Navajo Nation Leaders Back Federal Probe Of US Boarding School Policies From 19th Century

(@FahadShabbir)

Navajo Nation Leaders Back Federal Probe of US Boarding School Policies From 19th Century

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2021) The Navajo Nation leadership supports the US Interior Department's investigation into Native American boarding school policies from the 19th Century, the tribe said in a press release.

Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland announced earlier in the day a Federal probe to identify boarding schools for Native Americans as well as to locate possible mass burial sites near those facilities following the discovery of a mass grave with 215 Indigenous children in Canada.

"President [Jonathan] Nez said he fully supports the initiative and stated that federal boarding schools is only one example of injustices and harm inflicted on Native American people stemming from racism," the release said on Tuesday.

Beginning with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the US government adopted laws and enacted policies to establish Indian boarding schools across the United States, which were used to culturally assimilate hundreds of thousands of Native American children by forcibly relocating them away from their families and communities.

Native American children's identities, languages, and beliefs were suppressed in these boarding schools.

The Navajo chief said some of the Indigenous children were abused physically, mentally, and sexually at these boarding schools.

Nez said in the release that there are many atrocities and injustices that have been inflicted on Native Americans dating back hundreds of years to the present that need national attention.

The federal investigation will include three stages - identification of all boarding schools and their students, consultations with tribal organizations, and conducting sitework to protect cemeteries and burial sites - and will result in a final written report submitted no later than by April 1, 2022, Haaland said in a memorandum published on the same day.