Okla. Tribal Leaders Say Time Is Running Out On Legislation To Investigate Native American Boarding Schools

The clock is ticking for legislation to uncover the full impact Native American boarding schools in the country had on students.

Oklahoma tribal leaders are meeting this week in Stroud for the annual United Indian Nations of Oklahoma meeting to make a call for action on legislation in Congress.

Tribal leaders and citizens were urged to call their Congressional representatives to pass SB 1723 and HB 7227 which would create a Native American boarding school investigative commission. “These bills are just the beginning of a healing process,” said Chief Ben Barnes, Shawnee Tribe. 

It's a journey that started with the first Indigenous Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. She visited boarding schools and Native communities across the country starting in Anadarko, Oklahoma for the Truth and Healing Commission.

“For some of these elders that went to these places,” said Barnes. “We’re running out of time to get their stories.”

Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes is part of a national coalition supporting federal legislation to investigate Indian Boarding Schools. “For every single boarding school attendee, their families and communities were impacted,” said Barnes. “When you remove children from home, you remove laughter from communities.”

Barnes said many survivors brought back trauma from abuse while others never returned home. The Truth and Healing legislation will uncover the exact number of students who died.

“They will have subpoena power to gather the records for some of these boarding schools that were not federally run, they were run by other institutions,” said Barnes.

The bills have bi-partisan support but if not passed this session, Barnes said the decade-long work that has been done could be lost under a new Congress. “We just need those bills, either one, to have their day on the floor,” said Barnes. “The time to do so is now.”

Chief Barnes said if passed the two bills would create a six-year commission.

There were more than 500 Native student boarding schools in the country. A majority of them were in Oklahoma and Alaska.