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- By Native News Online Staff
WASHINGTON – In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), the nation’s first Native American presidential cabinet secretary, said the United States needs to address the abuse in Indian boarding schools.
Haaland referenced the recent discovery of an unmarked mass grave in Canada containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children on the grounds of a closed-down residential school in Canada.
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Haaland tells the story of her maternal grandparents who “stolen” from their families when only 8-years-olds and put in Indian boarding schools.
She also recounts her great-grandfather attended Carlisle Indian School:
“My great-grandfather was taken to Carlisle Indian in Pennsylvania. Its founder coined the phrase ‘kill the Indian, and save the man,’ which genuinely reflects the influences that framed these policies at the time.”
In the op-ed, Haaland cites the Biden administration’s commitment to strengthen tribal sovereignty.
As she concludes, Haaland the country must acknowledge the painful truths of the Indian boarding schools.
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"Though it is uncomfortable to learn that the country you love is capable of committing such acts, the first step to justice is acknowledging these painful truths and gaining a full understanding of their impacts so that we can unravel the threads of trauma and injustice that linger,” she writes.
CLICK to read Secretary Haaland's entire op-ed.
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