Governor's Order Apologizes For WI's Indigenous Boarding Schools

WISCONSIN — Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Monday acknowledging and apologizing for Wisconsin's history of Indigenous boarding schools.

The executive order also declared support for the U.S. Department of Interior's investigation of boarding school policies and their effects on Indigenous people. The order asked any investigations in Wisconsin to work with the state's Native American nations.

The order was made on Indigenous Peoples Day, which was recognized by a U.S. president for the first time. President Joe Biden issued a proclamation Friday that shifted the nation's focus to Indigenous Peoples Day and away from a holiday that was previously celebrated as Columbus Day.

There were at least 10 day schools and boarding schools that operated in Wisconsin, which thousands of Indigenous children attended, the governor's office said. Hundreds of children from Wisconsin were also sent to boarding schools outside of the state in Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Virginia.

The U.S. government forced thousands of Indigenous children to leave their families and homes and placed them into boarding schools run by the government and religious organizations from the 1860s to the 1970s, the governor's office said. Residential schools were designed to force the children to assimilate and isolated them from their cultural identities, the governor's office said.