The Department of the Interior today announced nearly $4 million in funding to the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) to support their work of collecting oral testimonies from Indian boarding school survivors and descendants.
The project will focus on gathering first-person survivor narratives and establishing an oral history collection. Survivors will have the opportunity to make their interviews available to federal partners, Tribal governments, policymakers and researchers, and the public, according to a press release from the Interior Department.
“This historic project is a lifeline to preserving the voices and memories of Indian boarding school survivors," said NABS Chief Executive Officer Deborah Parker (Tulalip) in a statement. "Many of our ancestors did not have the chance to share their experiences, so NABS is grateful to Secretary Haaland and the Department of the Interior for this support. This will allow us to continue our work in seeking truth and justice, ensuring survivor’s stories are never forgotten, and bringing healing to future generations.”