Residential schools for Indigenous children were places of great trauma and suffering for many, but the reality of student experiences is much more nuanced. There were also undoubtedly children who benefited from their time in these schools, and it is important to acknowledge that every survivor’s story is real and critical to understanding the larger history of what occurred in these schools. It is also important to acknowledge, however, that while these generally positive experiences should be honored and respected, at their core residential schools were used as tools of physical and cultural genocide. Isolating Native children from their homes and their families as a strategy to assimilate them into white society is fundamentally harmful and maintains white supremacy and settler-colonialism. Native children were made to be especially vulnerable and these institutions became a draw for predators and predatory behavior. These outcomes are a result of stripping Native children of the oversight of their parents and guardians in combination with a persistent dehumanizing view of Native people and culture as less than human. These factors – vulnerable children who are perceived as less than human in institutions with steep power imbalances – provide the crucial elements that foster a climate for some of the worst abuses in human history. Survivors have done much to tell their stories and shed light on the outcomes of experiencing such abuses. Truth telling is the first important step to reconciliation.
While the project of cultural genocide and assimilation is clearly conveyed in many of the documents held within the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions records through the emphasis on conversion, the language used to speak about children and their families, and small details of daily life, one would not expect to find explicit records of abuse or serial abusers in such an archive of record. Indeed, as we should point out again and throughout our analysis, the BCIM records offer the Catholic and bureaucratic view of the Indian Missions and their operations. In order to more fully understand the Indian Mission program and how it was experienced by Native survivors and their families, one must go beyond the archive and seek out supplementary materials.
Trauma: the dark legacy of boarding schools
Native children in residential schools were subjected to physical, sexual, and verbal abuse by school officials and clergy (i.e. priests, nuns). Although parents were told that their children would be cared for at school, children were often hungry and provided with inadequate necessities. Some survivors refer to their time at these institutions as incarceration due to the punitive nature of discipline, oversight, inability to return home, and the fact that many institutions had jail facilities.
Sexual abuse by priests and nuns was regularly reported by survivors of Catholic missions and boarding schools, but these reports often, if not always, went unchecked, unacknowledged, and unpunished. Physical and emotional abuse took the form of corporal punishment, humiliation, and isolation for disobedience, but could also be seen in the assimilative practices such as cutting children’s hair, preventing them from speaking their Native language, and giving them westernized names. Many Native children died at residential schools as a result of abuse and malnourishment.
For more information on the experiences of boarding school survivors, please visit our “Resources” page.
Healing: legislative action
In the United States, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2025 is making its way through the Senate. It was introduced on February 26th, 2025, by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs, of which Senator Murkowski is chair. The legislation outlines the creation of a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States to investigate impacts of federal boarding school policies. In addition, the commission would recommend ways to protect unmarked graves of Indigenous people, support repatriation, and prevent the removal of Native children from their families by foster care and adoption agencies and social services departments.1
Read the proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress (S.761) →
Past versions of this bill include:
Canada created its Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008, with the goal of educating all Canadians on the history of residential schools. The commission completed its mandate in 2015 and created the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation as a permanent resource. Over the course of its existence, the TRC collected testimony from boarding school survivors and former staff, hosted and supported educational events in communities across the country, and supported a commemoration initiative. The commission was advised by an Indian Residential Schools Survivor Committee, made up of 10 boarding school survivors, and their final report included their 10 Principles of Reconciliation, as well as 94 Calls to Action.2 The 10 Principles establish basic agreements about the reconciliation process, such as the fact that the “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” is the framework for reconciliation, that reconciliation requires education on the truth about residential schools and Indigenous history, and that political will and investment is necessary for reconciliation.3 The 94 Calls to Action outline directives for multiple parties (but especially the federal government) to “redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.”4
Read Canada’s 10 Principles of Reconciliation →
Read Canada’s 94 Calls to Action →
Healing: community action
Many Indigenous communities are leading powerful efforts to heal from the dark history of boarding schools. While there is a very long road to complete healing ahead, there have been many successes resulting from the advocacy of Indigenous activists.
“While darkness can hide much, it erases nothing.”
President Joe Biden, during his formal apology for the federal government’s role in boarding school history
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is a nonprofit organization started in 2012. The year prior, in 2011, leaders in the United States agreed that an effort similar to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was needed in America. NABS entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to conduct video interviews with boarding school survivors for a permanent oral history collection.5 Their oral history project takes them across the country to speak with Indigenous people who experienced this history firsthand in order to preserve and educate the public about these stories. They were recently in Milwaukee in June of 2025.
The oral history project is part of the DOI’s federal boarding school initiative, created by former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to address the impact of federal boarding school policies. The initiative produced two volumes of research and investigative results. The first, released in May of 2022, detailed available historical records and developed an official list of sites, while the second and final volume, released in July of 2024, expanded on the first volume with more specific data as well as provided policy recommendations.6 The federal boarding school initiative also resulted in a historic apology issued by President Joe Biden on October 25th, 2024, during which the president emphasized the importance of educating the public on boarding school history and the generational impact felt by Indigenous communities. “After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program, but the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened until today. I formally apologize, as President of the United States of America, for what we did,” Biden said to a crowd in Arizona. “This apology is long long long overdue. Quite frankly there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.” Biden’s speech was a meaningful acknowledgement of the incredible harm the federal government caused, but many Native leaders hope the apology is also accompanied by action. Efforts like supporting language revitalization and repatriation are critical steps toward healing and reconciliation in tandem with the official apology.
In addition to their contributions to the federal boarding school initiative, NABS supports multiple other efforts, including the creation of the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive (NIBSA), supporting the current Senate Bill 761 to create a Truth and Healing Commission, and repatriation efforts. These repatriation efforts started in 2016 with children who were buried in Carlisle Industrial Indian School Cemetery in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Northern Arapaho Tribe met with the United States Army, who agreed to fund the exhumation, transport, and internment for the tribal nation’s children at Carlisle Cemetery. The tribe then discovered, however, that the graves of their children in the cemetery were grossly mislabeled. The children buried in certain spots were not the same children whose names were on the grave markers, and some graves even held the remains of more than one child. The cemetery was moved in 1927 to accommodate the construction of a parking lot, which likely worsened the state of the incorrect grave markings.7 NABS and other advocacy organizations are working to support both tribal nations seeking repatriation and those who want their children buried in these cemeteries to remain undisturbed.
Every Child Matters Walk MKE
“It’s important for us as Natives to heal, get back to our Indigenous ways, and understand it was not our fault…The more we educate ourselves about what happened to our ancestors, the more people can forgive themselves.”
Tammy Swierczynski (Oneida/Menominee), talking circle organizer for the Every Child Matters Walk
In September of 2024, Indigenous communities in the Milwaukee area organized the Every Child Matters Walk. The Every Child Matters Movement originated in Canada, and in tandem with the Orange Shirt Society commemorates the history of Canadian residential schools and the experiences of First Nations communities. The movement has grown significantly since Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was completing its mandate in the early 2010s, and many Indigenous people in the United States participate in the Orange Shirt Society’s initiatives and events.8 The walk in Milwaukee was a relay-style 14.5 mile walk that began with a Sunrise Ceremony and a Water Ceremony in the city, and ended at the Indian Community School in Franklin, Wisconsin. Once the walkers reached the school, they participated in events such as talking circles, a lacrosse game, and listening to guest speakers. Organizers say the goal of the event was to “confront the painful legacy of the Milwaukee Indian Boarding school…[and] uncover truths about the forced assimilation, cultural erasure, and generational trauma endured by our ancestors.”9
“These are photographs from the MKE Every Child Matters – the untold story of Milwaukee’s Indian Boarding School- the walk of awareness and call to action confronting the painful legacy of the Milwaukee Indian Boarding School Good Shepherd. We honored the strength, resilience, and ongoing restoration of our Indigenous ancestors. We shared knowledge, untold stories, and uncovered truths about forced assimilation, cultural erasure, and generational trauma. We walked in unity and in remembrance of those who attended and lost lives in these boarding schools. Being involved in this event was powerful, emotional, and impactful.”
Photographer Jami Balicki (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin/Mohawk Nation), a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Milwaukee native, who participated in the walk and shared these words about the event and the meaning behind her powerful photographs
- Congress.gov. “S.761 – 119th Congress (2025-2026): “Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2025” March 5, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/761/all-actions?s=4&r=5&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22indian+boarding+schools%22%7D. ↩︎
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.” Accessed July26, 2025. https://nctr.ca/about/history-of-the-trc/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-of-canada/. ↩︎
- Justice Institute, British Columbia. “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Principles.” Accessed July 26, 2025. https://www.jibc.ca/office-indigenization/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-principles. ↩︎
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. “Calls to Action.” Accessed July 14th, 2025. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf. ↩︎
- “Oral History Project.” Healing. National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. Accessed July 25, 2025. https://boardingschoolhealing.org/oral-history-project/. ↩︎
- “Federal Boarding School Initiative.” Bureau of Indian Affairs. United States Department of the Interior. Accessed July 25, 2025. https://www.bia.gov/service/federal-indian-boarding-school-initiative. ↩︎
- “Carlisle Repatriation.” Advocacy. National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. Accessed July 25, 2025. https://boardingschoolhealing.org/advocacy/carlisle-repatriation/. ↩︎
- “About the Society.” About. Orange Shirt Society. Accessed August 2, 2025. https://orangeshirtday.org/about-us/. ↩︎
- Frank Vaisvilas, “Events in Milwaukee, Lac du Flambeau recall treatment of Indigenous kids in boarding schools,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 27, 2024, https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2024/09/27/wisconsin-tribes-share-the-grim-story-of-indigenous-boarding-schools/75383619007/. ↩︎