ELCA Action Alert: Urge House to reintroduce Truth & Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. Act
While active in the Senate, the House must be urged to move forward the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act toward passage.
The purpose of federal Indian boarding schools was to culturally assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children by forcibly removing them from their families and Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and Native Hawaiian Community.
The commission is intended to develop recommendations for the federal government to acknowledge and heal the ongoing historical and intergenerational trauma passed down in Native families and communities and provide a forum for survivors to speak about these human rights violations.
Building on the support of the 117th Congress and reintroduction in the Senate during the 118th, let's urge advancing in the House!
Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly support S.1723.
The ELCA’s Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery includes our church’s commitment “to supporting the healing of survivors of Indian boarding schools, adoption, and foster care and their descendants while advocating for policies that will bring both truth and justice” (from A Declaration of the [ELCA] to American Indian and Alaska Native People, p. 4).
In May 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs released Volume 1 of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report that details the legacy of violence and abuse and death perpetrated by Indian boarding schools. The report found that the United States operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states (or then-territories) between 1819 and 1969 and identified 53 burial sites for children across the system. The boarding schools sought to advance goals of forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples through the forced removal and relocation of their children.
Our advocacy will further the ELCA’s commitment to realizing justice and equity for Indigenous people. We support the reintroduction in the Senate of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S.1723) and urge the House to also introduce it so that this important legislation can be passed. Congress must act to pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act and initiate long-overdue steps towards healing intergenerational trauma and seeking justice for survivors and their families.
"Initial investigation results show that approximately 50 percent of Federal Indian boarding schools may have received support or involvement from a religious institution or organization, including funding, infrastructure, and personnel," states the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report (Volume 1, p. 7).
Many of us in the faith community are compelled to support realization of a Truth and Healing Commission in the United States, and we are grateful for the advocacy and work being done by faith leaders and partners. Invite others in your congregations and faith community connections to use the ELCA Action Alert tool to craft their messages from ELCA.org/advocacy/actioncenter.
In addition to Volume 1, read further about the report's findings in:
The House must act now. Please urge them to do so by sending a personalizing message today.
Sample letter from ELCA Advocacy:
As a person of faith and as your constituent, the importance of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act is pressing, and we urge the House to reintroduce it toward passage. This legislation would initiate investigation into the impacts and ongoing effects of the Indian Boarding School Policies (federal policies under which American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were forcibly removed from their family homes and tribal communities and placed in boarding schools that were operated and/or funded by the U.S. federal government). It will take important first steps towards healing intergenerational trauma and seeking justice for survivors of these schools and their families and nations.
This legislation is important to me as a long-overdue measure to realize justice and equity for Indigenous people. It is supported by my church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and many other denominations and faith communities, as an essential and urgent measure to address the centuries-long policy of the U.S. federal government, with the support to Christian churches, to separate families and eradicate Indigenous culture and identity through indoctrination and forced assimilation of Native children at Indian boarding schools.
I hope that all members of Congress, from all parties, will recognize the importance of this legislation to their constituents and pass the act as soon as possible. Thank you for advancing this in the House toward passage, and for your service to our country.