New research reveals 3K deaths of Native children at government boarding schools

WASHINGTON DC – On December 22, 2024, after a year-long in-depth investigation, the Washington Post reported that at least 3,104 Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students died at 400 U.S. government run boarding schools between 1828 and 1970. The Post’s total number of deaths reported was triple the number previously reported by the federal Department of the Interior (DOI) earlier in 2024, which found 973 children died at these schools in this time period.

Boarding schools were established by the U.S. government during the early 19th through the mid-20th century with the sole intent of forcibly assimilating Indigenous children into white, Christian, Eurocentric culture. Some of the schools were operated in partnership with churches, religious orders and missionary groups.

Native children as young as five were forcibly taken from their families, placed in schools far from home, and subjected to harsh discipline, forced labor, and cultural erasure. Many of the children suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

The Meriam Report, a 1928 investigation commissioned by the federal government, concluded “frankly and unequivocally that the provisions for the care of the Indian children in boarding schools are grossly inadequate.” Judi M. Gaiashkibos (Ponca-Santee), whose relatives were sent to Indian boarding schools, said, “These were not schools. They were prison camps.”

One of the lead researchers for the Post study was veteran journalist

Tribe of North Carolina). Regarding the discrepancy between the DOI report and the Post report, Hedgpeth was quick to give credit to the ground-breaking work of the DOI under the leadership of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna tribe), the first Native American Cabinet secretary. “(Haaland) was the first person to ever step back, take a really hard look and scrutinize the DOI, the very department that implemented this (boarding school) policy and carried it out. That’s a huge step. And kudos to her department for during that. …

“They worked incredibly hard for three years, and they had a lot of findings that really turned the spotlight on themselves. They looked exclusively at federal records, solely at those. It was limited in scope, and they admitted that it was an undercount. …They very much say in their report that it’s incomplete.

“We built upon that work and, along with hundreds of thousands of records from the National Archives, from researchers around the country who had done the work, we brought all that together to give the most complete accounting that’s really been done to date looking at the systematic effort of 400 schools across the country to wipe out Native Americans’ culture.”

In response to the Post’s findings, Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) who oversaw the DOI reports, noted that “these (boarding) schools were used to pursue a policy of forced assimilation over a century and a half. (The DOI) work has occurred over just three years.”

“Others must carry this work forward,” said Newland. “What we’ve done over the past few years on the DOI findings, Hedgpeth explained. “A team of us looked through hundreds of thousands of pages of records at the National Archives. We looked at census rolls, death records, school records, historical maps, archival newspaper clips, and used cartographic regression (a process comparing maps over time) to help identify graveyards. We interviewed survivors of boarding schools.

“We also used the annual reports to the commissioner of Indian Affairs. When we would find a child’s death, we would cross reference that with other resources to see if that child was enrolled and tried to figure out where that person had been buried. So, it was a step-bystep methodology that we used in counting those deaths.”

She also explained that there are records the Post could not access, so this latest count is also incomplete. The true death toll could be much higher. Preston McBride, wrote his dissertation about four of the largest Indian boarding schools, has estimated the death toll to be as high as 40,000.

The large number of deaths at Indian boarding schools “were tolerated as acceptable collateral damage in the government’s larger push to eradicate Indians and confiscate their lands,” McBride said.

The schools often sent home terminally ill students to reduce the number who died on campus, according to McBride. Also, experts caution that many burial sites will never be found because deceased students were buried in unmarked graves or in graves designated by field stones or wooden memorials that have long since deteriorated or been removed or vandalized.

In addition to the updated death count, Hedgpeth noted, “(our) team …also found nearly twice the number of burial sites than had been documented by the (DOI). … We also went into detail of the of the children.

“Sadly, many of them died from a range of things that included infectious diseases, malnutrition, and accidents. Others died in suspicious circumstances and what likely appeared to be cases of abuse. There were suicides and severe mistreatment.”

The Post documented the causes of death for about 1,500 students. Of those, the leading killer was infectious disease, including tuberculosis, pneumonia, the flu, typhoid fever, measles, and whooping cough.

Records show that these diseases claimed 3 out of 4 students who died. Infectious diseases spread unchecked because of poor nutrition and hygiene, the lack of medical care, and overcrowding in unventilated dormitories.

According to school records and news reports, children also died of injuries sustained when they were forced to carry out heavy labor. on foot even though they were sometimes hundreds of miles from home. Runaways were sometimes killed being struck by a train or as a result of exposure.

Reflecting on the new report by the Post, Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation), editor and publisher of Native News Online, said, “In the face of this (boarding school) history, the question arises: How do we reckon with such profound loss? Truth-telling is an essential first step. …

“However, acknowledgement alone is not enough. The United States must commit to meaningful reparations, both material and symbolic. Restitution must include funding for language revitalization programs, cultural preservation, and mental health services for Native communities. Additionally, the graves of these children must be located, identified, and honored in collaboration with their tribes. This process of repatriation is a sacred act that restores dignity to those who were lost.

“For Native communities, healing also involves reclaiming the narratives stolen by these schools. Many tribes are doing the difficult work of revitalizing languages and traditions once suppressed. This resurgence is a testament to the resilience of Indigenous peoples and a powerful counter-narrative to the intended erasure imposed by the boarding school system.”

To facilitate additional research, the Post is making available some of the data compiled from its investigation. For more information, go to tinyurl.com/ycsak45p. Email the research team with any questions or feedback about the data at boardingschools@washpost.com

(Contact Grace Terry at graceterrywilliams@gmail.com)

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