Nearly 1,000 Indigenous children died in US government-run boarding schools: Report

A new report has revealed that nearly 1,000 Indigenous children have died in the US government-run boarding schools that sought to forcibly assimilate them into white society for over a century.

The federal report, released on Tuesday and commissioned by US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, said at least 973 Indigenous children have died while attending the abusive schools, calling on the government to apologize.

The report went on to say that it had found dozens of marked and unmarked graves at 65 of the more than 400 US boarding schools that were established across the country.

The findings don’t specify how each child died, but the causes of death included sickness, accidents and abuse during a 150-year period that ended in 1969, officials said.

US authorities began establishing abusive boarding schools in the early 1800s and continued operating them through the 1970s, with the stated goal of wiping out Native American culture.

Native American survivors of US boarding schools recount abuses

Elderly survivors of federally established US boarding schools for Native Americans recount widespread atrocities at the government-run institutions in a meeting with US Interior Secretary.

The notorious history of Indigenous boarding schools — where children were abused and prevented from speaking their languages— has long been suppressed by successive governments.

Many of these children never returned home, prompting many rights bodies to say that the number of student deaths could be in thousands or even tens of thousands.

Haaland, who is the first Indigenous woman to serve as a US cabinet secretary, said in a statement that the report aimed “to provide an accurate and honest picture” of what happened.

“The federal government – facilitated by the Department I lead – took deliberate and strategic actions through federal Indian boarding school policies to isolate children from their families, deny them their identities, and steal from them the languages, cultures and connections that are foundational to Native people,” Haaland said.

“The Road to Healing does not end with this report – it is just beginning,” she added.

The latest findings follow a series of listening sessions across the US over the past two years in which dozens of former students recounted the harsh and often degrading treatment they endured while separated from their families.

US Interior Secretary vows to unveil ‘brutal’ history of Native American boarding schools

US Interior Secretary vows to unveil as much history as possible about cruelties perpetrated within the Native American boarding school system that separated generations of children from their families to wipe out indigenous culture.

Tuesday’s report doesn't specify who should issue the apology on behalf of the federal government, saying only that it should be issued through "appropriate means and officials to demonstrate that it is made on behalf of the people of the United States and be accompanied by bold and actionable policies."

The US government has never acknowledged how many children attended such schools, how many children died or went missing from them or even how many schools existed.

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