Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2026
Key claim: The bill would create a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies to investigate the impacts of forced Native child boarding-school placement and to recommend grave/land protections, repatriation, and an end to removal of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their families and tribal communities by state child-welfare agencies.
Abstract
(HR7325 · 119th Congress) Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2026 This bill establishes the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States within the legislative branch and sets forth its powers, duties, and membership. Among other duties, the commission must investigate the impacts and ongoing effects of the Indian Boarding School Policies (federal policies under which American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were forcibly removed from their family homes and placed in boarding schools). Further, the commission must develop recommendations on ways to (1) protect unmarked graves and accompanying land protections; (2) support repatriation and identify the tribal nations from which children were taken; and (3) discontinue the removal of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their families and tribal communities by state social service departments, foster care agencies, and adoption agencies. Latest action (2026-02-03): Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Why this matters
For American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian families, the bill would create the first federal legislative-branch investigative body with authority to document the boarding-school era and link its findings to present-day state child-welfare practices that continue to remove Native children from their communities. Its recommendations on burial-site and land protections, repatriation of remains, and limits on state removal could shape both civil rights remedies and tribal sovereignty over child welfare. The measure is at the introduced stage, so its practical effect depends on enactment and the scope Congress ultimately grants the commission.