-1- Enrolled HJR 17
S T A T E O F A L A S K A
THE LEGISLATURE
2024
Legislative
Source Resolve No.
HJR 17 30
Urging the United States Congress to pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian
Boarding School Policies Act.
_______________
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
WHEREAS a 2022 report from the United States Department of the Interior
investigating Indian boarding schools found that the United States implemented policies
establishing and supporting Indian boarding schools across the nation from 1819 to 1969; and
WHEREAS there were over 100 Indian boarding schools in the state, which the
United States Department of the Interior has yet to identify because of a lack of accessibility
to primary source information; and
WHEREAS the purpose of federal Indian boarding schools was to culturally
assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children by forcibly
removing the children from their families and American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages,
and Native Hawaiian communities; and
WHEREAS American Indian child removal coincided with American Indian
territorial dispossession; and
WHEREAS the conditions experienced by attendees included manual labor and
Enrolled HJR 17 -2-
discouraging or preventing American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages,
religions, and cultural beliefs; and
WHEREAS many children who attended federal Indian boarding schools endured
physical and emotional abuse and, in some cases, died; and
WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior has identified approximately
53 different schools across the school system with marked or unmarked burial sites; and
WHEREAS the federal Indian boarding school policies of past eras focused on
assimilation and other harmful practices, and those policies caused harm for many; and
WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior has laid the groundwork to
address the intergenerational trauma created by policies supporting the federal Indian
boarding school system and recognizes that the existence of these schools has implications
reaching beyond intergenerational trauma; and
WHEREAS the Alaska Federation of Natives passed Resolution 23-14, which
supports the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act; and
WHEREAS Resolution 23-14 also affirms the Alaska Native Heritage Center Lach'qu
Sukdu Research Program as the central entity in the state researching and distributing
information concerning Indian boarding schools in the state; and
WHEREAS the United States Congress reintroduced the Truth and Healing
Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act as S. 1723, which seeks healing for
stolen Native children and their communities;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature stands in full support of the
passage of S. 1723, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies
Act, by committee, the Senate, and the House of Representatives and of the signing of the Act
by the President of the United States.
COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, President
of the United States; the Honorable Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States and
President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Deb Haaland, United States Secretary of the
Interior; the Honorable Bryan Newland, United States Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs,
U.S. Department of the Interior; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan
Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Mary Peltola, U.S. Representative, members of
the Alaska delegation in Congress.