The Department of the Interior has taken significant steps in addressing the troubling legacy of past federal Indian boarding school policies through the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, launched by Secretary Deb Haaland in June 2021. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland led the investigation and recently released the final volume of the comprehensive report. This second volume includes detailed profiles of 417 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states or then-territories and confirms the deaths of at least 973 Indigenous children while attending these schools. Additionally, it reveals 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at 65 different school locations and estimates over $23.3 billion in government appropriations for the federal Indian boarding school system between 1871 and 1969, adjusted for inflation to Fiscal Year 2023.

The report includes eight recommendations made by Assistant Secretary Newland for the federal government to support healing and reconciliation efforts. Suggestions range from issuing a formal acknowledgment and apology for implementing national federal Indian boarding school policies to investing in remedies for the present-day impacts of these policies. Other recommendations involve establishing a national memorial, repatriating remains of children, returning former school sites to Tribes, and promoting further research on the health and economic impacts of the boarding school system.

Recognizing the need to reinvest in Native languages, the Biden-Harris administration has prioritized the restoration and preservation of Indigenous languages. An interagency initiative was launched in 2021 by the Departments of the Interior, Education, and Health and Human Services to promote Native language rights. Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland have engaged with Tribal Nations to understand the importance of federal investments in revitalizing Native languages and are working towards unveiling a ten-year Native Language Strategy by the end of 2024.

"The Road to Healing," a 12-stop tour led by Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland, has provided Indigenous survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system an opportunity to share their experiences with the federal government. The initiative also includes an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation to document firsthand narratives from survivors. Furthermore, the Department and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are collaborating to share the history of the federal Indian boarding school system with a focus on survivors' accounts that have never been told before.

As the Department continues its efforts to acknowledge and address the intergenerational impact of federal Indian boarding school policies, the findings of this final report mark a crucial step towards healing and reconciliation for Indigenous communities.