The Curyung Tribal Council signed a resolution last week in support of a U.S. Senate bill aimed at healing the impacts of boarding institutions on a federal level.
If passed, Senate Bill 1723, called the “Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act,” would establish a commission to investigate, document, and report on the impacts and ongoing effects of past boarding institution policies. The commission would also make recommendations for federal reparations.
Tiffany Webb is a Tribal Chief of the Curyung Tribal Council, the federally recognized tribe for the community of Dillingham. She says the tribe supports The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, or NABS. NABS is a nonprofit formed in 2012 to advocate on behalf of those impacted by boarding institution policies and has been working to introduce a federal commission for over a decade.
“To more thoroughly tell our story, and for the government to look into what happened, the impact of what's happening today, how it's changed our communities and how it's changed us all. The resulting disparities that we experience in our communities as Native people,” said Webb.
The tribe's resolution points to hundreds of thousands of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children that were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in federal and church-run institutions between the years 1819 and 1968. Many children experienced physical and sexual abuse, and many died, often then buried in unmarked graves.
Webb says the harm children experienced was twofold.
“While they were experiencing all that violence, they also were not experiencing any of the traditional teachings they weren't experiencing, you know, like being a part of a family, being part of a community. So the impact of the boarding institutions on all Native communities cannot be understated,” said Webb.
The resolution states that the boarding institutions policies continue to have ramifications. It says historic and intergenerational trauma has led to cycles of violence and abuse, substance abuse, health disparities, disappearance, and premature deaths.
Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder in Native youth were three times the general public – the same as veterans – according to a 2013 study. Webb says knowing the origins of these experiences has been beneficial.
“I guess maybe for me personally, understanding some of the things I experienced as a kid, knowing where it came from has helped me,” said Webb. “It may help other people to understand that these are learned behaviors that don't belong to us. We didn't create these circumstances but we do have to deal with it now.”
Senate Bill 1723 was introduced in 2023 by Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. It is currently awaiting a vote in the senate. If it does not pass before the end of the year, it will have to be reintroduced in the next congressional session.
