A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, To acknowledge and honor the Native American children who were survivors of the boarding schools in this state.

WHEREAS, beginning in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Native American children were often involuntarily sent to boarding schools far away from their families and communities; and

WHEREAS, these vulnerable children observed and suffered physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse; were forced to deny or abandon their cultural heritage and relinquish their spirituality; and were often punished by being physically restrained, beaten, and isolated in inhospitable surroundings; and

WHEREAS, these children, their children, and now their grandchildren and great grandchildren, bear the devastating legacy of the boarding school era and of the assimilation policies that established and sustained the boarding schools; and

WHEREAS, this historical, intergenerational, and often unrecognized trauma continues to undermine and negatively impact Native American individuals, families, and communities;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Sixth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that this Legislature hears the voice of each Native American who survived the brutality of the boarding schools and acknowledges the atrocities that occurred; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Legislature solemnly recognizes the individual and collective suffering that so many endured as a result of policies to place and keep Native American children in the boarding schools; honors the survivors, their families, and their communities; and celebrates the courage, strength, and resiliency of the survivors.