URGENT: Residential School Survivors (& Descendants) Call to Submit Testimony (and Ally Action Items)

Last week, the first volume of the report on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigation was released. Last year, the first Indigenous Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, created the initiative after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves of Indigenous children by Canada’s Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021. If YOU are a Survivor of Institutional Child Abuse (w/in the so-called "Troubled Teen Industry": Conversion Therapy, Wilderness Therapy, Bootcamps, Boarding Schools), or one of our allies, it is imperative to support the Indigenous Communities of Turtle Island through this review and reconciliation. Please center, elevate and amplify Indigenous Survivors and Advocates.

READ Indian Country Today's coverage for a summary and follow for more information.

The National Boarding School Healing Coalition is requesting people who attended a boarding school or are a descendent of a boarding school attendee to submit their written testimonies to the House of Natural Resources Committee by May 26. Email submissions to HNRCDocs@mail.house.gov and CC NABS at info@nabshc.org. 

The National Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) has put together a suggested outline for written testimony for individuals to follow if needed:  

1. dentify yourself, your Tribe, and the boarding school you attended a. Boarding School: what school did you or your family member attend, and what year(s) did you/they attend? 
2. State your position of support for “H.R. 5444 the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act” 
3. Personal story that you are comfortable sharing. This is often the most powerful part. 
4. Conclusion: Restate/review your position at the end of your testimony 
5. Thank the committee or task force for the opportunity to speak a. “Thank you to the Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States” There is not a limit to the length of your statements. Your written testimony will be on record in the House of Congress.

YOU can support the first targets of the US' Historic prevalence of mass, for-profit, legal, child abduction, detention, trafficking and torture schema by sharing this brief update episode and ALL of the links below to help make sure that ALL Survivors of the Residential Schools for the Indigenous are aware of their opportunity to submit testimony. We are disheartened that after centuries of Survivors speaking up, and a year of investigation, the US Government is allowing mere days for Survivors to step forward and share traumas they may have kept locked away for decades. STILL, raise awareness for this update in #everychildmatters and then do the following:

1. Read the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Act HR5444 & SB2907
2. Support HR5444 & SB2907 (Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools) via ResistBot Text PCGYYN to 50409
3. SIGN the Change.org Petition to "Demand Thorough Searches of Residential School Lands for Native Children Remains"

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