The House Education and the Workforce Committee advanced bipartisan legislation from U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) on June 13 to investigate and report on the histories of Indian boarding schools that tried to erase Indigenous cultures.
Rep. Cole introduced the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2024, H.R. 7227, with U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS) in February.
“Indian boarding schools have had devastating impacts on Native communities,” Rep. Cole said. “Yet, for so many years, the true stories about what happened to these Native children are unknown.”
The federal government operated hundreds of Indian boarding schools across the country between 1819 and 1969. The schools purported to “assimilate” and “civilize” American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians through physical and mental abuse, forced removal from homes, and identity-altering practices intended to terminate Native languages, cultures, and religions, the bill states.
H.R. 7227 would establish a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States to formally document the systematic and long-term effects of those schools and policies on Native American peoples. One goal of the measure would be to develop recommendations for federal participation based on the findings of the commission and to promote healing of Indian Boarding School survivors and their descendants, according to the text of the bill.
“As an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and the longest-serving Native American in the House of Representatives, it is a priority of mine to properly represent our Indian communities in Congress,” Rep. Cole said. “Therefore, I am committed to investigating the tragic abuses that occurred at these boarding schools and bringing light to this dark chapter in our nation’s history.”