the school’s records have been located 

7 from 142 of the known 367 boarding schools. 

8 (8) Parents of the children who were forcibly 

9 removed to the boarding schools were prohibited 

10 from visiting or engaging in correspondence with 

11 their children. Parental resistance to compliance 

12 with this harsh no-contact policy resulted in their in13 carceration or loss of access to basic provisions in14 cluding food rations, clothing, or both. 

15 (9) The 2018 Broken Promises Report pub16 lished by the United States Commission on Civil 

17 Rights reported that AI/AN communities continue to 

18 experience intergenerational trauma resulting from 

19 experiences in Indian Boarding Schools that divided 

20 cultural family structures, damaged indigenous iden21 tities, and inflicted chronic psychological ramifica22 tions on AI/AN children and families. 

23 (10) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre24 vention Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Expe25 riences Study shows that adverse or traumatic childVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:29 Oct 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8420.IH H8420

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1 hood experiences disrupts brain development leading 

2 to a higher likelihood of negative health outcomes as 

3 adults including, but not limited to, heart disease, 

4 obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. AI/ANs 

5 suffer from disproportional rates of each of these 

6 diseases compared to the national average today. 

7 (11) The longstanding ramifications of the in8 humane treatment of AI/AN children and families at 

9 these boarding schools continues to impact Tribal 

10 communities through intergenerational trauma, cy11 cles of violence and abuse, disappearance, health dis12 parities, substance abuse, premature deaths, and ad13 ditional undocumented psychological trauma. 

14 (12) The continuing lasting implications of the 

15 Federal Indian Boarding School Policy and inhu16 mane treatment of AI/AN children and families in17 fluenced modern U.S. Department of the Interior’s 

18 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-operated schools. 

19 These schools have often failed to meet the many 

20 needs of nearly 50,000 AI/AN students across 23 

21 States. 

22 (13) The replication of assimilation policies of 

23 the boarding school era also presented itself through 

24 other Federal programs like the Indian Adoption 

25 Project (1958 to 1967) that placed AI/AN children 


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1 in non-Indian households and institutions for foster 

2 care or adoption across 25 States. 

3 (14) The Association on American Indian Af4 fairs reported that the continuation of cultural geno5 cide and assimilation policies through Federal AI/ 

6 AN adoption and foster care programs between 

7 1941 to 1967 separated as many as one-third of Na8 tive American children from their families in Tribal 

9 communities, subsequently prompting the creation of 

10 the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to stop the re11 moval of children. 

12 (15) In some States, over 50 percent of foster 

13 care children in State adoption systems are Native 

14 American. The general lack of public awareness, in15 formation, and acknowledgment of the residual im16 pacts of the Indian Boarding School Policy and in17 tergenerational trauma remain, signaling the over18 due need for an investigative Federal committee to 

19 further document and expose the assimilation and 

20 cultural genocide implemented under this policy. 

21 SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 

22 The purposes of this Act are as follows: 

23 (1) To establish a new Truth and Healing Com24 mission on Indian Boarding School Policy in the 

25 United States to formally investigate and document, 


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1 for the first time in history, cultural genocide, as2 similation practices, and human rights violations of 

3 Indian Boarding Schools in the United States, to 

4 study the impact and ongoing effects of historical 

5 and intergenerational trauma in Tribal communities, 

6 and to provide a forum for Indigenous victims and 

7 families to discuss the personal impacts of physical, 

8 psychological, and spiritual violence. 

9 (2) To further develop recommendations for the 

10 Federal Government to acknowledge and heal the 

11 historical and intergenerational trauma caused by 

12 the Federal Indian Boarding School Policy and 

13 other cultural genocide practices, including rec14 ommendations to stop the continued removal of AI/ 

15 AN children from their families and Tribal commu16 nities under modern-day assimilation practices car17 ried out by State social service departments, foster 

18 care agencies, and adoption services. 

19 SEC. 4. TRUTH AND HEALING COMMISSION ON INDIAN 

20 BOARDING SCHOOL POLICY IN THE UNITED 

21 STATES. 

22 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

23 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

24 means the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 


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1 Boarding School Policy in the United States estab2 lished by subsection (b)(1). 

3 (2) INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL POLICY.—The 

4 term ‘‘Indian Boarding School Policy’’ means the 

5 policy of the Federal Government under which more 

6 than 100,000 American Indian and Alaska Native 

7 children were forcibly removed from their family 

8 homes and placed in any of 460 Bureau of Indian 

9 Affairs-operated schools, including 367 Indian 

10 boarding schools, at which assimilation and ‘‘civiliza11 tion’’ practices were inflicted on those children as 

12 part of the assimilation efforts of the Federal Gov13 ernment, advancing eradication of indigenous peo14 ples’ cultures in the United States. 

15 (b) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is established the 

17 Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding 

18 School Policy in the United States. 

19 (2) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Commission 

20 is to investigate the experience, impacts, and ongo21 ing effects of the Indian Boarding School Policy, in22 cluding the impacts and ongoing effects of the inter23 generational trauma inflicted on American Indian 

24 and Alaska Native families, including physical, psy25 chological, sexual, and spiritual violence inflicted on 


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1 Native American children as young as 5 years old 

2 for speaking indigenous languages or engaging in 

3 traditional practices. In addition to, obtaining accu4 rate records and oral accounts of the events that 

5 took place at the boarding schools. 

6 (3) MEMBERSHIP.— 

7 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall 

8 be composed of members appointed as follows: 

9 (i) Not fewer than 1 member ap10 pointed by the President. 

11 (ii) Not fewer than 1 member ap12 pointed by the President pro tempore of 

13 the Senate, on the recommendation of the 

14 majority leader of the Senate. 

15 (iii) Not fewer than 1 member ap16 pointed by the President pro tempore of 

17 the Senate, on the recommendation of the 

18 minority leader of the Senate. 

19 (iv) Not fewer than 2 members ap20 pointed by the Speaker of the House of 

21 Representatives, of whom not fewer than 1 

22 shall be appointed on the recommendation 

23 of the minority leader of the House of 

24 Representatives. 


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1 (B) REQUIREMENTS FOR MEMBERSHIP.— 

2 To the maximum extent practicable, the Presi3 dent and the Members of Congress shall ap4 point members of the Commission under sub5 paragraph (A) to represent diverse experiences 

6 and backgrounds so as to include Tribal rep7 resentatives and experts who will provide bal8 anced points of view with regard to the duties 

9 of the Commission, including Tribal representa10 tives and experts— 

11 (i) from diverse geographic areas; and 

12 (ii) who possess personal experience 

13 with, diverse policy experience with, or spe14 cific expertise in, Indian boarding school 

15 history or the Indian Boarding School Pol16 icy. 

17 (C) PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENT.—The 

18 President shall make appointments to the Com19 mission under this paragraph in coordination 

20 with the Secretary of the Interior and the Di21 rector of the Bureau of Indian Education. 

22 (D) MEMBERS TO BE INCLUDED.—To the 

23 maximum extent practicable, the membership of 

24 the Commission shall include— 

25 (i) 1 representative from each of— 


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1 (I) the National Native American 

2 Boarding School Healing Coalition; 

3 (II) the National Indian Edu4 cation Association; 

5 (III) the American Indian Higher 

6 Education Consortium; and 

7 (IV) National Indian Child Wel8 fare Association; 

9 (ii) the Director or Administrator 

10 of— 

11 (I) the Bureau of Indian Edu12 cation; 

13 (II) the Office of Indian Edu14 cation of the Department of Edu15 cation; 

16 (III) the Administration for Na17 tive Americans of the Administration 

18 for Children and Families of the De19 partment of Health and Human Serv20 ices; and 

21 (IV) the National Museum of the 

22 American Indian of the Smithsonian 

23 Institution; 

24 (iii) not fewer than— 


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1 (I) 5 members of different Indian 

2 Tribes from diverse geographic areas, 

3 to be selected from among nomina4 tions submitted by Indian Tribes; 

5 (II) 2 health care or mental 

6 health practitioners, counselors, or 

7 providers with experience in working 

8 with former students of Indian board9 ing schools, to be selected from among 

10 nominations of Tribal chairs or elect11 ed Tribal leadership local to the re12 gion in which the practitioner, coun13 selor, or provider works; 

14 (III) 3 members of different na15 tional Indian organizations, regional 

16 Indian organizations, or urban Indian 

17 organizations that are focused on, or 

18 have relevant expertise with, the his19 tory and systemic trauma associated 

20 with the Indian Boarding School Pol21 icy; 

22 (IV) 4 former students or Indian 

23 survivors who attended Indian board24 ing schools; 


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1 (V) 2 family members of students 

2 who attended Indian boarding schools, 

3 to represent diverse regions of the 

4 United States; 

5 (VI) 2 students who currently at6 tend an Indian boarding school, in7 cluding not fewer than 1 student who 

8 currently attends the Chemawa Indian 

9 School (OR), Haskell Indian Nations 

10 University (KS), Mount Edgecumbe 

11 (AK), Santa Fe Indian School (NM), 

12 or Sherman Institute (CA); 

13 (VII) 2 students who currently 

14 attend a BIE-operated boarding 

15 school, tribally controlled boarding 

16 school, State public boarding school, 

17 private nonprofit boarding school for18 merly operated by the Federal Gov19 ernment, parochial boarding school, 

20 and BIE-operated college or univer21 sity; 

22 (VIII) 2 former teachers who 

23 taught at an Indian boarding school 

24 for not fewer than 5 years; and 


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1 (IX) 1 representative of the 

2 International Indian Treaty Council 

3 (IITC) or Association on American 

4 Indian Affairs (AAIA). 

5 (E) DATE.—The appointments of the 

6 members of the Commission shall be made not 

7 later than 120 days after the date of the enact8 ment of this Act. 

9 (4) PERIOD OF APPOINTMENT; VACANCIES; RE10 MOVAL.— 

11 (A) PERIOD OF APPOINTMENT.—A mem12 ber of the Commission shall be appointed for a 

13 term of 2 years. 

14 (B) VACANCIES.—A vacancy in the Com15 mission— 

16 (i) shall not affect the powers of the 

17 Commission; and 

18 (ii) shall be filled in the same manner 

19 as the original appointment. 

20 (C) REMOVAL.—The President or a Mem21 ber of Congress making an appointment under 

22 paragraph (3)(A) may remove a member ap23 pointed by that President or Member of Con24 gress, respectively, only for neglect of duty or 

25 malfeasance in office. 


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1 (5) MEETINGS.—The Commission shall meet at 

2 the call of the Chairperson. 

3 (6) QUORUM.—A majority of the members of 

4 the Commission shall constitute a quorum, but a 

5 lesser number of members may hold hearings. 

6 (7) CHAIRPERSON AND VICE CHAIRPERSON.— 

7 The Commission shall select a Chairperson and Vice 

8 Chairperson from among the members of the Com9 mission. 

10 (c) DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall de12 velop recommendations on actions the Federal Gov13 ernment can take to adequately address the histor14 ical and intergenerational trauma inflicted by the In15 dian Boarding School Policy, including recommenda16 tions on ways to stop the continued removal of In17 dian children from their families and reservations 

18 under modern-day assimilation practices carried out 

19 by State social service departments, foster care 

20 agencies, and adoption agencies. 

21 (2) MATTERS STUDIED.—The matters studied 

22 by the Commission under paragraph (1) shall in23 clude— 


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1 (A) the implementation of the Indian 

2 Boarding School Policy at the 460 schools oper3 ated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs; 

4 (B) how the assimilation practices of the 

5 Federal Government advanced the cultural 

6 genocide of Native Americans; and 

7 (C) the impacts and ongoing effects of the 

8 Indian Boarding School Policy. 

9 (3) ADDITIONAL DUTIES.—In carrying out 

10 paragraph (1), the Commission shall locate, docu11 ment, analyze, and preserve records from boarding 

12 schools described in paragraph (2)(A), including any 

13 records held at State and local levels. 

14 (4) TESTIMONY.—The Commission shall take 

15 testimony from survivors of boarding schools de16 scribed in paragraph (2)(A), identifying how the ex17 perience impacts the lives of the survivors, so that 

18 their stories will be remembered as part of the his19 tory of the United States. 

20 (5) REPORT.—Not later than 24 months after 

21 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commis22 sion shall make publicly available and submit to the 

23 President, the White House Council on Native 

24 American Affairs, the Secretary of the Interior, the 

25 Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate, the 


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1 Committee on Natural Resources of the House of 

2 Representatives, and the Members of Congress mak3 ing appointments under paragraph (3)(A), a report 

4 containing— 

5 (A) a detailed statement of the findings 

6 and conclusions of the Commission; 

7 (B) the recommendations of the Commis8 sion for such legislation and administrative ac9 tions as the Commission considers appropriate; 

10 (C) the recommendations of the Commis11 sion to increase Federal funding to adequately 

12 fund American Indian and Alaska Native pro13 grams for mental health, traditional healing 

14 programs, and mandatory inclusion of Native 

15 American history, including the history of the 

16 Indian Boarding School Policy, in required K– 

17 12 curriculum; and 

18 (D) other related recommendations of the 

19 Commission— 

20 (i) to address historical and intergen21 erational trauma inflicted on American In22 dian and Alaska Native communities by 

23 the Indian Boarding School Policy; and 

24 (ii) to discontinue the harmful prac25 tices and policies that continue in boarding 


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1 schools operated or funded by the Bureau 

2 of Indian Education or other educational 

3 facilities operated on Indian reservations. 

4 (d) POWERS OF COMMISSION.—The Commission may 

5 hold such hearings, sit and act at such times and places, 

6 take such testimony, and receive such evidence as the 

7 Commission considers advisable to carry out this section. 

Æ 


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