On May 22nd, the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes of Oklahoma, along with the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania federal district court.
It seeks to hold U.S. agencies responsible for the Indian boarding school system. Native children suffered horrific abuse and neglect in these schools, and many never made it home.
According to the complaint, boarding school operations were funded by Native Nations trust funds. Those funds contained proceeds from the sale of tribal land — land that the U.S. government forced tribes to sign away.
The trust, plaintiffs say, was meant for the collective benefit of Native Nations.
It is estimated that the government used $23 billion, in today's money, to run the boarding schools. The tribes are asking the courts to force the U.S. to give a breakdown of how the funds were used.
The U.S. government has yet to respond to the complaint.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
