On June 22, 2021, the 54th Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, directing the Department of the Interior (Department) by Secretarial Memorandum, to undertake an investigation of the loss of human life and lasting consequences of the Federal Indian boarding school system.9 For nearly two centuries, the Federal Government was responsible for operating or overseeing Indian boarding schools across the United States and its territories. Today, the Department is therefore uniquely positioned to assist in the effort to recover the histories of these institutions.
 

As described further below, the United States has unique treaty and trust responsibilities to Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, Alaska Native Corporations, and the Native Hawaiian Community, including to protect Indian treaty rights and land and other assets. To support these political and legal obligations, the Department protects and stores critical archival records and other information relating to Indian Affairs. Important goals of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative include:

• Identifying Federal Indian boarding school facilities and sites;
• Identifying names and Tribal identities of Indian children who were placed in Federal Indian boarding schools;
• Identifying locations of marked and unmarked burial sites of remains of Indian children located at or near school facilities; and
• Incorporating Tribal and individual viewpoints, including those of descendants, on the experiences in, and impacts of, the Federal Indian boarding school system.