At least $1.6 million in federal funds intended to capture and digitize the painful stories of generations of Indigenous children systematically abused in U.S. government-run boarding schools have been cut. These cuts are a direct result of federal funding reductions under President Donald Trump’s administration.
These funding cancellations are just a portion of the grants recently axed by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the Trump administration’s significant cost-cutting efforts across the federal government. However, coming so soon after a major federal investigation into the boarding school system by the previous administration and a formal apology by then-President Joe Biden, these cuts signal a stark shift in priorities.
“If we’re truly aiming to ‘Make America Great Again,’ I believe it should start with acknowledging the complete truth of American history,” stated Deborah Parker, CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
The coalition itself faced a loss of over $282,000 due to these cuts, effectively halting their crucial work to digitize more than 100,000 pages of boarding school records for their vital database. Parker, a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state, emphasized that Native Americans across the nation rely on this resource to locate loved ones who were forcibly taken or sent to these damaging boarding schools.
Just last year, Roberta “Birdie” Sam, a member of Tlingit & Haida, utilized this very database and was able to confirm that her grandmother had been confined to a boarding school in Alaska. Her search also revealed that around a dozen of her cousins, aunts, and uncles had suffered in a boarding school in Oregon, including one who tragically died there. She shared that this knowledge has been instrumental in her personal healing journey.
Roberta “Birdie” Sam poses with her grandmother Bessie Kitka in Juneau, Alaska, in this undated photo. Doe Stahr/Roberta Sam/AP
“Understanding the reasons behind our family’s history has brought me immense relief,” she explained. “For many years, I felt a deep disconnect from my family, constantly wondering about the past. Now, I finally have some answers.”
A letter dated April 2nd, addressed to the healing coalition and signed by Michael McDonald, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, simply stated that the “grant no longer aligns with the agency’s current needs and priorities.”
The Associated Press made multiple attempts to contact the National Endowment for the Humanities via phone and email for comment. Similarly, emails requesting comments sent to White House officials and the Office of Management and Budget on Friday went unanswered.
Indigenous Children Were Sent to Boarding Schools
For a staggering 150 years, the U.S. government systematically removed Indigenous children from their families and their homes, forcibly sending them to these institutions. There, they were stripped of their fundamental cultures, histories, and religions, and brutally punished for speaking their native languages.
A grim investigation by the Interior Department, initiated by former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, revealed that at least 973 Native American children tragically died at these government-funded boarding schools. Both this official report and findings from independent researchers suggest that the actual death toll was likely far higher.
This devastating policy of forced assimilation officially ended with the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978. However, the U.S. government never fully investigated the extensive damage caused by the boarding school system until the Biden administration took office.
In a significant move in October, President Biden issued an apology for the government’s role in creating these schools and the destructive policies that underpinned them.
Haaland, a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo and currently a candidate for governor in New Mexico, described these recent funding cuts as a continuation of the Trump administration’s “pattern of concealing the complete and often uncomfortable truth of our nation’s history.” Despite these setbacks, she asserted that the significant work already accomplished cannot be erased.
“They cannot undo the profound healing felt within communities as survivors and their descendants bravely shared their stories at our gatherings,” she affirmed in a statement. “They cannot undo the crucial investigation that has brought this dark chapter of our history into the light. And they certainly cannot undo the sense of relief felt by Native people when President Biden offered an apology on behalf of the United States.”
Boarding School Research Programs Are Feeling the Strain
Among the grants terminated earlier this month was a $30,000 allocation for a collaborative project between the Koahnic Broadcast Corporation and the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The goal of this project was to record and broadcast the invaluable oral histories of elders in Alaska. Koahnic also received an identical notification letter from McDonald.
Benjamin Jacuk, the Alaska Native Heritage Center’s director of Indigenous research and a citizen of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, noted that this disheartening news coincided with the loss of approximately $100,000 in funding through an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, which was intended to support the curation of a vital boarding school exhibit.
“For all of us, this is a history that has been largely unheard, either due to the immense pain it carries or for a multitude of other complex reasons,” Jacuk explained. “Therefore, it is absolutely critical at this moment to be able to record these powerful stories that our elders are now, with great courage, beginning to share.”
A makeshift memorial for dozens of Indigenous children who died more than a century ago, while attending a boarding school that was once located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in July 2021. Susan Montoya Bryan/AP
Former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland expressed his frustration over these cuts, particularly considering the relatively small size of the grants in the context of the overall federal budget.
“When you look at the vastness of the federal budget, these amounts are barely a drop in the ocean,” commented Newland, a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe). “It’s incredibly difficult to argue that these cuts are genuinely promoting government efficiency or meaningfully saving taxpayer funds.”
In April 2024, the National Endowment for the Humanities proudly announced the awarding of $411,000 to over a dozen tribal nations and organizations dedicated to illuminating the lasting impact of these devastating boarding schools. Tragically, more than half of these awarded grants have since been rescinded.
The details of these grant cuts were meticulously documented by the non-profit organization National Humanities Alliance.
John Campbell, a member of both the Tlingit and the Tulalip Tribes, shared that the coalition’s database provided him with a deeper understanding of his own parents, both survivors of the boarding school system who “unintentionally passed on that legacy of trauma.”
Growing up, he vividly remembers his mother’s harsh punishment of placing soap in his mouth whenever he uttered a “bad word.” Through the resources of the coalition’s database, he learned that she herself endured this same cruel punishment starting at the young age of six in a boarding school in Washington state simply for speaking her native language.
“She rarely spoke about it,” he recounted. “And when she did, it was clear she didn’t want to. The memories were simply too traumatic.”
