Faith Communities (U.S.) and Indian Boarding Schools Healing and Reconciliation Resources
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
Reports by the U.S. Department of the Interior:
Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2026 – H.R. 7325 – Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK-4) (In 2019 Rep. Deb Haaland introduced this bill. It has been sponsored by Republicans & Democrats and submitted – though not passed – in the House and Senate in 2021, 2024 & 2025.) Act Now to Support: https://fcnl.quorum.us/campaign/108986/
Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1826-1932). These reports include all aspects of the federal government’s dealings with Native Americans, including boarding schools. Some years the report includes individual reports from Indian agents in the field.
Catholic Church
US Catholic Indigenous Boarding Schools Healing Project
Guide for religious archives with collections on boarding school legacy **
** List of Catholic-affiliated Native American Boarding Schools **
** United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Native American Affairs
Letters of Bishops' Committee Chairmen on Congressional Legislation for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Episcopal Church
Questions and Answers Regarding the Episcopal Church and Indian Boarding Schools
What Role did TEC Play in Indian Boarding Schools
Research Report: Episcopal Native American Boarding Schools 1873-1930
Reckoning and Repair: An Update from the Episcopal Boarding School Commission
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The ELCA Initiative webpage: https://elca.org/indianboardingschools
Truth and Healing Initiative to Research Connections to Boarding Schools **
** Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Indigenous Ministries & Tribal Relations
ELCA Truth-Seeking and Truth-Telling Initiative
Presbyterian Church, USA/Presbyterian Historical Society
Case Study in Reparative Description: Tucson Indian Training School Records: https://www.history.pcusa.org/blog/2024/07/case-study-reparative-description-tucson-indian-training-school-records
Additional Reading
Presbyterian-affiliated Native American Schools.**
** Indigenous peoples of North America history digital collection.**
** Shaw, Anna Moore. A Pima Past. Tucson, Arizona : The University of Arizona Press, 1974.
RG 301.7 (United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of National Missions Department of Mission Development Records, SERIES I, Subseries 8).**
** RG 303 (United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Support Agency Photographs, SERIES I, Subseries 1).**
** Tucson Indian Training School Records, MS 0809, Arizona Historical Society, Tucson.
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Quakers And ‘Indian Boarding Schools’ Research Network (QIBS) Resources & Actions April 2025.*
** Quakers’ Role in the Indigenous Boarding Schools and Current Efforts Toward Repair, April 11, 2025 webinar.
List of the Quaker-Operated Indian Boarding Schools compiled by the Quakers and ‘Indian Boarding Schools’ Research Network (as of February 2025).
* The Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools: Facing our History and Ourselves, recording of a one-hour slide presentation, November 2022.
The Quaker Indian Boarding Schools: Facing our History and Ourselves, by Paula Palmer, a chapter in Quakers and Native Americans, eds. Ignacio Gallup-Diaz and Geoffrey Plank (2019, Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands).
Report of New England Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools Research Group (note 11.10.24: this is an internal report; the Yearly Meeting is preparing an official report to the Department of the Interior)
New England Yearly Meeting and Indigenous Boarding Schools, a talk by Gordon Bugbee presented to the Friends Historical Association, November 2, 2024.
United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church and Indigenous Boarding Schools, Progress Report, September 2024.
*
“Sugarcane” Faith Community Tour Film Showing at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill March 27, 2026 sponsored by* St. Mark’s Working Group in collaboration with the Episcopal Indigenous Justice Round Table of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. Resources list derived from compilation created by Paula Palmer, Co-Director, Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples for November 2024 webinar: “Toward Truth and Healing: How Churches Face Accountability for their Indian Boarding Schools.”