Haaland and Newland will travel to Alaska on October 22 to listen to survivors of the federal Indian Boarding School system and their descendants share their experiences.
Since July 2022, Haaland and Newland made stops in Anadako, Oklahome; Pellston, Michigan;Rosebud, South Dakota; Gila River Indian Community, Arizona; Many Farms, Arizona; Tulalip Indian Reservation, near Seattle, Washington; Onamia, Minnesota; and Riverside and Rohnert Park, California.
The tour was scheduled to stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on October 1 but was postponed ahead of the threat of a government shutdown.
Last year, Haaland launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to shed light on the troubled history of Federal Indian boarding school policies and their legacy for Indigenous Peoples. In May 2022, the Department released Volume 1 of an investigative report as part of the Initiative, which calls for connecting communities with trauma-informed support and facilitating the collection of a permanent oral history.
