As leaders at the Department of the Interior and descendants of federal Indian boarding school survivors, we entered our roles in the Biden administration with a resolute commitment to address the U.S. government’s horrific mistakes of the past. At the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona last month, we joined elders, survivors and their children as President Joe Biden issued the first ever Apology to Indian Country for the federal government’s role in this terrible legacy. This moment was nothing short of historic, and Northern California played an important role.

Three years ago, our department launched Federal Indian Boarding School Initiativea first of its kind to recognize and examine the enduring legacy of federal Indian boarding schools. of the initiative investigation report detailed the scale and scope of these schools and confirmed a loud and unequivocal truth: that the federal government isolated children from their families and stole from them the languages, cultures, and traditions that were the foundation of Native people.

Although this story is known and felt throughout the Indian country, its painful memory has been largely washed away from our history books. For over 150 years, the federal government operated 417 institutions in 37 states or then-territories associated with religious institutions, where at least 18,624 children as young as 4 were forcibly sent. In California alone there were 12.

Native American history is American history, and we must own, reckon with, and heal from our past if we are to build a stronger, more resilient future for each of us. It includes sharing and bearing our own scars for the world. For over a year we traveled the “road to healing” – 12 visits throughout Indian country, including to Federated Indians of Graton Rancheriawhich gave survivors and descendants an opportunity to share their boarding school experiences and the painful aftermath the schools left behind.

During our visit, survivors and descendants shared their harrowing experiences of abuse and neglect – many publicly for the first time – in the most dire of circumstances. Together we cried, we remembered and we healed. To those of you who shared your stories, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your experiences and your loved ones are part of our work.

Our investigative report included a list of recommendations to support a path to healing for the nation. The first recommendation was an acknowledgment and apology from the federal government. That the President took this step is a demonstration of the impact of Indigenous people sharing their stories guided by a sense of duty to honor the sacrifices of our ancestors.

Now, in response to the report’s sixth recommendation, we are fostering collaborations with our partners – including National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation — to create an oral collection of first-person narratives from boarding school survivors. We are finalizing agreements between the Department of the Interior, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and the Library of Congress to explore how these oral histories can best become part of far-reaching educational resources such as online, travel, and long-term exhibits that will share the history and legacy of the federal Indian boarding school system with the world.

One of the most common requests we heard over and over on the “road to healing” was to restore native language. In response, we have strengthened grant programs such as Grant program for living languages. And with the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, we are developing a 10-year national plan for native language preservation, which will be released soon. Some of this work is already underway at current boarding schools, which are run by tribes or the Bureau of Indian Education. These schools operate without assimilationist intentions or practices, focusing instead on culturally specific and tailored programs as part of a holistic approach to the mental, physical, religious, and cultural aspects of Native students.

We recognize that this work will never truly be over—that Indigenous peoples in California and across our nation will continue to reckon with the deep-rooted pain and intergenerational trauma that has spread from the boarding school era. Our work is not finished. But with President Biden’s apology—and with the federal government’s continued commitment to addressing this history—we can heal people in tribal communities and our entire nation’s relationship with Indian tribes. We can build an America that supports each and every one of us. Together we can heal our shared scars while building a future where everyone can thrive.

Deb Haaland is the Minister of the Interior. Bryan Newland is Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs.

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