Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2025

The bill would create the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies within the legislative branch, operating for six years. Five commissioners — appointed by congressional leaders from nominees submitted by Indian Tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian groups — would conduct a comprehensive interdisciplinary investigation into the social, cultural, economic, and physical effects of the boarding school policies on survivors, their families, and Native communities. The Commission would hold at least one quarterly convening per year for testimony and at least one convening in each of the 12 BIA regions and Hawaii, with trauma-informed care services available at each. It would locate and document marked and unmarked burial sites of students, produce an initial report within four years of member appointments, and submit a final report before its six-year termination. Cabinet secretaries receiving the final report must publicly respond within 120 days.

The bill would not create a private right of action for survivors to seek relief. It would direct that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act applies to cultural items connected to Indian Boarding Schools regardless of how any agency has previously interpreted it, and would require federal agencies to permit reburial of repatriated remains on federal land. The $90 million in funding would be drawn from existing statutory authorizations rather than new appropriations.

Native American survivors of Indian Boarding Schools and their descendants across the United States; Indian Tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations that would nominate members and provide testimony; federal agencies — including the Departments of the Interior, Education, Health and Human Services, and Defense — whose senior officials would serve on advisory bodies; and religious institutions that historically operated boarding schools.

If enacted, survivors and descendants would gain a formal federal platform for documented testimony and recognition of the boarding school system's harms. The Commission's final recommendations could prompt changes to federal statutes, regulations, and agency practices affecting ongoing Native child removal, burial protections, and language and cultural preservation. The NAGPRA clarification would resolve agency interpretive disputes about repatriation of boarding-school-related remains.

Within 90 days of enactment, Indian Tribes and Native organizations may submit nominee lists to the Secretary of the Interior; commissioners must be appointed within 180 days. The Commission then convenes three supporting bodies — a 15-member Survivors Subcommittee, a 19-member Native American Advisory Committee, and a 20-member Federal and Religious Advisory Committee — each with defined membership and non-voting designees at Commission meetings. Convenings follow trauma-informed protocols finalized within 90 days of the initial advisory committee meeting. The Commission may contract with outside entities, accept donations, and request records from federal, tribal, state, and religious entities. Annual reports go to Congress; the initial report is due at year four and the final report before six-year termination, after which relevant secretaries must post public responses within 120 days.