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By Natalie Venegas
Weekend Reporter
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In a historic move to acknowledge and honor the resilience of Indigenous tribes, President Joe Biden on Monday announced the designation of a national monument at a former Native American boarding school in Pennsylvania.
What Is the National Monument?
The designation of the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in Pennsylvania was unveiled during a White House summit with tribal leaders. The monument seeks to bring awareness to the harsh realities faced by children who were forcibly taken to institutions like the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
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"We're not about erasing history. We're about recognizing history—the good, the bad and the ugly," Biden said emphasizing the importance of remembering the past to ensure future generations understand its impact. "I don't want people forgetting 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now and pretend it didn't happen."
The creation of this 25-acre site, managed jointly by the National Park Service and U.S. Army, highlights the Biden administration's broader commitment to acknowledging the systemic injustices faced by Indigenous communities.
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This announcement follows other similar measures related to Native Americans, including Biden's restoration of sacred lands in Utah previously reduced in size under the President-elect Donald Trump's first administration.
What Happened At the Boarding School?
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, operational between 1879 and 1918, was the first of its kind in a federally supported system and was meant to erase Native American traditions and "civilize" the children so they would better fit into white society.
The school had then became a template for a network of government-backed Native American boarding schools that had expanded to at least 37 states and territories.
Thousands of children from over a hundred tribes were sent to the school, often against their parents' wishes, and endured physical and emotional abuse. An estimated 187 Native American and Alaska Native children died at the institution in Carlisle, including from tuberculosis and other diseases.
In addition, at least 973 Native American children died at government-funded boarding schools that operated for more than 150 years, according to an Interior Department investigation.
"About 7,800 children from more than 140 tribes were sent to Carlisle—stolen from their families, their tribes and their homelands. It was wrong making the Carlisle Indian school a national model," Biden told the White House summit.
While the forced assimilation policy officially ended with the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978, the government never fully investigated the boarding school system until the Biden administration.
In October, Biden apologized on behalf of the U.S. government for the schools and the policies that supported them.
What's Next?
There are ongoing efforts to return the children's remains, which were buried on the school's grounds, to their homelands.
"They represent 50 tribal nations from Alaska to New Mexico to New York and I think that symbolizes how horrific Carlisle was," said Beth Margaret Wright, a Native American Rights Fund lawyer. She has represented tribes trying to get the Army to return their children's remains and is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, which has children still buried there.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, herself a descendant of boarding school survivors, highlighted the significance of this step stating that no single action would adequately address the harms caused by the school, but that the administration's efforts have made a difference and the new monument would allow the American people to learn more about the government's harmful policies.
"This trauma is not new to Indigenous people, but it is new for many people in our nation," Haaland said in a statement.
While Native American leaders and advocates have praised the initiative, they are continuing to call for further action to address the generational trauma inflicted by federal assimilation policies.
In addition, as Biden concludes his term, tribal communities and conservation groups are urging for more national monument designations, ensuring that the stories of resilience and struggle remain an integral part of the nation's historical narrative.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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