A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Interior Department has released a final report on its investigation into federal Indian boarding schools. That program pulled native children from their homes and for more than a century sought to erase their language and culture. This comes after a yearslong push led by Secretary Deb Haaland to examine the federal government's role in the system. NPR's Sequoia Carrillo has been following the story. Sequoia, this report sounds like it's a big deal. What's in it?
SEQUOIA CARRILLO, BYLINE: Well, for one, the administration is saying, yes, we did this. The U.S. government created this system and kept it up for a century. We have the treaties to prove it. We have the receipts to prove it. And that's the second big thing. This report calculates the bill for federal Indian boarding schools, and adjusted for inflation, it's billions. The U.S. spent 23.3 billion dollars on this system, a system that we can now see hurt communities and hurt children. And that is the third thing this report uncovered. There's a toll far greater than money with this system, and that is the deaths of at least 973 children while under the supervision of these schools. The department also admits that the real toll is likely higher. And that kind of loss over generations - it is impossible to make that right. And the report acknowledges that.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, I mean, does the report talk about - well, I mean, you said it. I mean, making it right, I guess, is likely not possible. But instead maybe making amends for some of this.
CARRILLO: It does. The report asks for the same level of investment that the U.S. put into the system to be put back into the communities affected by these policies. So like I said, the U.S. spent billions to create and maintain the system, and it was a big system. There were over 400 schools in 37 states. And the things that happened there were horrific. I mean, we're talking about schools funded by the U.S. government, often run by a religious organization and sometimes patrolled by military forces. There are many documented cases of verbal, physical and sexual abuse. And this report is saying, you can't put a number on this, but let's start with at least as much as we put into the system. And that number is 23 billion.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. That's a big number, though, to ask for. I mean, how would that work?
CARRILLO: Absolutely. It's a huge number. The report doesn't ask for just one lump sum. It encourages investing over a long time on multiple programs like family reunification, language revitalization, and rethinking Indian education, because the federal government still runs a lot of reservation schools through the Bureau of Indian Education. So these programs are intended to address the ways that the boarding school system up ended tribal communities and try to heal some of those deep, deep systemic wounds.
MARTÍNEZ: Thing is, though, given how little trust many tribal communities have toward the federal government, I mean, how do you think this report will be received?
CARRILLO: There is definitely a level of distrust there. But I've also seen firsthand throughout this process making this report is that there's a deep level of trust in Secretary Haaland. She's a member of the Laguna Pueblo, and this work is deeply personal to her. She spent the past few years really going out into communities and listening to folks' experiences with this system. She sat with them. She's cried with them. She's brought state and local leadership with her to listen. I think for many survivors, just acknowledgment, which they have now done is a huge relief. To have money attached to the proposal - that's exciting. But tribal leaders know the U.S. government has a long history of promises to Native tribes - promises that were not kept.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Sequoia Carrillo, thank you.
CARRILLO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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