Two dozen tribal members in Utah shared their stories this week as the federal government continues to reconcile its role in forcing Indigenous children to attend boarding schools.
Each personal account will be included in a national collection documenting the experiences of Indigenous boarding school survivors. The Utah effort began Monday and concluded Friday — the same day President Joe Biden made a historic apology to tribal members, calling it a “sin” that they were taken from their families, made to attend the schools and often forced into labor.
“It’s long overdue,” he said at the Gila River Indian Community.
(Rick Scuteri | AP) President Joe Biden speaks at the Gila Crossing Community School, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Laveen, Ariz.
It wasn’t immediately clear what action, if any, would follow his remarks. Biden was joined in Arizona by Utah House Democratic Leader Angela Romero, who has led Utah’s Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives Task Force and plans to sponsor a state version of the Indian Child Welfare Act next legislative session.
“President Biden’s visit and apology are historic and deeply meaningful, recognizing the generational trauma caused by federal boarding school policies,” Romero said in a statement. “I am committed to honoring this history and working to support Indigenous communities here in Utah.”
The survivors who shared their stories in Utah this week represent sovereign tribes across the state — including the Utes, the Northern Shoshones and the Navajos (or Diné peoples), said Charlee Brissette, the manager overseeing the oral history project for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
“Their stories deserve to be heard and known,” said Brissette, who is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Ojibwe.
The coalition is visiting a different state every month — an effort that started this March — through summer 2026 as it collects survivors’ stories. The U.S. Department of Interior is funding the project as part of its initiative to acknowledge and document the schools that were once operated by federal agencies, some as late as the 1970s.
Utah had eight boarding schools, seven of which had federal oversight. And the state is the seventh stop in the coalition’s travels.
At these boarding schools, children were physically and sexually assaulted. Many had their hair cut. And nearly all were not allowed to speak their language or practice their traditions in an effort to assimilate them. National estimates say as many as 1,000 students died.
In Utah, there has been one grave site confirmed by the leaders of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, who say there are 12 burials at the former school location in Panguitch.
(Eric Lee | The New York Times) A demonstrator holds up a sign as President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government’s role in running Indigenous boarding schools while at the Gila Crossing Community School in Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix, Ariz., Oct. 25, 2024.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico, told The Associated Press that the apology is “a big deal to me. I’m sure it will be a big deal to all of Indian Country.” Her grandparents were forced to attend a boarding school.
“We know that the federal government failed,” she added Friday.
As secretary, Haaland has been leading the federal reckoning of this 150-year history. She commissioned federal reporting on that traumatic legacy, with the first release in May 2022 documenting where the schools existed, how many children likely attended and which locations had burial sites.
The oral histories being collected now will eventually be placed into a public archive, so people can listen and understand what happened.
(Rick Scuteri | AP) U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland speaks at the Gila Crossing Community School, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Laveen, Ariz.
Utah tribal members who signed up to share their stories did so privately, in a conversations with one oral historian and one videographer, Brissette said, because of the sensitivity and pain for some in recalling what happened.
“For some of our survivors, this is the first time they’re sharing their stories,” she said. “This has been a profound week.”
After sharing their experiences, participants were able to speak with a licensed counselor available at the conference center in Salt Lake City to decompress and process.
In Utah, the largest boarding school was the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City. And the longest operating one was the Whiterocks School for Ute children on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
There are more survivors, too, that the coalition would like to hear from in Utah, so it’s possible the group returns to the state a second time during their tour, Brissette added.
It’ll take time, too, once the visits are over for the oral historians to transcribe interviews and edit photos before publication. Brissette didn’t have an estimated date for when that might be.
But the group anticipates collecting more than 400 stories during its tour.
“We listen to as many survivors as are willing to share their stories with us,” she said. “… The truth of what happened in these schools needs to be told and needs to be shared. Everybody needs to know this part of history, because it’s not just Native American. It’s all of our history.”
The coalition is also trying to set up a program to do virtual interviews in the future. Those interested in sharing their stories can reach Brissette by phone at 651-650-4445 or email oralhistoryproject@nabshc.org. There is also a sign up page on the coalition’s website on the oral history tab.
Editor’s note: For those in Native communities in Utah who want support as they or their families process these experiences, services are available through Sacred Circle by calling 801-989-5209 or visiting sacredcircle.com.
