Federal policy aimed to assimilate Native children. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, founded in 1879 by Richard Henry Pratt, became the model. Pratt summed up its goal as "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." Children's hair was cut, their names were changed, and they were punished for speaking their languages. Many schools relied on child labor, and abuse and disease were common. Churches ran many schools with federal support.
In 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. Its 2024 report counted 417 federal boarding schools across 37 states or then-territories between 1819 and 1969. It identified at least 973 deaths and burial sites at 65 schools.
President Joe Biden formally apologized in October 2024. Survivors and tribes link the schools to language loss and intergenerational trauma. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 responded to a related practice of removing Native children into non-Native foster homes.