Title
RESOLUTION ACKNOWLEDGING THE HARM AND ONGOING HISTORICAL AND INTERGENERATION TRAUMA EXPERIENCED BY AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE CHILDREN AND COMMUNITIES DUE TO THE UNITED STATES' INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL POLICY; CALLING ON THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO COMMISSION A STUDY AND REPORT ON THE BOARDING SCHOOL POLICY; AND SUPPORTING EFFORTS OF RECONCILIATION IN ADDRESSING THE IMPACTS OF HISTORICAL TRAUMA, LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL LOSS, AND GENOCIDE.
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BY PRESIDENT VAN NETT, COUNCILOR TOMANEK, AND COUNCILOR FORSMAN:
WHEREAS, the United States government deliberately attempted eradication of Native American people and culture through, among other things, the operation of Indian boarding schools from the 1860s until the 1970s; and
WHEREAS, American Indian and Alaska Native children as young as four years old were forcibly removed from their family homes and communities and placed in those boarding schools; and
WHEREAS, the stated purpose of the boarding schools was to "kill the Indian...and save the man"; and
WHEREAS, in those boarding schools, American Indian and Alaska Native children were forbidden from speaking their language, prohibited from engaging in their cultural and spiritual practices, and subjected to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual torture; and
WHEREAS, by 1926, nearly 83 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native school-age children were enrolled in boarding schools; and
WHEREAS, there were 16 boarding schools in Minnesota, the first established in 1871 and some lasting until the 1970s; and
WHEREAS, children from all eleven Minnesota reservations as well as those living in urban areas were forced to attend boarding schools in different parts of the state and the country; and
WHEREAS, most if not all of the boarding schools in the United States had associated cemeteries for the many children who died while in their care; and
WHEREAS, many children were buried in cemeteries on or near former school sites and signifi...
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