I want to thank Congressman Derek Kilmer for co-sponsoring the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act.
The bill calls for a commission to investigate and document the attempted termination of languages, customs and cultures, forced assimilation, and of human rights violations of indigenous peoples.
There were a number of such schools operated in Washington, as well as many indigenous children living on the Olympic Peninsula who were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools across the country.
Repercussions are suffered to this day by our native neighbors whose families were subject to U.S. federal boarding school policies.
We are a country who pride ourselves in protecting the rights of all people.
It is time we step up and face our history of denying the rights of those who cared for this land long before our European ancestors arrived.
Barbara Kurland
Port Townsend