Washington State Commits to Truth and Reconciliation

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON - Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson introduced the five appointees to the Truth & Reconciliation Tribal Advisory Committee within his office. This committee will delve into ways Washington state can confront and redress the damages stemming from its historical involvement in the regrettable era of Indian boarding schools.

September 30th is observed as the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, often referred to as “orange shirt day,” to bring attention to the history of residential boarding schools.

Over the next year, the newly appointed members of Ferguson’s Truth & Reconciliation Tribal Advisory Committee will conduct public hearings throughout Washington. This marks the beginning of a two-year initiative to fully uncover the historical impact of Indian boarding schools in the state.

“These schools are not just a shameful part of our history — the trauma they caused reverberates through generations of Indigenous families,” Ferguson said. “This week, we do more than just observe the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools. With this new committee, we start a long but essential journey toward healing.”

“We are grateful for Washington state’s leadership in not only investigating its role during the Indian boarding school era, but also its willingness to promote healing for survivors,” said Deborah Parker (Tulalip), CEO of The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. “We need other states to follow suit and work with Tribes and Native communities to bring the truth about this dark history to light.”

The Tribal Advisory Committee was established by the Legislature to investigate Washington’s boarding schools using a truth and reconciliation methodology during the 2023 session. The five committee members must be state citizens from federally recognized tribes spread across a variety of geographical regions. Additionally, they must be knowledgeable about the history and policies of Indian boarding schools personally, specifically, or in general, as well as about traditional and culturally acceptable truth-telling and healing activities.

On September 26, the committee held its initial meeting. In January 2024, the Tribal Advisory Committee will host the first of several open forums across the state.

The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative of the U.S. Department of the Interior published an investigation report in May 2022 that included information on more than 400 boarding schools that were a component of the federal Indian boarding school system between 1819 and 1969 and were located in 37 states, including Washington.

To assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian youth, the schools “deployed systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies to attempt to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children.”

The Department of the Interior has projected that the count of Native children who lost their lives while attending federal Indian boarding schools could range from thousands to potentially tens of thousands. Tragically, numerous children were interred in either unmarked or inadequately marked graves, distant from their ancestral lands.

While the report pinpointed 15 boarding schools in Washington, it did not encompass all the institutions — including asylums and orphanages — which aimed at American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children as part of a cultural assimilation strategy. In a recent study from August, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition documented 17 Indian boarding schools in Washington state. Notably, two of these schools seemingly lacked federal backing. The Tribal Advisory Committee will utilize this data as a foundation to deeply explore the broader consequences of boarding schools and other assimilation methodologies within Washington state.

By 2025, the committee aims to present a report which, among other objectives, provides insights and strategies on how Washington can address the injustices stemming from Indian boarding schools and associated cultural and linguistic eradication tactics, drawing from a truth and reconciliation framework.