On the road to healing, tribal citizens are speaking out about boarding schools

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/10/ [login to see] /on-the-road-to-healing-tribal-citizens-are-speaking-out-about-boarding-schools
In a high school gymnasium about 20 miles south of Phoenix, a room full of people shift in their seats. The space is silent, with every small creak echoing in the high rafters of the building. No one wants to be the first one to speak.

Finally, a tall woman with dark hair stands up and walks to the microphone. She begins in English, but introduces herself in Tohono O'odham.

"They call me April Ignacio and I am providing testimony on behalf of my family," she says. In her hands she holds a stack of papers that she reads from.

Ignacio is one of hundreds of people in attendance, from small children to elderly tribal citizens, who have come here to speak to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. The public forum at the Gila Crossing Community School is Haaland's fourth stop on the Road to Healing tour. For months, she and her staff have been traveling the country, listening to survivors and their families tell of the abuse they experienced in federal Indian boarding schools.