Biden Designates National Monument at Former Indian Boarding School

The Washington Post / Toluse Olorunnipa, Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

16:28 JST, December 10, 2024

President Joe Biden designated a new national monument focused on Indian boarding schools on Monday, using the final Tribal Nations Summit of his presidency to further acknowledge the trauma inflicted on thousands of Native American children by the federal government.

The Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument will be located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at the campus of a former flagship facility for reeducating tribal children, according to a White House fact sheet obtained by The Washington Post.

The White House said the monument will speak to “the oppression endured by thousands of Native children and their families at this site,” part of the broader Indian boarding school system operated or supported by the federal government for 150 years.

Speaking to Native leaders at the Tribal Nations Summit on Monday, Biden said the action was about properly recognizing the historical record.

“I don’t want people forgetting 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now, pretending like it never happened,” Biden said. “We make clear what great nations do: We don’t erase history. We acknowledge it, we learn from it and we remember so we never repeat it again.”

Biden also unveiled a 10-year language revitalization plan designed to address the loss of tribal languages as he met with leaders from Indian Country at the White House.

“Over three-quarters of the remaining Native languages are in danger of being lost, being lost forever,” he said. “This matters. It’s part of our heritage. It’s part of who we are as a nation. It’s how we got to be who we are.”

With just over 40 days until Donald Trump is inaugurated, the moves underscore Biden’s efforts to cement his legacy on tribal issues. In remarks introducing the president, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, declared that Biden was “the best president for Indian Country in my lifetime.” Biden himself touted many of the investments his administration had made in Indian Country.

Still, like many of the post-election actions Biden is taking, the success of these latest efforts could depend on whether the incoming administration follows through on the plans.

In October, Biden apologized to Native Americans for the U.S. government’s role in creating and operating Indian boarding schools, which he called one of the “most horrific chapters in American history that most Americans don’t even know about.”

“We must know the good, the bad, the truth,” he said during the visit to the Gila River Indian Community, his first to Indian Country as president.

The Post has documented how mistreatment, forced labor and sexual abuse plagued the schools and left behind a legacy of trauma.

From 1819 to 1969, the U.S. government operated – or paid churches and religious groups to run – more than 400 federal Indian boarding schools in 37 states. Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which opened in 1879, was the first government-run boarding school located off a reservation and was a model for hundreds of other facilities.

Haaland launched an effort in 2021 to investigate abuse experienced by the tens of thousands of Native children who were forced to attend the schools. In its report, the Interior Department stated that at least 973 Native American children died of disease and malnutrition at the schools.

A cemetery at the site of the Carlisle school, now home to the U.S. Army War College, marks some of the deaths that took place at the facility more than a century ago.

The White House said the national monument, which will be run by the National Park Service and the U.S. Army, will be designed to tell the “full story” of Carlisle and other schools where Indian students were brought in an attempt to eradicate their culture.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt, the founder and superintendent of Carlisle, made no bones about his reeducation goals, saying he wanted to “kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”

“I believe in immersing the Indians in our civilization and when we get them under, holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked,” he remarked in 1892.

Upon arrival at the school, children were stripped of their Native dress and had their long hair cut. They were forced to wear Western clothing and convert to Christianity. Students were separated from their families and punished for speaking their Native languages.

The language revitalization plan the White House unveiled Monday calls for an “all-of-government” effort to preserve tribal languages by partnering with Indian communities and expanding access to education and immersion programs.

The White House fact sheet, which touts the Biden administration’s record investment in tribal communities over the past four years, did not say whether the federal government would be providing fresh funds for the language revitalization effort.

The incoming Trump administration will ultimately determine whether the 10-year plan is implemented. Trump, who plans to nominate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) for interior secretary, could also play a pivotal role in shaping the new national monument. The incoming president has often preferred to promote America’s triumphs rather than to apologize for its darker moments.

Carlisle, which became a model for hundreds of other institutions, ultimately housed 7,800 children from more than 140 tribes. Fewer than 800 would ever graduate. At least 200 students would die there, with several buried next to unmarked headstones that remain on the site.

One of its most well-known attendees was Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation who later became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States.

The school eventually closed in 1918.