Truth, Justice & Healing Commission on Native Boarding Schools

Mandate

2022 – MW062 Executive Council Committee on Native Boarding Schools and Advocacy

Resolved that on lands that were tended by the Taíno peoples, taken from them and renamed San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church, meeting on April 20-23, 2022, acknowledges and mourns the devastation caused by Indigenous Boarding Schools during the 19th and 20th centuries and commits to investigate and tell whatever is true about The Episcopal Church’s involvement with these schools. Previous silence on this topic does not condone the cultural and religious genocide that occurred at these schools across the United States. To fully grapple with its history and any relationship it has to these atrocities, The Episcopal Church must bring together its stories, experiences, records, and documents, to its archives. The legacy of these schools must be acknowledged, understood, and learned from so that we can come to a full understanding of The Episcopal Church’s involvement and the schools’ religious and cultural impact. Even while the full story of the Indigenous Boarding Schools and their relationship to The Episcopal Church is as yet not clearly known, Executive Council recognizes and deeply regrets the hurt carried by Indigenous Episcopalians and grieves the ongoing legacies of these schools; and be it further

Resolved, that The Executive Council of The Episcopal Church grieves the unequal treatment Indigenous and Native Peoples have received when they have suffered harms that deserve attention and redress, and expresses its solidarity with the Indigenous and Native Peoples of the world and supports the rights of Indigenous and Native Peoples to equal treatment; and be it further

Resolved that Executive Council create an Executive Council Committee for Indigenous Boarding Schools and Advocacy as a Committee of Executive Council, charged with guiding and overseeing three initiatives: (1) the gathering of historical information about Indigenous Boarding Schools that had any relationship to The Episcopal Church, including information revealing the nature and extent of that relationship (the Gathering Initiative), (2) the curation of the gathered information in a collection, housed in the Archives of The Episcopal Church, that will tell the story of the Schools’ relationship to the Church and their impacts on Indigenous Episcopalians, even until today (the Story Initiative), taking care to interweave the stories of Episcopal Indigenous boarding schools with the ongoing Native oppression and white supremacy, and (3) the development and implementation of a plan for gathering information and hearing stories about the varieties of ways that Indigenous and Native peoples are subjected to unequal treatment by the federal government, state governments, and other authorities, including information provided by the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and, in conjunction, the development of proposals for advocacy and other action responding to the issues identified (the Advocacy Initiative). The Advocacy Initiative shall include in its focus, but not be limited to, information and stories about missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits whose deaths have not been investigated by authorities, as well as the lack of reporting and collecting of statistics on missing and murdered Native and Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits; and be it further

Resolved, that in carrying out the Gathering Initiative and the Story Initiative, the Committee shall nominate to the Executive Committee of Executive Council (ECEC) one or more independent historians and other experts not connected to The Episcopal Church who, with the consent of the ECEC, shall be engaged to gather information, including by reviewing information contained in the Church’s Archives and those of other Episcopal and non-Episcopal institutions, as well as by directly collecting and preserving the oral histories of Indigenous Episcopalian survivors and their families. In connection with any such nomination, the Committee shall also propose the scope of the anticipated work of the person nominated, which also shall be subject to the consent of the ECEC. Following engagement, the Committee shall make regular reports to the Executive Council on the progress of the work of any particular expert. The ECEC shall have authority for oversight of the investigative work, including termination of any expert. Scholarly independence of these investigators and experts is required to ensure the integrity of any conclusions reached, no matter how difficult those may be for the Church. The Committee will work with the expert(s) to develop questions to be considered in addition to those developed by the expert(s). The questions should include, at a minimum:

(a) How many Boarding Schools were there with ties to The Episcopal Church?
(b) How many students attended those Boarding Schools and how many may have been injured, were sick ordied at the Boarding Schools far from their homes?
(d) How were the Episcopal Indigenous Boarding Schools funded and founded and by which institutions andindividuals, including but not limited to diocesan leaders, clergy and lay leaders of The Episcopal Church, theBoard of Missions, the UTO, and/or the Women’s Auxiliary?
(h) Were missionaries assigned to schools, how many, and from which dioceses or institutions?
(i) Were there any inspections or reports concerning the schools?
(j) What is the current status of the schools?
(k) Did The Episcopal Church play any role in other denominations’ schools?; and be it further
 

Resolved, that the Committee is encouraged to consult with other religious denominations to learn what similar efforts they may be making and explore whether collaboration in the development of these histories may be beneficial; and be it further

Resolved, that in carrying out the Story Initiative, the Committee will work closely with the Office of Indigenous Ministries and the Archives of The Episcopal Church in their development of collections related to Indigenous Boarding Schools, including the creation of resource guides, research documents, and intentionally gathered records and holdings regarding Indigenous Boarding Schools with any relationship to The Episcopal Church. This new Archives collection is intended to be the main repository for information about these long-defunct schools, including materials such as school records, fundraising materials, and wider church oversight records; and will be made available for online review and searching, as well as at the Archives building on the ancestral homelands of Jumanos, Tonkawa, Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache), Coahuiltecan, Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche) taken from them and renamed Austin, Texas; and be it further

Resolved, that in carrying out the Advocacy Initiative, the Committee will work with the Office of Indigenous Ministries and the Office of Government Relations of The Episcopal Church in its development of proposals for advocacy and other action responding to the issues identified; and be it further

Resolved, that the Executive Council intends that the work of the Committee will aid in developing a justice-making healing process for Indigenous communities and creating a legacy to pass on to the next generations; and be it further

Resolved, that the Committee will include a total of 15 members and have a majority membership of Indigenous and Native Episcopalians. Membership shall include historians, storytellers, and trusted elders in the Indigenous communities with a diversity of tribal affiliations honoring the diversity of Indigenous Episcopalians. There will be at least one member who is also on the Native and Indigenous Ministries Council of Advice; and the Missioner for Indigenous Ministries shall act as Staff liaison; and be it further

Resolved, that the Committee shall report its findings regularly to the Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Mission Within and the wider Church, and per the Executive Council Bylaw VIII.2.d, it will continue until the end of the 82nd General Convention, unless extended by the Executive Council; and be it further

Resolved, Executive Council urges dioceses to contribute their records to the Story Initiative, and to appoint their own Indigenous and Native ministry advocates so that this important work can continue throughout communities, counties, states, and commonwealths.

 

2022 - A127: Resolution for Telling the Truth about The Episcopal Church's History with Indigenous Boarding Schools

Resolved, That we recognize the work of becoming Beloved Community as a long-term commitment directed toward dismantling racism, which is essential to our spiritual life, by acknowledging, engaging, and supporting the ongoing work of racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation as one Body of Christ. Thereby, we live into our Baptismal Covenant of “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? I will with God’s help,” and every Episcopalian strives toward the dismantling of white supremacy; and be it further

Resolved, That the 80th General Convention create a fact-finding commission to conduct research in the Archives of The Episcopal Church and its dioceses, the National Archives, and the Library of Congress, as well as any other repository of historical documents relevant to the role of the Episcopal Church in the Indigenous residential boarding schools of North America; and be it further

Resolved, That the 80th General Convention thanks the Executive Council for its commitment to work on “Native Boarding Schools and Advocacy, Resolution MW062 in VBinder), and urges it to work cooperatively with the conduct of a comprehensive and complete investigation of the church’s ownership and operation of Episcopal-run Indigenous boarding schools; and be it further

Resolved, That the Archives of The Episcopal Church be encouraged to hire one or more research fellows to work with dioceses where Episcopal-run boarding schools were located to find and share records from those schools; and be it further

Resolved, That the Archives be directed to share all relevant records with the Indigenous Ministries of The Episcopal Church and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition for inclusion in their growing resource database; and be it further

Resolved, That the Archives be directed to work with the Office of Indigenous Ministries to support the production of an educational video that can be used across the church to share the history of Indigenous boarding schools in the US and the history of The Episcopal Church-run boarding schools; and be it further

Resolved, That the dioceses of The Episcopal Church will be strongly encouraged to, before the 81st General Convention, begin an audit of the relationship, financial or otherwise, between the federal government, the diocese and/or its subsidiary entities, its churches, and any Episcopal or non-Episcopal missionary societies with respect to any Indigenous residential boarding school operated within the territorial jurisdiction of that diocese; and be it further

Resolved, That the dioceses of The Episcopal Church will be strongly encouraged to, before the 81st General Convention, begin to gather information from boarding school survivors and their descendants about the experiences of Indigenous children and families in Episcopal run and/or supported residential boarding schools within the territorial jurisdiction of that diocese; and be it further

Resolved, That the dioceses of The Episcopal Church will be strongly encouraged to, before the 81st General Convention, provide a public platform through which the stories of boarding school survivors of any Indigenous residential boarding schools within the territorial jurisdiction of that diocese and their descendants might be preserved and shared; and be it further

Resolved, That the 80th General Convention acknowledge the intergenerational trauma caused by the Doctrine of Discovery, colonialism, genocide, ethnocide through the operation of Indigenous boarding schools, and other systems of white supremacy that have oppressed Indigenous peoples; and be it further

Resolved, That the 80th General Convention direct Executive Council to follow the lead of Indigenous communities and invest in community-based spiritual healing centers that will work to address the effect of intergenerational trauma by providing mental health and substance abuse counseling, traditional forms of healing, family counseling, and other services and support desired by local communities; and be it further

Resolved, That The Episcopal Church will support federal legislation to create a truth and healing commission on Indian boarding school policy, consistent with the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative of the U.S. Department of the Interior and its efforts to “shed light on the traumas of the past;” and be it further

Resolved, That the 80th General Convention recognize, affirm, and support the ongoing work of Executive Council around these issues through the creation of the Executive Council Committee for Indigenous Boarding Schools and Advocacy, as well as the extraordinary efforts of the Presiding Officer’s Working Group on Truth-telling, Reckoning, and Healing; and be it further

Resolved, That the 80th General Convention appropriate $2,500,000 over the next biennium, or some other degree of funding commensurate with The Episcopal Church’s commitment to the work of truth-telling and reconciliation around its role in Indigenous residential boarding schools, to adequately fund the provisions of this resolution, specifically 1) to fund the creation and support of a fact-finding commission; 2) to fund the work of the Office of Indigenous Ministries to create an education resource regarding the church’s role in Indigenous residential boarding schools; 3) to fund a grant program to support the work of the dioceses of The Episcopal Church in both conducting their own research into the diocesan role in Indigenous residential boarding schools and preserving the stories of boarding school survivors and their families; and 4) to support the establishment of community-based spiritual healing centers in Indigenous communities across The Episcopal Church to address the intergenerational trauma rooted in the church’s role in Indigenous residential boarding schools.