Report identifies 12 Indian boarding schools in North Dakota from 1876 to 1961

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – The Division of the Inside has printed findings from an investigation into the Federal Indian boarding college system. For the primary time, the division has developed an official checklist of Federal Indian boarding faculties.

After unmarked gravesites had been found at Indian boarding faculties throughout Canada final yr, Inside Secretary Deb Haaland ordered an investigation into American Indian boarding faculties. In line with the report, which was printed this month, there have been 12 faculties that operated at 14 places round North Dakota from as early as 1876 to as late as 1961.

The findings of the report are troubling, though not surprising, for quite a few North Dakotans.

“It’s a troublesome difficulty to method, I’ll say that. There was lots of trauma and there’s lots of therapeutic that should occur, with reference to what occurred to our elders in residential faculties,” mentioned Nathan Davis, government director of the Indian Affairs Fee.

The report identifies 408 federal boarding faculties throughout 37 states and then-territories. In addition they recognized marked and unmarked burial websites at 53 completely different faculties, none of which had been present in North Dakota.

The 12 faculties in North Dakota had been situated in Bismarck, Wahpeton, and on Spirit Lake, Fort Berthold, Standing Rock, and Turtle Mountain Reservations. The division of the Inside’s standards for designating boarding faculties had 4 parts, together with whether or not they housed college students, offered schooling, acquired federal funding, and had been operational previous to 1969.

Tribal leaders are hopeful the report facilitates a deeper degree of understanding for North Dakotans who may not in any other case have recognized concerning the historical past of Indian boarding faculties within the state.

“Within the state of North Dakota, how can we separate ourselves from previous coverage that was programmed to traditionally injury Native Individuals on the federal degree? How can we develop into a greater companion in figuring out that, acknowledging that, and transferring ahead collectively, into the long run?” mentioned government director of the Indian Affairs Fee Nathan Davis.

Davis mentioned this report is a vital first step within the therapeutic course of.

The Assistant Secretary of the Inside for Indian Affairs, who oversaw the analysis, recommends that the investigation be continued, with the aim of figuring out all services within the Federal Indian boarding college system, and particularly all places of marked and unmarked burial websites.

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