I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5444 
To establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School 
Policies in the United States, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 
Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas (for herself, Mr. COLE, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. KILMER, 
Ms. LEGER
FERNANDEZ, Mr. YOUNG, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Ms. 
BONAMICI, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. POCAN, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. 
KAHELE, and Mr. HUFFMAN) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the 
Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined 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 Policies in the United States, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Truth and Healing 
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
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(1) 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 fed-
erally funded and controlled Christian-run schools, 
which had the intent and, in many cases, the effect, 
of termination, with dire and intentional con-
sequences on the cultures and languages of Indige-
nous peoples; 
(2) assimilation processes can be traced back 
to— 
(A) 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 na-
tions had with the United States; and 
(B) the Grant Administration’s peace pol-
icy 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 
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‘‘Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819’’), to be 
used by churches; 
(3) 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, relo-
cating them from their traditional homelands to 1 of 
at least 367 known Indian boarding schools, of 
which 73 remain open today, across 30 States; 
(4) beginning in 1820, missionaries from the 
United States arrived in Hawai‘i, bringing a similar 
desire to civilize Native Hawaiians and convert ‘‘Ha-
waiian 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; 
(5) as estimated by David Wallace Adams, pro-
fessor emeritus of history and education at Cleve-
land State University in Ohio, by 1926, nearly 83 
percent of American Indian and Alaska Native 
school-age children were enrolled in Indian boarding 
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schools in the United States, but, the full extent of 
the Indian Boarding School Policies has yet to be 
fully examined by— 
(A) the Federal Government or the church-
es who ran those schools; or 
(B) other entities who profited from the 
existence of those schools; 
(6) General Richard Henry Pratt, the founder 
and superintendent of the Carlisle Indian Industrial 
School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, stated that the 
ethos of Indian Boarding School Policies was to ‘‘kill 
the Indian in him, and save the man’’; 
(7) in 1878, General Pratt brought a group of 
American Indian warriors held as prisoners of war 
to what was then known as the Hampton Agricul-
tural and Industrial School in Hampton, Virginia, 
for a residential experiment in the education of In-
digenous people; 
(8) prior to arriving to the Hampton Agricul-
tural 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; 
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(9) 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; 
(10) General Armstrong modeled the Hampton 
Agricultural and Industrial School after the Hilo 
Boarding School in Hawai‘i, a missionary-run board-
ing school that targeted high performing Native Ha-
waiians to become indoctrinated in Protestant ide-
ology, which was similar to boarding schools led by 
missionaries in the similarly sovereign Five Tribes of 
Oklahoma, including the Cherokee and Chickasaw; 
(11) in addition to bringing a group of Amer-
ican 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 ap-
pointed by the Secretary of the Interior to be a Gen-
eral Agent of Education in the Alaska Territory; 
(12) Hampton Agricultural and Industrial 
School continued as a boarding school for American 
Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians until 
1923; 
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(13) founded in 1879, the Carlisle Indian In-
dustrial School set the precedent for government- 
funded, off-reservation Indian boarding schools in 
the United States, where more than 10,000 Amer-
ican Indian and Alaska Native children were en-
rolled from more than 140 Indian Tribes; 
(14) Indian boarding schools, and the policies 
that created, funded, and fueled their existence, were 
designed to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Na-
tive, and Native Hawaiian children into non-Native 
culture by stripping them of their cultural identities, 
often through physical, sexual, psychological, indus-
trial, and spiritual abuse and neglect; 
(15) 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 par-
ents, extended families, and communities; 
(16) at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School 
alone, approximately 180 American Indian and Alas-
ka Native children were buried; 
(17) according to research from the National 
Native American Boarding School Healing Coali-
tion— 
(A) 
while 
attending 
Indian 
boarding 
schools, American Indian, Alaska Native, and 
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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 involun-
tary and unpaid manual labor work during the 
summers; 
(B) many American Indian, Alaska Native, 
and Native Hawaiian children escaped from In-
dian boarding schools by running away, and 
then remained missing or died of illnesses due 
to harsh living conditions, abuse, or sub-
standard health care provided by the Indian 
boarding schools; 
(C) 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 
(D) many of the American Indian and 
Alaska Native children who died while attend-
ing Indian boarding schools or neighboring hos-
pitals were buried in unmarked graves or off- 
campus cemeteries; 
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(18) according to independent ground pene-
trating radar and magnetometry research commis-
sioned by the National Native American Boarding 
School Healing Coalition, evidence of those un-
marked graves and off-campus cemeteries has been 
found, including— 
(A) unmarked graves at Chemawa Indian 
School in Salem, Oregon; and 
(B) remains of children who were burned 
in incinerators at Indian boarding schools; 
(19) 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, especially because— 
(A) less than 38 percent of Indian board-
ing school records have been located, from only 
142 of the at least 367 known Indian boarding 
schools; and 
(B) all other records are believed to be 
held in catalogued and uncatalogued church ar-
chives, private collections, or lost or destroyed; 
(20) parents of the American Indian, Alaska 
Native, and Native Hawaiian children who were 
forcibly removed from or coerced into leaving their 
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homes and placed in Indian boarding schools were 
prohibited from visiting or engaging in correspond-
ence with their children; 
(21) parental resistance to compliance with the 
harsh no-contact policy described in paragraph (20) 
resulted in the parents being incarcerated or losing 
access to basic human rights, food rations, and 
clothing; 
(22) 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 vet-
erans; 
(23) in 2014, the White House Report on Na-
tive Youth declared a state of emergency due to a 
suicide epidemic among American Indian and Alaska 
Native youth; 
(24) the 2018 Broken Promises Report pub-
lished by the United States Commission on Civil 
Rights reported that American Indian and Alaska 
Native communities continue to experience intergen-
erational trauma resulting from experiences in In-
dian boarding schools, which divided cultural family 
structures, damaged Indigenous identities, and in-
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flicted chronic psychological ramifications on Amer-
ican Indian and Alaska Native children and families; 
(25) the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Expe-
riences Study shows that adverse or traumatic child-
hood 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; 
(26) American Indians, Alaska Natives, and 
Native Hawaiians suffer from disproportional rates 
of each of the diseases described in paragraph (25) 
compared to the national average; 
(27) the longstanding intended consequences 
and ramifications of the treatment of American In-
dian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children, 
families, and communities because of Federal poli-
cies and the funding of Indian boarding schools con-
tinue to impact Native communities through inter-
generational trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, 
disappearance, health disparities, substance abuse, 
premature deaths, additional undocumented phys-
ical, sexual, psychological, industrial, and spiritual 
abuse and neglect, and trauma; 
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