On 30 July 2024, afederal government investigation commissioned byUnited States Secretary of the InteriorDeb Haaland revealed that it had foundgravesites at sixty-five of over 417United States federal boarding schools used for forceful assimilation ofNative American children intoWhite American culture and society. As a result of the federal boarding school system, "at least" 973 Native American children were found to have died, many of whom were buried in unmarked or marked graves.^[1][2][3]

American Indian boarding schools were established in the United States from the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" orassimilating Native American children and youth intoAnglo-American culture. In the process, these schools denigratedNative American culture and made children give up their languages and religion.^[4] They took classes on how to conductmanual labor, which includedfarming,housekeeping,brick-making, and railroad work. When not in class, they were expected to maintain upkeep of the schools. Unclean and overpopulated living conditions led to the spread ofdisease and many students did not receive enough food. Bounties were offered for students who tried to run away and many students committedsuicide. Students who died were sometimes placed in coffins and buried in the school cemetery by their own classmates.^[5]

The schools were usually harsh, especially for younger children who had been forcibly separated from their families and forced to abandon theirNative American identities and cultures. Children sometimes died in the school system due to infectious disease.^[6] Investigations of the later 20th century revealed cases of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.^[7]

An initial investigation launched in 2022 estimated that over five hundred children died while part of the school system.^[2]

Aninvestigation by the federal government commissioned by United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland— the first Native American cabinet secretary— investigated over 400 American Indian boarding school sites to determine the location of deceased children, their gravesites, and details surrounding their life and death in the institutions.^[2]

On 30 July 2024, findings of the investigation were released. The findings indicated that at least 973 Native American children were discovered to have died in the boarding school system, with sixty-five of the surveyed schools possessing gravesites with buried children. Of these, twenty-one unmarked gravesites and fifty-three marked gravesites were found.^[1] The investigation determined that while specific causes of death could not yet be determined, that the primary causes of death were from illness and abuse. The investigation also noted that the true number of deaths could be higher based on unknown numbers of children who died from illness caught at the school after being sent away from it.^[2] Additional reasons for unaccounted deaths or gravesites included unrecorded deaths outside of the 1819-1969 period, deaths from non-federally funded schools, deaths in institutions without public records, and deaths in assimilatory institutions that were not schools including asylums, day schools, orphanages, and dormitories.^[1]

Deb Haaland characterized the boarding school system as a "concerted attempt to eradicate the 'Indian problem'" through assimilation or outrightwiping out Native American culture.^[3] While expressing personal remorse, Haaland suggested that the United States federal government needed to make a formal apology on behalf of the abuse, death, and trauma caused by the school system. The Department of the Interior recommended compensation for the Native American communities with government spending proportional to the estimatedUS$23.3 billion (inflation-adjusted) federal expenditure granted to the federal boarding school system. It also recommended significant investment in programs to help the Native American communities recover from trauma caused by the federal boarding school system, placing government funding into education, violence prevention, and programs for revitalizingIndigenous languages.^[2]

The South Lawrence Trafficway, an extension of highwayK-10, was delayed for several decades; one reason for the delay was an investigation into the claim that children fromHaskell had been buried in unmarked graves in thewetlands, in addition to the marked graves located in the cemetery there.^[8][9][10] Investigations have found no evidence of such burials in the wetlands.^[11] However, there are still calls for any further development to require searches for potential gravesites.^[12]

The below table documents the associated tribes of each children that died in the federal boarding school system:^[1]

• Canadian Indian residential school gravesites
• Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

• Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report

• 2024 controversies in the United States
• Boarding schools in the United States
• Indigenous peoples in the United States
• Culture of the United States
• Human rights abuses in the United States
• Social history of the United States
• Cultural genocide
• 19th century in the United States
• 20th century in the United States
• 21st-century controversies in the United States
• History of racism in the United States
• Cultural history of the United States
• Assimilation of Indigenous peoples of North America

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