Federal Indian Boarding School Oral History Project Stops in Hawaiʻi November 6, 2024

From the U.S. Department of the Interior

At the end of October, President Joe Biden formally apologized for the Federal Indian Boarding School Policy, saying “I have a solemn responsibility to be the first President to formally apologize to the Native people – Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Native Alaskans for the Federal Indian Boarding Schools. It’s long, long, long overdue. Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.” Watch here – President Biden’s apology can be heard at about the 27-minute mark.

President Biden stated that the Federal Indian Boarding School era, over 150 years from the early 1800s to 1970, was one of the most horrific chapters in American history and that a vast majority of Americans do not know about it and how it resulted in lost generations, cultures, languages, and trust.

While acknowledging the harm and intergenerational trauma of Federal Indian Boarding School policies and practices, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland shared that “the painful loss of our Indigenous languages has been a consistent topic” as she met with former boarding school students “from Hawaiʻi to Michigan to right here in Arizona,” where Secretary Haaland and President Biden spoke at the Gila River Indian Community. Secretary Haaland also celebrated the perseverance of Indigenous communities that, despite being affected by the Federal Indian Boarding School System, are still here. President Biden and Secretary Haaland discussed the administration’s work with Indigenous communities to counter the effects of the Federal Indian Boarding School Policy.

President Biden noted the apology was a culmination of decades of work by so many courageous people, including former attendees and descendants, allies, and advocates, including the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

Oral History Project in Hawaiʻi

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) has announced Hawaiʻi as its next and final Oral History Project location for 2024. Please see the attached NABS press release about the Oral History Project and its purpose to “document and make accessible the experiences of the generations of Indigenous children who attended the federal boarding school system” to ensure such experiences “can be heard, and learned from, by current and future generations.”

In addition to the press release, we can confirm that the two locations and dates for the Oral History Project in Hawaiʻi are:

Hilo, Hawaiʻi – November 17 (Sun) – November 19 (Tue); and

Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu – November 22 (Fri) – November 24 (Sun).

NABS will support the participation of past attendees who wish to participate at either location and currently live on a neighbor island. Past attendees who wish to participate at future locations on the continent should also make NABS aware of their interests.

Interested former attendees should visit the NABS Oral History Project webpage at https://boardingschoolhealing.org/oral-history-project/, scroll down, and click on the “Hawaiʻi Interview Sign-Up” button.

Visit the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative for more information about the Department of the Interior’s Initiative and to see the 2-volume Investigative Report and its findings and recommendations.