, sponsored by 27 senators including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, was approved by the Committee of Indian Affairs on Wednesday.
Thousands of school-aged Indigenous children were removed from their homes and placed into residential schools designed to “assimilate” them into white American culture. The schools forced new religions, languages and beliefs upon the students, and children were often abused, assaulted or even killed while in the care of a school.
The United States has yet to establish a formal avenue for boarding school survivors and relatives to seek answers and healing. A similar agency was formed in 2008 in Canada that provided residential school survivors an avenue to share their experiences with lawmakers and researchers. That commission was dissolved in 2015 after publishing a report concluding the actions of the residential school system in that country amounted to cultural genocide.