119-hres794

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 794 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
H. RES. 794

 Recognizing the week of September 30th as ``National Orange Shirt 
 Week'' or ``National Week of Remembrance'', which aims to honor those 
who were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to recognize the 
 experience of Indian boarding school victims and survivors.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 October 8, 2025

 Ms. Davids of Kansas submitted the following resolution; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

 Recognizing the week of September 30th as ``National Orange Shirt 
 Week'' or ``National Week of Remembrance'', which aims to honor those 
who were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to recognize the 
 experience of Indian boarding school victims and survivors.

Whereas assimilation processes, such as the Indian Boarding School Policies, 
 were adopted by the United States Government to strip American Indian, 
 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children of their Indigenous 
 identities, beliefs, and languages to assimilate them into non-Native 
 culture through federally funded and controlled Christian-run schools, 
 which had the intent and, in many cases, the effect, of termination, 
 with dire and intentional consequences on the cultures and languages of 
 Indigenous peoples;
Whereas assimilation processes can be traced back to--

    (1) the enactment of the Act of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85) 
(commonly known as the ``Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819''), which 
created a fund to administer the education, healthcare, and rations 
promised to Tribal nations under treaties those Tribal nations had with the 
United States; and

    (2) the Grant Administration's peace policy with Tribal nations in 
1868, which, among other things, authorized amounts in the fund established 
under the Act of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85) (commonly known as 
the ``Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819''), to be used by churches;

Whereas, according to research from the National Native American Boarding School 
 Healing Coalition, the Federal Government funded church-run boarding 
 schools for Native Americans from 1819 through the 1960s under the Act 
 of March 3, 1819 (3 Stat. 516, chapter 85), which authorized the forced 
 removal of hundreds of thousands of American Indian and Alaska Native 
 children as young as 3 years old, relocating them from their traditional 
 homelands to 1 of at least 526 known Indian boarding schools, of which 
 125 remain open today, across 38 States;
Whereas, beginning in 1820, missionaries from the United States arrived in 
 Hawaii, bringing a similar desire to civilize Native Hawaiians and 
 convert ``Hawaiian heathens'' to Christians, establishing day schools 
 and boarding schools that followed models first imposed on Tribal 
 nations on the East Coast of the United States;
Whereas, as estimated by David Wallace Adams, professor emeritus of history and 
 education at Cleveland State University in Ohio, by 1926, nearly 83 
 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native school-age children were 
 enrolled in Indian boarding schools in the United States, but, the full 
 extent of the Indian Boarding School Policies has yet to be fully 
 examined by--

    (1) the Federal Government or the churches who ran those schools; or

    (2) other entities who profited from the existence of those schools;

Whereas, in 1878, General Pratt brought a group of American Indian warriors held 
 as prisoners of war to what was then known as the Hampton Agricultural 
 and Industrial School in Hampton, Virginia, for a residential experiment 
 in the education of Indigenous people;
Whereas, prior to arriving to the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School in 
 1878, the American Indian warriors held as prisoners of war had already 
 spent 3 years imprisoned, during which time they were forced to shave 
 their traditionally grown hair, dress in military uniforms, participate 
 in Christian worship services, and adopt an English name;
Whereas General Samuel C. Armstrong, founder and, in 1878, principal, of the 
 Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, was influenced by his 
 parents and other missionaries in the United States involved in the 
 education of Native Hawaiian children;
Whereas General Armstrong modeled the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School 
 after the Hilo Boarding School in Hawai'i, a missionary-run boarding 
 school that targeted high performing Native Hawaiians to become 
 indoctrinated in Protestant ideology, which was similar to boarding 
 schools led by missionaries in the similarly sovereign Five Tribes of 
 Oklahoma, including the Cherokee and Chickasaw;
Whereas, in addition to bringing a group of American Indian warriors held as 
 prisoners of war to the Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School in 
 1878, General Pratt influenced Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian 
 missionary who, in 1885, was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior 
 to be a General Agent of Education in the Alaska Territory;
Whereas Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School continued as a boarding 
 school for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians until 
 1923;
Whereas, founded in 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School set the 
 precedent for government-funded, off-reservation Indian boarding schools 
 in the United States, where more than 10,000 American Indian and Alaska 
 Native children were enrolled from more than 140 Indian Tribes;
Whereas Indian boarding schools, and the policies that created, funded, and 
 fueled their existence, were designed to assimilate American Indian, 
 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children into non-Native culture by 
 stripping them of their cultural identities, often through physical, 
 sexual, psychological, industrial, and spiritual abuse and neglect;
Whereas many of the children who were taken to Indian boarding schools did not 
 survive, and of those who did survive, many never returned to their 
 parents, extended families, and communities;
Whereas at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School alone, approximately 180 
 American Indian and Alaska Native children were buried;
Whereas, according to research from the National Native American Boarding School 
 Healing Coalition--

    (1) while attending Indian boarding schools, American Indian, Alaska 
Native, and Native Hawaiian children suffered additional physical, sexual, 
psychological, industrial, and spiritual abuse and neglect as they were 
sent to non-Native homes and businesses for involuntary and unpaid manual 
labor work during the summers;

    (2) many American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children 
escaped from Indian boarding schools by running away and succumbed to the 
elements, while those who did survive either returned to their communities 
or were forced back to the Indian boarding school to be punished;

    (3) many American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children 
died at hospitals neighboring Indian boarding schools, including the 
Puyallup Indian School that opened in 1860, which was first renamed the 
Cushman Indian School in 1910 and then the Cushman Hospital in 1918; and

    (4) many of the American Indian and Alaska Native children who died 
while attending Indian boarding schools or neighboring hospitals were 
buried in unmarked graves or off-campus cemeteries;

Whereas, according to independent ground penetrating radar and magnetometry 
 research commissioned by the National Native American Boarding School 
 Healing Coalition, evidence of those unmarked graves and off-campus 
 cemeteries has been found, including--

    (1) unmarked graves at Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon; and

    (2) remains of children who were burned in incinerators at Indian 
boarding schools;

Whereas, according to research from the National Native American Boarding School 
 Healing Coalition, inaccurate, scattered, and missing school records 
 make it difficult for families to locate their loved ones;
Whereas parents of the American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian 
 children who were forcibly removed from or coerced into leaving their 
 homes and placed in Indian boarding schools were prohibited from 
 visiting or engaging in correspondence with their children;
Whereas parental resistance to compliance with the harsh no-contact policy 
 resulted in the parents being incarcerated or losing access to basic 
 human rights, food rations, and clothing;
Whereas, in 2013, post-traumatic stress disorder rates among American Indian and 
 Alaska Native youth were 3-times the general public, the same rates for 
 post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans;
Whereas, in 2014, the White House Report on Native Youth declared a state of 
 emergency due to a suicide epidemic among American Indian and Alaska 
 Native youth;
Whereas the 2018 Broken Promises Report published by the United States 
 Commission on Civil Rights reported that American Indian and Alaska 
 Native communities continue to experience intergenerational trauma 
 resulting from experiences in Indian boarding schools, which divided 
 cultural family structures, damaged Indigenous identities, and inflicted 
 chronic psychological ramifications on American Indian and Alaska Native 
 children and families;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Kaiser Permanente Adverse 
 Childhood Experiences Study shows that adverse or traumatic childhood 
 experiences disrupt brain development, leading to a higher likelihood of 
 negative health outcomes as adults, including heart disease, obesity, 
 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and early death;
Whereas American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians suffer from 
 disproportional rates of each of those diseases compared to the national 
 average;
Whereas the longstanding intended consequences and ramifications of the 
 treatment of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian 
 children, families, and communities because of Federal policies and the 
 funding of Indian boarding schools continue to impact Native communities 
 through intergenerational trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, 
 disappearance, health disparities, substance abuse, premature deaths, 
 additional undocumented physical, sexual, psychological, industrial, and 
 spiritual abuse and neglect, and trauma;
Whereas, according to the Child Removal Survey conducted by the National Native 
 American Boarding School Healing Coalition, the First Nations 
 Repatriation Institute, and the University of Minnesota, 75 percent of 
 Indian boarding school survivors who responded to the survey had 
 attempted suicide, and nearly half of respondents to the survey reported 
 being diagnosed with a mental health condition;
Whereas the continuing lasting implications of the Indian Boarding School 
 Policies and the physical, sexual, psychological, industrial, and 
 spiritual abuse and neglect of American Indian and Alaska Native 
 children and families influenced the present-day operation of Bureau of 
 Indian Education-operated schools;
Whereas Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools have often failed to meet 
 the many needs of nearly 50,000 American Indian and Alaska Native 
 students across 23 States;
Whereas, in Alaska, where there are no Bureau of Indian Education-funded 
 elementary and secondary schools, the State public education system 
 often fails to meet the needs of Alaska Native students, families, and 
 communities;
Whereas the assimilation policies imposed on American Indians, Alaska Natives, 
 and Native Hawaiians during the Indian boarding school era have been 
 replicated through other Federal actions and programs, including the 
 Indian Adoption Project in effect from 1958 to 1967, which placed 
 American Indian and Alaska Native children in non-Indian households and 
 institutions for foster care or adoption;
Whereas the Association on American Indian Affairs reported that the 
 continuation of assimilation policies through Federal American Indian 
 and Alaska Native adoption and foster care programs between 1941 to 1967 
 separated as many as one-third of American Indian and Alaska Native 
 children from their families in Tribal communities;
Whereas, in some States, greater than 50 percent of foster care children in 
 State adoption systems are American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native 
 Hawaiian children, including in Alaska, where over 60 percent of 
 children in foster care are Alaska Native;
Whereas the general lack of public awareness, accountability, education, 
 information, and acknowledgment of the ongoing and direct impacts of the 
 Indian Boarding School Policies and related intergenerational trauma 
 persists, signaling the overdue need for an investigative Federal 
 commission to further document and expose assimilation and termination 
 efforts to eradicate the cultures and languages of Indigenous peoples 
 implemented under Indian Boarding School Policies; and
Whereas, in the secretarial memorandum entitled ``Federal Indian Boarding School 
 Initiative'' and dated June 22, 2021, Secretary of the Interior Debra 
 Haaland stated the following: ``The assimilationist policies of the past 
 are contrary to the doctrine of trust responsibility, under which the 
 Federal Government must promote Tribal self-governance and cultural 
 integrity. Nevertheless, the legacy of Indian boarding schools remains, 
 manifesting itself in Indigenous communities through intergenerational 
 trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, premature deaths, 
 and other undocumented bodily and mental impacts.'': Now, therefore, be 
 it
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives recognizes ``National 
Orange Shirt Week'' or ``National Week of Remembrance'', which aims to 
honor those who were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, and to 
recognize the experience of Indian boarding school victims and 
survivors.
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