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 Or-
ange 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 Gov-
ernment 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 Chris-
tian-run schools, which had the intent and, in many 
cases, the effect, of termination, with dire and intentional 
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•HRES 1526 IH 
consequences on the cultures and languages of Indige-
nous 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 prom-
ised 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, au-
thorized 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 Na-
tive 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 civ-
ilize Native Hawaiians and convert ‘‘Hawaiian heathens’’ 
to Christians, establishing day schools and boarding 
schools that followed models first imposed on Tribal na-
tions on the East Coast of the United States; 
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•HRES 1526 IH 
Whereas, as estimated by David Wallace Adams, professor 
emeritus of history and education at Cleveland State Uni-
versity in Ohio, by 1926, nearly 83 percent of American 
Indian and Alaska Native school-age children were en-
rolled in Indian boarding schools in the United States, 
but, the full extent of the Indian Boarding School Poli-
cies 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 Amer-
ican 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 im-
prisoned, 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 Indus-
trial School, was influenced by his parents and other mis-
sionaries in the United States involved in the education 
of Native Hawaiian children; 
Whereas General Armstrong modeled the Hampton Agricul-
tural and Industrial School after the Hilo Boarding 
School in Hawai’i, a missionary-run boarding school that 
targeted high performing Native Hawaiians to become in-
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doctrinated in Protestant ideology, which was similar to 
boarding schools led by missionaries in the similarly sov-
ereign 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 Agri-
cultural and Industrial School in 1878, General Pratt in-
fluenced Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary 
who, in 1885, was appointed by the Secretary of the Inte-
rior to be a General Agent of Education in the Alaska 
Territory; 
Whereas Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School contin-
ued 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-res-
ervation 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 cre-
ated, 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, ap-
proximately 180 American Indian and Alaska Native chil-
dren were buried; 
Whereas, according to research from the National Native 
American Boarding School Healing Coalition— 
(1) while attending Indian boarding schools, Amer-
ican Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian chil-
dren 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 Na-
tive 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 Na-
tive Hawaiian children died at hospitals neighboring In-
dian 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 Na-
tional Native American Boarding School Healing Coali-
tion, 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 inciner-
ators 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 no- 
contact 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 con-
tinue to experience intergenerational trauma resulting 
from experiences in Indian boarding schools, which di-
vided cultural family structures, damaged Indigenous 
identities, and inflicted chronic psychological ramifica-
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