FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions and Historic Progress Supporting Tribal Nations and Native Communities Ahead of Fourth Annual White House Tribal Nations Summit

President Biden to Designate Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument; Announce Strategy to Preserve and Revitalize Native Languages

Today President Biden will host the fourth and final White House Tribal Nations Summit of the Biden-Harris Administration, reaffirming the Administration’s historic progress on strengthening the Nation-to-Nation relationships with Tribal Nations and cementing its legacy as one of the most supportive Administrations for Tribes ever.

At the Summit, President Biden will announce a new proclamation establishing the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The new national monument will tell the story of the oppression endured by thousands of Native children and their families at this site and the harmful legacy of the broader Indian boarding school system that the federal government operated or supported across the country for more than 150 years. This action builds on President Biden’s historic Presidential apology and the leadership of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to establish and lead research and listening sessions with Tribes and Native communities across the country as part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

Respect for Tribal Nations is a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies for Indian Country – policies that are highlighted at the Summit. In addition to the new national monument designation, the Administration will announce a historic, all-of-government strategy to preserve and revitalize Native languages. The strategy would expand access to immersion language programs in schools, support community-led language education efforts, and promote Native language schools and programs. The Administration will also showcase new initiatives supporting Tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and the federal trust responsibility, while bringing together Tribal leaders and senior administration officials to discuss priorities for Indian Country.

Since taking office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have delivered a record-breaking $45 billion in investments in Indian Country through the Investing in America agenda, transforming infrastructure, expanding healthcare, advancing education, and addressing systemic and historic injustices. Landmark policies and federal action, such as elevating Tribal consultation, investing in developing co-stewardship agreements, elevating the incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge, and implementing government-wide training on Tribal treaty rights and the trust responsibility, have centered Native voices in federal decision-making. From the protection of sacred lands through national monument designations and the conservation of over 45 million acres of lands and waters, to the historic Presidential apology for Federal Indian boarding schools, the Biden-Harris Administration has affirmed its deep respect for Tribes and Native communities.

During the Summit, the Biden-Harris Administration will also release a comprehensive 2024 Progress Report for Tribal Nations, which outlines historic progress the Administration has made over the past year to deliver on the President’s commitment to supporting Indian Country, and to address the top concerns of Tribal communities.

New Administration-wide actions include:

Healing from the Federal Indian Boarding School Era

• Designating the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument. By establishing a new national monument at the site of the former Carlisle Federal Indian Industrial School, President Biden is acknowledging the Federal Indian boarding school era, advancing healing, and commemorating the resilience of Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples. For more than 150 years, the Federal Government removed American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their families, Tribes, and homelands – often by force or coercion – and transported them to institutions that aimed to strip them of their languages, religions, and cultures.

From 1879 to when it ceased operations in 1918, the Carlisle School subjected 7,800 children from more than 140 Indian Tribes (including Alaska Native Villages) to its coercive education program. The school served as a model for the Federal Indian boarding school system, which operated throughout the early 19th through mid-20th centuries and comprised over 400 other federally-supported, off-reservation schools across the United States, as well as hundreds of similar institutions operated by religious organizations. At least 973 Native children died in these schools according to available federal records, and the children who survived often endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. At Carlisle, school officials forced children to cut their hair, prohibited them from speaking their Native languages, and subjected them to harsh labor.

The new national monument will be located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on 24.5 acres of what is now the U.S. Army’s Carlisle Barracks, one of the nation’s oldest military installations. The monument boundary encompasses the historic buildings and structures that made up the campus of the Carlisle School – including School Road Gateposts that were built by the labor of Native American children and youth at the school. The gateposts still stand today as a marker of the removal and separation of children from their families, Tribes, and homelands. The monument will be cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the U.S. Army. The National Park Service, in coordination with the Army, will engage Tribal Nations and the Native Hawaiian Community in development of the management plan and ongoing management of the monument, and provide for Tribal consultation with any federally recognized Tribe with historical connections to any part of the Federal Indian boarding school system to help ensure the national monument tells the full story of this site, similar institutions, and the broader federal Indian boarding school era.

With the establishment of the new national monument, the Army will now transfer administrative jurisdiction over the gateposts to the National Park Service, and the agencies will sign a memorandum of understanding to guide their cooperative management of the national monument. The Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument is President Biden’s twelfth use of the Antiquities Act.

Promoting Native Languages

• 10-Year Native Language Revitalization Plan. While there were once hundreds of thriving Native languages in the U.S., over three quarters of the remaining 190 languages spoken today are now endangered. Studies indicate fewer than 20 languages will exist by 2050 if no action is taken. The Departments of the Interior, Education, and Health and Human Services and the White House Council on Native American Affairs are publishing a 10-year National Plan on Native Language Revitalization (Plan) that calls for strategic actions to address the United States government’s historic role in the loss of Native languages across the lower 48 states, Alaska, and Hawai’i. The Plan lays out a long-term, all-of-government strategy that works with Tribal Nations, the Native Hawaiian Community, urban Native communities, Native language experts, schools, community organizations, and the philanthropic sector for the protection, preservation, reclamation and revitalization of Native languages. The Plan’s proposals would: 1) expand access to immersion language environments, 2) support community-led revitalization efforts, and 3) develop, grow and sustain Native language support networks. The Plan also recommends ways to address a chronic under-investment in Native language revitalization to date.

Meeting the Federal Trust Responsibility

• OMB Guidance on Unmet Federal Obligations. OMB’s guidance furthers the goals of Executive Order 14112, which seeks to reform Federal funding to be more consistent with Tribal self-determination and sovereignty. The new guidance supports a comprehensive effort to address chronic underfunding of Tribal programs by calculating unmet federal obligations and developing actionable recommendations for closing funding gaps.

Promoting Understanding of Tribal Consultation and Tribal Treaty Rights and Reserved Rights

• Trainings for Federal Employees on Tribal Consultation and Tribal Treaty and Reserved Rights. The Department of the Interior, Office of Personnel Management, and the Office of Management and Budget, in coordination with the White House Council on Native American Affairs, are releasing trainings available to Federal employees on Tribal consultation and Tribal Treaty and Reserved Rights. These trainings reflect years of Tribal leader input and will assist federal employees across the government in understanding their role in supporting Tribal consultation and the federal trust responsibility to Tribes.
  

Reforming Federal Processes for Tribal Nations

• FEMA Tribal Declarations Interim Guidance. New guidance will streamline the process for Tribal Nations seeking disaster declarations, including reducing minimum damage thresholds, enhancing cost-sharing adjustments, and expanding assistance for Tribal members.

• HHS Tribal Data Access Policy. The new policy establishes clear guidelines and timelines for Tribes and Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TECs) to access critical health data, advancing public health outcomes and addressing data disparities.

Supporting Tribes and Other Communities Considering Voluntary Relocation

• Opportunities for Federal Support of Community-Driven Relocation Report. The Community-Driven Relocation Subcommittee of the National Climate Task Force is releasing the Opportunities for Federal Support of Community-Driven Relocation report, which provides background on voluntary community-driven relocation to avoid climate- and pollution-related hazards, an overview of the current Federal legal and programmatic landscape, and next steps that are available for Federal agencies to support Tribes and other communities contemplating relocation due to severe environmental impact and hazards from climate change. The report recognizes the disproportionate climate-related risks that Tribal communities face and the leadership that Tribal communities have already demonstrated in relocating their communities and partnering with Federal, State, and local governments as well as other partners. An accompanying resource guide will help Tribes and communities identify specific Federal agencies, and programs to support their efforts.

These announcements build upon historic actions by the Biden-Harris Administration to support Tribal Nations and Native communities, which include:

• Historic investments in Tribal Nations, including $32 billion in the American Rescue Plan, the largest direct federal investment to Tribal Nations in history; $13 billion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; and over $700 million in the Inflation Reduction Act.

• Signing two Presidential Memoranda directing federal agencies to submit plans of action to implement meaningful consultation with Tribal Nations and establishing uniform standards for Tribal Consultation.

• Historic appointments of Native Americans across the Administration, including Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and over 80 Native Americans in senior Administration roles.

• Re-launching the Tribal Nations Summit and re-establishing the White House Council on Native American Affairs that serves to foster an all-of-government approach to coordinating and developing Tribal policy.

• Signing an Executive Order to improve public safety and criminal justice and address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) by directing agencies to prioritize addressing this crisis and assessing what more can be accomplished.
  
• Signing an Executive Order to improve educational outcomes and career opportunities for Native American students by focusing on systemic barriers, increasing access to high-quality education, and fostering economic empowerment.

• Securing the first-ever advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service, which provides long-overdue funding stability and predictability for IHS.

• Signing a Presidential Memorandum to Restore Healthy and Abundant Native Fish Populations in the Columbia River, which supports cultural and spiritual practices, commerce, and economic growth for Tribes.

• Authoring the first-of-its-kind government-wide Indigenous Knowledge guidance that assists federal agencies in recognizing and including Indigenous Knowledge in Federal research, policy, and decision making.

• Restoring protections for the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bear Ears National Monuments in Utah, and designating and expanding the following national monuments that hold significance to Tribal Nations: Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada; Castner Range in Texas; Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon in Arizona; and Berryessa Snow Mountain and San Gabriel Mountains National Monuments in California.

• Increasing Tribal Co-Stewardship of Lands and Waters through historic co-stewardship agreements. During the Biden-Harris Administration, the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce have signed 400 co-stewardship agreements with Tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and consortiums.

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