Chiricahua Apaches at the Carlisle Indian School, Penna., 188-?: as they looked upon arrival at the School (Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication)
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is dedicated to advocating for Native peoples impacted by U.S. Indian boarding schools. We seek truth through education and research, justice through activism and policy advocacy, and healing through programs and traditional gatherings.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in June 2012 under the laws of the Navajo Nation.
We were formed after a national symposium in 2011. Leaders from the U.S. and Canada came together to discuss the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the need for such a process in the U.S.
NABS was created to develop and implement a national strategy that increases public awareness and cultivates healing for the profound trauma experienced by individuals, families, communities, American Indian and Alaska Native Nations resulting from the U.S. adoption and implementation of the Boarding School Policy of 1869.
NABS was fiscally sponsored by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) until it became financially independent in 2015.
Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Bryan Newland, have released Volume 1 of the investigative report called for as part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to address the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies. This report lays the groundwork for the continued work of the Interior Department to address the intergenerational trauma created by historical federal Indian boarding school policies.