Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2025
The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2025 would create a federal, bipartisan commission in the legislative branch to thoroughly research, document, and report on the history and lasting impacts of Indian boarding schools and associated government policies. The commission would coordinate with several advisory bodies, including a Native American Truth and Healing Advisory Committee, a Federal and Religious Truth and Healing Advisory Committee, and a Survivors Truth and Healing Subcommittee. Its work would include public convenings designed to be trauma-informed and culturally respectful, a focus on burial sites and records, and recommendations to Congress on how the federal government can acknowledge past harms, preserve or restore records and artifacts, support healing, and adjust laws and budgets accordingly. The commission would have a defined six-year life, a substantial but finite funding amount, and would operate with a strong emphasis on consultation with Native communities, Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. In short, the bill aims to establish an official federal body to document and acknowledge the harms of boarding school policies, amplify survivor and descendant voices, propose federal actions to address those harms, and support healing and remembrance through structured reporting and outreach.
Key Points
- 1Establishment and purpose
- 2- Creates the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States to investigate, document, and report on the histories and long-term effects of Indian boarding schools and related policies, and to develop federal recommendations and healing strategies.
- 3Structure and membership
- 4- The Commission is a new federal entity with a complex appointment process: 5 top-level appointments (Senate majority/minority leaders, House leadership, and a joint Senate/House chair pair) plus nominations from tribes, Tribal organizations, Native Americans, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Members must have relevant experience (research leadership, indigenous rights, tribal justice, trauma-informed care, or traditional/cultural expertise) and demonstrate integrity and empathy.
- 5- Three key groups support the work:
- 6- Survivors Truth and Healing Subcommittee (a 15-member body focused on survivors and descendants, regionally distributed, including a mix of boarding school attendees, descendants, and educators).
- 7- Native American Truth and Healing Advisory Committee.
- 8- Federal and Religious Truth and Healing Advisory Committee.
- 9Timelines, meetings, and process
- 10- Initial appointments due within 180 days; the commission must hold its initial meeting within 90 days after all members are appointed; it can meet in person or virtually and requires a quorum to conduct business.
- 11- The Commission must hold not fewer than one convening in each of the 12 Bureau of Indian Affairs regions and Hawai'i, with ongoing quarterly convenings to gather testimony until final reports are issued.
- 12- Meetings must be trauma-informed, with access to trauma care for participants.
- 13Powers, funding, and administration
- 14- The Commission can hold hearings, gather records from federal, state, tribal, and private sources, contract with other entities, and accept gifts and donations. It can coordinate with the Library of Congress and Smithsonian to archive gifts or donations.
- 15- Funding is provided from specific existing federal funding authorities, with $90 million allocated to carry out the Act.
- 16- This Act does not follow the Federal Advisory Committee Act for this Commission, and federal employee status and Congressional Accountability Act protections apply to Commission staff and members.
- 17Activities and outputs
- 18- Investigate comprehensively the effects of boarding school policies on Native communities, including cultural and language impacts, and assess impacts on students, families, and descendants.
- 19- Coordinate burial-site location, preservation, and sharing of burial information with lineal descendants and affected tribes; work on records related to interments.
- 20- Produce an initial report within about four years of most members being appointed, followed by a final report before termination, plus annual progress reports.
- 21- Provide Congress with recommendations on memorialization, record preservation, potential statutory or budgetary changes, public awareness, and the role of religious institutions.
- 22Burial management, co-stewardship, and no private right of action
- 23- The act includes provisions for burial site work, potential co-stewardship arrangements, and clarifies that the act does not create a private right of action.