Representatives of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, also known as NABS, deliver remarks upon release of the initial report of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative on May 11, 2022.

Volume 1 of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report provides initial findings of an ongoing review at the Department of the Interior, the federal agency with the most trust and treaty responsibilities in Indian Country.

“This is a historic moment, as it reaffirms the stories we all grew up with,” NABS Chief Executive Officer Deborah Parker (Tulalip) said in the nation’s capital. “The truth of our people, and the often immense torture our elders and ancestors went through as children. At the hands of the federal government and the religious institutions.”

NABS 1st Vice President James William LaBelle, Sr. (Inupiaq) is a survivor of an Indian boarding school in Alaska. “I learned everything about the European American culture — its history, language, civilizations, math, science,” he said of his time at the institution.

“But I didn’t know anything about who I was, as a Native person,” LaBelle said. “I came out, not knowing who I was.”

Parker and LaBelle spoke from the penthouse of the main Interior building in Washington, D.C.

Today, Secretary Haaland unveils the Department of Interior’s initial report on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigation.
Full report: https://t.co/bLSTMvxLhN pic.twitter.com/DnTfiPqKKM

— NABS Healing Coalition (@NABSHC) May 11, 2022