fbpx
facebook app symbol  twitter  linkedin  instagram 1

 Photo: Jenna Kunze for Native News Online

Beginning in May 2021, Native News Online committed its newsroom to covering one of the most important stories of our times: the fraught legacy of Indian Boarding Schools that the federal government operated for 150 years with the help of numerous Christian denominations and churches. Our mission is to shine a bright light on this dark era of forced assimilation of Native American children and its continuing impact on American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and First Nations families to this day.  

The following pages compile our coverage, including stories, photography, and live stream events. Want to submit news or share a personal story about how Indian Boarding Schools affected you or your family? Contact [email protected]. If you’d like to support our continuing coverage of boarding schools, please consider a one-time or recurring donation.

Photo: Brian Adams for Native News Online
  • Reflecting on the Losses of Native Students at Boarding Schools

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Opinion.Just days before Christmas, Sunday’s Washington Post reportrevealing that over 3,100 Native students died while attending Indian boarding schools cast a sobering shadow over this festive season. The article is a heartbreaking confirmation of what Indigenous communities have known and carried in silence for generations. 

  • President Biden to Designate National Monument at Carlisle Indian Boarding School

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    WASHINGTON — Today, December 9, at last White House Tribal Nations Summit of his presidency, President Joe Biden will announce a new monument to be built at Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School. This will further acknowledge the trauma inflicted on thousands of Native children by the federal government through the assimilationist policies of the boarding schools.

  • Thank You Joe! 

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Opinion.  I keep thinking about my grandmother as a young child attending Genoa Indian Industrial School in Nebraska, 240 miles from her family in Mayetta, Kansas. Native children arrived by train in Genoa, where their first experience was being sprayed down for lice.  

  • American Indian College Fund President Cheryl Crazy Bull on the President's Apology

    Type: Headshot
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Guest Opinion. The experiences of Native people with boarding schools touches nearly every Native American alive today.

  • Native News Online Publisher Levi Rickert on "Here and Now" on the Indian Boarding Schools Apology

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Native News Online's Publisher Levi Rickert was a guest on NPR's "Here and Now" Friday to discuss President Joe Biden's apology historic apology for federal Indian boarding schools that forcibly stripped Native children of their languages and culture over 150 years in a systematic campaign of assimilation.    

  • The President of the United States Issues Historic Apology for U.S. Indian Boarding School Atrocities

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    GILA RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION -- A moment of silence, and then an apology.

  • President Biden to Make Historic Apology for Federal Indian Boarding School System

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Hide Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    BREAKING NEWS. President Joe Biden plans to issue a historic apology for federal Indian boarding schools that forcibly stripped Native children of their languages and culture over 150 years in a systematic campaign of assimilation.   

  • Tribal Colleges & Universities Help Heal in Wake of Boarding School Legacy

    Type: Headshot
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Guest Opinion.  It’s back to school time! Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) across the country are opening their doors to students as they get ready to start a new semester.

  • Indian Boarding School Survivors Invited to Share Their Stories at Listening Session in Oneida, NY

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Former Indian boarding school attendees in and around New York are invited to participate in a listening session hosted by the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) in Oneida, New York, next week.

  • Negotiating for Lower Drug Prices Works, Saves Billions

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Guest Opinion.President Biden always says that the ability to afford needed medicines is about dignity, hope, and fairness. Those words have been at the center of the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to implement the President’s lower cost prescription drug law, also known as the Inflation Reduction Act. This week marks a historic milestone, as the Biden-Harris Administration announced new, lower prices for 10 drugs selected for the first cycle of Medicare drug price negotiations. 

  • The Indian Boarding School Work Must Continue

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Opinion.The final Indian boarding school report, Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative - Volume II, releasedon Tuesday by the U.S. Department of the Interior chronicles the dark chapter in American history that describes the pain and suffering endured by thousands of Native American children.

  • Testimonies from The Road to Healing Tour

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    A portion of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative - Volume II, released today, contains snippets of testimonies from The Road to Healing tour.

  • DOI Releases Final Report on the Traumatic Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) today released its second — and final — reportfollowing a three-year investigation into the “traumatic and violent” legacy of Indian Boarding Schools that the U.S. government operated for a century and a half. 

  • 34th Annual Genoa U.S. Indian School Foundation Recognition and Remembrance Day Set for August 10th

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    The  Genoa U.S. Indian School Foundation announced on Wednesday its 34th annual Recognition and Remembrance Day gathering in Genoa, Nebraska. The one-event will be held on Saturday, August 10, 2024.

  • Bringing Light To A Dark Chapter In History

    Type: Headshot
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    Guest Opinion.From the mid-seventeenth century till the early twentieth century, Indian boarding schools were used as a tool to assimilate Native American children away from their rich culture. Yet, for far too long, the history, policies, and devastating impacts of these schools have been unknown. As an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and the longest serving Native American in the House of Representatives, it is not lost on me the duty I have to educate and spread awareness about Indian boarding schools and other tribal issues.

  • US Conference of Catholic Bishops Report Amounts to “Too Little Too Late”

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png
    Opinion. On Friday, a subcommittee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops releasedKeeping Christ’s Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry, a 56-page document that aims “to promote reconciliation and healing” and “serve as the renewed welcome for Indigenous Catholics in the life of the Church.”
     
  • US Bishops Release Pastoral Framework for Healing with Native Catholics

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    The largest group of Catholic leaders in the United States today released a guiding document to “promote reconciliation and healing” for its religious leaders serving Indigenous communities that academics and Native leaders say falls short of owning up to the role it played in Indian boarding schools.

  • Clergy Abuse of Over 1,000 Native American Children in Boarding Schools Unveiled in Washington Post Exposé

    Type: Headshot
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    A Washington Post investigation published today revealed at least 122 priests, sisters and brothers assigned to 22 Indian boarding schools in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest since the 1890s were accused of sexually abusing Native American children in their care. Most of the documented abuse occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, affecting more than 1,000 children.

  • Army Seeks Extension in Lawsuit Over Return of Native Childrens’ Remains

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    The Department of Justice has requested a 10-day extension to respond to a lawsuit that will likely determine whether or not the United States Office of Army Cemeteries is required to follow a process designed by federal law in returning the human remains of nearly 200 Native children. 

  • Army to Send Home 11 Native Children from Former Indian Boarding School

    Type: Default
    Ad Visibility: Show Article Ads
    Hide Blurb: No
    Hide More Stories Like This: False
    Reader Survey Question: No Question
    Video Poster: https://nativenewsonline.net/images/10_Years_Logo.png

    The remains of 11 Native American children who died more than a century ago at a government-run Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania will be going home to their closest living relatives this September, the U.S. Office of Army Cemeteries announced in a federal notice on April 9.