- Details
- By Native News Online Staff
New legislation that strikes down 11 outdated federal laws that discriminated against Native Americans was signed into law by President Biden on Tuesday, Dec. 27.
The Repealing Existing Substandard Provisions Encouraging Conciliation with Tribes (RESPECT) Act was first introduced in 2016 and is supported by the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). It was co-sponsored by Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD).
Want more Native News? Get the free daily newsletter today.
Among the 11 laws the RESPECT Act strikes down are those that forged the path for Native children to be stripped from their families and placed in Indian Boarding Schools.
An investigative report released last May by the Department of the Interior as a part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative found that, “federal Indian boarding school system deployed systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies in an attempt to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children.”
Survivors of the boarding school system report being subject to physical, sexual and psychological abuse. The DOI report cited more than 500 student deaths at Indian Boarding Schools, a figure that is expected to grow as research continues and mass graves are uncovered at boarding school sites.
“I’m grateful the RESPECT Act is now law,” Cramer said in a statement. “While these outdated laws were not being enforced … it’s right to officially strike them. This bill recognizes a devastating period in our history — one never to be repeated — and my hope is it will help heal wounds inflicted in the past as we focus on cultivating cooperative government-to-government relationships for the future.”
While each nullified law is more than 100 years old and no longer implemented, NCAI president Fawn Sharp emphasized that the legislation is a step forward to repairing relationships between sovereign tribal nations and the federal government.
“The National Congress of American Indians applauds the passage and signing into law of the Repealing Existing Substandard Provisions Encouraging Conciliation with Tribes Act,” NCAI President Fawn Sharp said in a statement. “While our history books often ignore the facts, it is no secret that for far too long, the U.S. Congress has passed destructive and oppressive laws that by design diminished tribal sovereignty and our political standing of equity and parity with the federal government. This legislation is but one more step in a very long journey ahead toward achieving our vision for a real, just, and meaningful government-to-government relationship between sovereign Tribal Nations and the United States.”
More Stories Like This
Boarding School Experience Caused One Woman to Question GodOhio History Organization Seeks to Establish Intertribal Cemetery to Bury Thousands of Native Ancestors
Photos from "The Road to Healing" Tour in Minnesota
US Army to Return 5 Native Ancestors to Their Descendants This Fall
‘Road to Healing’ Will Visit Boarding School Survivors in Minnesota on June 3
Native News is free to read.
We hope you enjoyed the story you've just read. For the past dozen years, we’ve covered the most important news stories that are usually overlooked by other media. From the protests at Standing Rock and the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), to the ongoing epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) and the past-due reckoning related to assimilation, cultural genocide and Indian Boarding Schools.
Our news is free for everyone to read, but it is not free to produce. That’s why we’re asking you to make a donation to help support our efforts. Any contribution — big or small — helps. Most readers donate between $10 and $25 to help us cover the costs of salaries, travel and maintaining our digital platforms. If you’re in a position to do so, we ask you to consider making a recurring donation of $12 per month to join the Founder's Circle. All donations help us remain a force for change in Indian Country and tell the stories that are so often ignored, erased or overlooked.
Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you.
