National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

Advocacy - coalition membership has increased more than tenfold from 140 individuals in 2019 to 1,502 in 2024, significantly expanding advocacy capacity. Of nabs current members, 905 are tribal enrolled individuals, 597 are individual allies, nine are tribal nations, 28 are indigenous led organizations, and 22 are ally organizations. We encourage members to volunteer as board members, truth tellers, researchers, testifiers, guest presenters, advocates, and other ways meaningful to them. Nabs has been leading a broad coalition of allies and educating members of congress to establish a federal truth and healing commission on indian boarding school policies. Legislation includes language on tribal sovereignty and has been shaped by input from survivors, tribes, native organizations, and canada's truth and reconciliation commission. In support of passage of this historic legislation, nabs has garnered the endorsement of 52 tribes and organizations, 107 senators, and 75 representatives. In addition, nabs has received support through resolutions and petitions from international, national, and regional organizations, churches, tribal colleges, and cities. Legislation has passed committees and advances to the floor in both the senate and house of representatives with a goal of passing legislation by the end of 2024.nabs has implemented a call-to-action strategy to amplify the need for policy and systems changes using multiple platforms, including our website, social media channels, and key digital campaigns. We provide regular updates to inform people of vital resources, news, and stories that support ongoing healing and advocacy work. Nabs' reach includes 4,000 followers on instagram, 2,000 followers on facebook, 111,000 users of search engines to reach nabs' website, and 12,000+ people on nabs' email list to receive regular announcements.a value for partnerships and intentional engagement of partners has amplified nabs' impact. One highlight in the past year includes nabs board members and staff engaging with the alaska native heritage center (anhc), chickaloon tribe, and others to strengthen nabs' presence in alaska. As a result, in june of this year nabs and anhc formed a memorandum of understanding with a vision for nabs to share space in anchorage, and to partner on numerous projects engaging alaska natives. Nabs continued to have a presence at the international level as u.s. Boarding school policy is a human rights issue and is included in our strategic plan. Ruth anna buffalo, president of nabs' board of directors, represented the coalition in 2024 at the united nations 17th session of the expert mechanism on the rights of indigenous peoples held in july in geneva, switzerland.

Digital archives - a significant outcome of nabs in the past year was launching the national indigenous boarding school digital archives (nibsda), a first-of-its-kind digital asset management system to organize and make publicly accessible the historical records and materials for every identified federally funded indian boarding school institution. Nibsda was conceptualized to serve as a national digital repository and searchable database for boarding school archival collections throughout the united states. As part of truth-telling and healing, access to boarding school records for survivors and descendants is paramount to understanding this history and its consequences on tribal nations. Nabs' digital archives team is working diligently to retrieve, scan, and catalog records so they are permanently accessible, which is a long-term effort.the digital archives team has engaged in multiple listening sessions to ensure the development of nibsda is community centered. Nabs organized listening sessions in partnership with indigenous communities and tribal nations, including the confederated tribes of the grand ronde community of oregon, lower sioux indian community of minnesota, yankton sioux tribe of south dakota, and chickaloon traditional village with the alaska native heritage center in the anchorage area.

Healing - in the past year, nabs has grown our impact to embody indigenous healing practices and values as one of the foundational pillars in our 10-year strategic plan. Nabs hired a director of indigenous mindfulness to join the elder in residence as a culturally grounding healing team.a total of 20 healing circles for boarding school survivors and descendants were held in the twin cities area of minnesota. Each month we held a circle for survivors in collaboration with the elders lodge in st paul, as well as monthly circles for survivors and descendants at the minnesota indian women's resource center in minneapolis. Each of these circles has created space for local community members to connect with each other, their families and with their past. Nabs also offered a 2-session pottery workshop to boarding school survivors for healing, engaging in supportive relationships, and building community. Participants were able to make vessels with their ancestors' pictures on them, which they could bring home.boarding school survivors and descendants have reported that receiving a care package filled with culturally relevant and useful indigenous-made products enhances wellbeing, reduces isolation, and increases community connectedness. Nabs' work is uniquely anchored in traditional indigenous ways of knowing and being, while complemented with contemporary resources. In this way, nabs sent care packages to support on-going healing to 129 boarding school survivors interviewed through the oral history project. Nabs board of directors set a goal in the strategic plan of opening a second regional office outside of minnesota by 2030. As a result of a partnership initiated in 2023 to pilot nabs oral history project in tulalip, washington, nabs has established an office in space provided by northwest indian college, and is raising funds to transform it into a healing center. This location will be the first healing center nabs has opened to the community. Nabs' ceo and one additional staff work in the tulalip space.

Education - nabs released its latest research, an interactive map of 523 indian boarding schools in the united states. This project to date resulted in the largest known list of u.s. Indian boarding schools ever compiled. Through relationships with boarding school survivors and their descendants, nabs continues to identify additional boarding schools.nabs organized four educational webinars in the past year highlighting strong collaboration and team effort in their production. The educational webinars addressed significant topics and were well-received by attendees, reinforcing the impact of our work. To highlight, one webinar focused on the legacy of hawaii boarding schools, drawing over 200 participants from across the united states. Additionally, nabs produced four educational videos and made them accessible through youtube as well as nabs' website, nibsda page. A major outcome of nabs has been the expanded development and release of k-12 boarding school curriculum to educate the public about indian boarding school policy, history, and impacts. Over 9,000 educators and interested individuals have downloaded the curriculum from our website.native americans in philanthropy invited nabs to partner on a research project to co-convene listening sessions and one-on-one interviews aimed at understanding indigenous ways of knowing, values, and priorities in relation to child welfare practices and programs. The research is underway and will continue through the end of 2024.