U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is launching an inquiry into her agency's past oversight of the federal government's boarding school program for Native American children.
Haaland told tribal leaders from across the nation during a virtual address Tuesday that the investigation will focus on compiling and reviewing decades of records to better understand the loss of life at the schools while they were in operation. She says the process will be long and difficult and won't undo the legacy of pain that has resulted. The recent discovery of children’s remains buried at the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school has magnified interest in that legacy both in Canada and the United States.