Enrolled HJR 17: Urging the United States Congress to pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.
00Enrolled HJR 17 01 Urging the United States Congress to pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian 02 Boarding School Policies Act. 03 _______________ 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS a 2022 report from the United States Department of the Interior 06 investigating Indian boarding schools found that the United States implemented policies 07 establishing and supporting Indian boarding schools across the nation from 1819 to 1969; and 08 WHEREAS there were over 100 Indian boarding schools in the state, which the 09 United States Department of the Interior has yet to identify because of a lack of accessibility 10 to primary source information; and 11 WHEREAS the purpose of federal Indian boarding schools was to culturally 12 assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children by forcibly 13 removing the children from their families and American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, 14 and Native Hawaiian communities; and 15 WHEREAS American Indian child removal coincided with American Indian 16 territorial dispossession; and 17 WHEREAS the conditions experienced by attendees included manual labor and
01 discouraging or preventing American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages, 02 religions, and cultural beliefs; and 03 WHEREAS many children who attended federal Indian boarding schools endured 04 physical and emotional abuse and, in some cases, died; and 05 WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior has identified approximately 06 different schools across the school system with marked or unmarked burial sites; and 07 WHEREAS the federal Indian boarding school policies of past eras focused on 08 assimilation and other harmful practices, and those policies caused harm for many; and 09 WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior has laid the groundwork to 10 address the intergenerational trauma created by policies supporting the federal Indian 11 boarding school system and recognizes that the existence of these schools has implications 12 reaching beyond intergenerational trauma; and 13 WHEREAS the Alaska Federation of Natives passed Resolution 23-14, which 14 supports the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act; and 15 WHEREAS Resolution 23-14 also affirms the Alaska Native Heritage Center Lach'qu 16 Sukdu Research Program as the central entity in the state researching and distributing 17 information concerning Indian boarding schools in the state; and 18 WHEREAS the United States Congress reintroduced the Truth and Healing 19 Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act as S. 1723, which seeks healing for 20 stolen Native children and their communities; 21 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature stands in full support of the 22 passage of S. 1723, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies 23 Act, by committee, the Senate, and the House of Representatives and of the signing of the Act 24 by the President of the United States. 25 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, President 26 of the United States; the Honorable Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States and 27 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Deb Haaland, United States Secretary of the 28 Interior; the Honorable Bryan Newland, United States Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, 29 U.S. Department of the Interior; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan 30 Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Mary Peltola, U.S. Representative, members of 31 the Alaska delegation in Congress.