Federal report on Indigenous boarding schools, including Chemawa, expected soon

The Interior Department is on the verge of releasing a report on its investigation into the federal government's past oversight of Native American boarding schools.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told journalists during a call Wednesday that the report will come out in April but didn't specify a date. She first outlined the initiative in June, saying it would uncover the truth about the loss of life and the lasting consequences of boarding schools.

Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support boarding schools for Native Americans across the nation. For more than 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their communities and forced into these assimilation-focused schools.

Discoveries of the remains of more than 1,000 children in Canada renewed a spotlight in the U.S. and stirred strong emotions among tribal communities that included grief, anger, reflection and a deep desire for healing.

In Salem, the Chemawa Indian Boarding School is the oldest continuously operated and federally run Indian boarding school in the United States. It is one of only four off-reservation boarding schools still open.

Chemawa Indian School:Families seek answers, healing through federal investigation

The 140-year-old school had 337 students enrolled last school year but enrolled more than 30,000 children in its first 96 years alone.

Former Chemawa students and their families have said they hope the investigation brings answers and healing. There have been about 200 burials documented at Chemawa Cemetery, which was established in 1886, a year after the school was moved from Forest Grove to its current location east of Keizer Station and Interstate 5.

The exact number varies depending on the source of the list. Most recently, a former volunteer historian for Chemawa, SuAnn Reddick, published a list she had been working on for nearly 25 years. Reddick does not believe any unmarked graves exist outside the fenced perimeter of the grounds.

The latest records indicate that:

• At least 270 students died in custody of the schools at Forest Grove and Chemawa between 1880 and 1945.
• Approximately 175 of those children were buried in the school cemetery.
• Remains of approximately 40 students were returned home near the time of their deaths between 1880-1945.
• The locations of approximately 50 students' remains are unaccounted for, although maps indicate there could be up to 40 plots in the cemetery that contain remains of unidentified students or staff.

In an interview with the Statesman, Reddick said she had decided to share her research to "help families."

Families of former Chemawa students said the investigation into Indigenous boarding schools is long overdue. They spoke of a need for the federal government to acknowledge what happened at schools like Chemawa. Information about what students decades ago went through or even what happened to students who died can be inaccurate, incomplete or inaccessible. The investigation could change that, they said.

There have also been community calls for further acknowledgment of the impact of the removal of children from the families, the way schools often stripped the children of their culture and language, and the treatment of the children at the schools.

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Dozens took part in a 49-mile run last summer from Oregon City to Salem to raise awareness of the Indigenous youth buried at Chemawa.

"We want closure," said Milton Sahme Jr., one of the organizers of the event. "We want closure for the descendants, for the survivors, for the elders and for the spirits of those children who never had a chance to have that safe journey to the other side.”

Haaland in her call acknowledged the emotion surrounding this issue.

“We have been very cognizant of the fact that we need to create a safe space for people to share information and seek resources,” Haaland said Wednesday. “We recognize this is a very traumatic experience for many people.”

The Interior Department said it had no further details when contacted by The Associated Press.

The work on boarding schools will include compiling and reviewing records to identify past schools, locate known and possible burial sites at or near those schools, and uncover the names and tribal affiliations of students, Haaland said.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition signed an agreement with the Interior Department in December to share research but has noted that Interior's authority is limited.

“We see it as a critical first step for this country to acknowledge and address the horrors and cultural genocide our Native children, families and tribal nations suffered through Indian boarding schools run by the federal government and churches,” said Deborah Parker, the coalitions' chief executive and a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes.

The coalition is in Washington this week pushing for bills that would create a commission to expand on Interior's findings, said spokeswoman Lora Horgen, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.

Haaland made her remarks on boarding schools in highlighting the work she and others in the Interior Department have done since she took over the agency a year ago. Haaland, of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, is the first Native American ever to hold the post — raising the hopes of Indian Country for significant changes in an agency that has broad oversight of tribal affairs.

She summed up the work as impactful. She noted the administration's response to climate change, the coronavirus and to the need for improvements to roads, broadband and other infrastructure. Tribal leaders have welcomed infusions of funding but said those investments need to be sustained in the future.

Specifically for Native American tribes, Haaland pointed to the restoration of the original boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah; a push to create a buffer around Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico to protect the area that's sacred to pueblo tribes from new oil and gas leasing; and a commitment to scrub a derogatory term for Native American women from geographic features on federal land.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday also renewed the Violence Against Women Act, which includes provisions to protect Native American women that had been lacking, Haaland said.

Haaland was joined in the call by fellow New Mexican Tanya Trujillo, an assistant secretary for water and science at the Interior Department. Trujillo outlined investments in water infrastructure that she said will help build resiliency in the system and ensure there's enough for the natural environment that relies on it.

The U.S. West is in the midst of a megadrought that has shrunken rivers and key water sources faster than expected. On Wednesday, Lake Powell on the Colorado River dropped to its lowest level ever, raising new concerns about power produced at the dam that holds it back on the Arizona-Utah border.

Already, California, Nevada, Arizona and Mexico are taking a mix of voluntary and mandatory water cuts from the river.

Statesman Journal reporter Dianne Lugo contributed to this article.