Establishment of the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument

Proclamation 10870 of December 9, 2024 Establishment of the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument A Proclamation For a century and a half spanning the early 19th and mid-20th centuries, the Federal Government removed American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children (Native children) from their families, Tribes, and homelands, often by force or coercion, and transported them to institutions across the United States. These institutions collectively became known as the “Federal Indian boarding school system.” The Federal Government's goal was to assimilate Native children by stripping them of their languages, religions, and cultures. To that end, the children taken to these institutions were often separated from their families for years, and many never returned to their homes. The schools often used physical abuse, compulsory labor, and corporal punishment to achieve their assimilative ends. Many Native children were subjected to sexual abuse at the schools. School staff cut their hair, made them give up their traditional clothes and names, provided them with inadequate medical services, and deprived them of essential nutrition. According to available records, nearly 1,000 Native youths died in schools across the system, but the actual number of lives lost is likely much higher. Many children attempted to flee from schools in the system; while some managed to escape, those who did not often faced severe discipline. For the survivors of the schools, and for the families and Tribes whose children were taken from them, the trauma and violence inflicted by the Federal Indian boarding school system have had profound effects across multiple generations, and those impacts continue today. The Federal Government's attempt to control and assimilate Native children into Anglo-European culture, society, and religion through the Federal Indian boarding school system was part of a broader effort to destroy American Indian, Alaska Native, a…