HELENA — A lawsuit filed in federal court last week seeks a deeper reckoning about the harms of Indian boarding schools – and the federal government’s role.
Two tribes – the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes of Oklahoma and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California – filed a proposed class-action suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, on behalf of all tribes whose members were sent to boarding schools between 1819 and 1969. They’re asking the court to order a full accounting into more than $20 billion spent on the boarding school program – including money they say was taken directly from tribes for the purpose of supporting native children’s education.
(Watch the video for more reaction to the lawsuit.)
The complaint cites 2022 and 2024 reports from the Interior Department, which admitted the boarding school policy had led to the removal of Indian children from their families, that many children suffered abuse and died at these schools, and that there were harms that continue to impact Indian Country. President Joe Biden issued a formal apology last October.
The plaintiffs’s attorneys argue those steps were a start, but they want the government to do more to account for exactly how the money directed to the program was spent.
“Beyond being a national disgrace, the Boarding School Program was an undeniable violation of the United States’ longstanding, explicit, and ongoing obligations (including, but not limited to, obligations guaranteed by treaty and statute) as trustee tasked with providing Native children’s education,” the plaintiffs’ complaint says.
MTN spoke with Shane Morigeau, a state senator, attorney and member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. He agrees it’s important to keep looking for resolution to what happened.
“I'm glad someone has stepped up and said, ‘We need to do something about this – you know, the United States, you've acknowledged that you did something, that a lot of wrongs happened – we've been telling you that, but that's not enough,’” he said. “We need to start healing the damage from that, and start thinking outside the box, to ways that we can actually step up and say, ‘How can we improve communities?’”
Morigeau says his grandmother was one of the students who suffered abuse in boarding schools, and the trauma from that affected not only her, but also the rest of her family.
“A lot of our stories are connected to our language, connected to our culture,” he said. “It helps you learn about things around us, and it helps us learn about us as people, how we're supposed to live as good people. And so a lot of those sorts of things were damaged for tribes all across the country.”
The lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania because it’s the home of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, one of the most recognized Indian boarding schools. Thousands of students from more than 100 tribes were sent there over 30 years – and at least 200 of them died.
Over the last two years, the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap tribes have been able to bring the remains of some of those children back to Montana, to be returned to their families. The Fort Peck tribes have also asked to have the remains of two of their members returned from Carlisle.
