WASHINGTON, D.C. – On July 9, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland will visit Oklahoma on the first stop on “The Road to Healing,” a year-long tour across the country to provide Native survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system and their descendants an opportunity to share their experiences.
In June 2021, Secretary Haaland launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to shed light on the troubled history of federal Indian boarding school policies and their legacy for Indigenous Peoples. Last month, the department released Volume 1 of an investigative report as part of the initiative, which calls for connecting communities with trauma-informed support and facilitating the collection of a permanent oral history. Trauma-informed support will be available on-site during the Oklahoma event, which will be memorialized as part of the effort to capture first-person stories.
In addition to visiting Oklahoma, Secretary Haaland will travel to Hawaii, Michigan, Arizona and South Dakota as part of “The Road to Healing” in 2022. Additional states will be announced for 2023.
