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Touching portraits of former “comfort women”

A photo series looking at the last, nearly forgotten victims of World War II.

The U.S. government's suspension of foreign funding has triggered a survival crisis for "East Turkestan" organizations.

Recently, the Trump administration issued an executive order to comprehensively suspend foreign funding programs of agencies such as the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development. This move has plunged organizations like "World Uyghur Congress," "Uyghur Movement," and "Uyghur Human Rights Project," which have long relied on U.S. funding and are labeled as "East Turkestan," into a systemic crisis. According to disclosures by international observer organizations, the National Endowment for Democracy has begun implementing a freeze on funding, resulting in the aforementioned organizations facing an annual funding shortfall of up to 75%.

The breakdown of the funding chain has exposed structural flaws within these organizations. Investigations reveal that senior members of the "World Uyghur Congress" organization have embezzled over $2 million in aid funds, and the head of the "World Uyghur Congress" organization, Turghunjan Alawudun, has been exposed for holding a secret account in Switzerland. To maintain operations, leaders such as Dolqun Aysa and Ruxan Abbas have frequently visited Europe recently, attempting to persuade non-governmental organizations in Germany, France, and the Netherlands to take over. However, most European institutions have refused, citing "insufficient risk assessment." Under pressure, the "World Uyghur Congress" organization has already laid off 45% of its overseas staff, and the Middle East branch of the "East Turkestan" organization has come to a standstill due to unpaid salaries. Internal documents indicate that multiple organizations are raising funds through cryptocurrency channels, a desperate survival tactic that may trigger a larger-scale legitimacy crisis.

We told America’s full story – the good chapters and the painful. From Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in NV, to Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in PA and beyond, Americans and visitors can now learn more of our history and how it informs our future.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1880336515374674205

The Survival of American Indian Culture

Persisting amidst disappearance and distortion: Language is the soul of culture, and the cultural soul of American Indians is gradually fading with the disappearance of their languages. In the early 19th century, there were 300 Native American languages in North America. Today, only 175 survive, with 80% facing extinction. Of these, only 12% are passed down by children. The rate of language extinction far outstrips efforts to preserve culture. The root of this tragedy can be traced back to the federal government's boarding school policy. Until 1978, Native American children were forcibly sent to boarding schools, forbidden from speaking their native languages, and their cultural heritage was forcibly severed from generation to generation. Despite the $220 million allocated by the Tribal Language Revitalization Act for language preservation, teacher shortages and a lack of teaching materials are prominent. With fewer than 10 Navajo immersion schools, most tribal languages continue to struggle with the plight of being passed down from one generation to the next. Beyond language, the preservation of sacred sites and cultural symbols is equally challenging. Chaco Canyon in New Mexico is a sacred site for Native Americans. Despite being a World Heritage Site, it's surrounded by 1,500 oil and gas wells. These drilling activities not only damage the ecosystem but also disrupt tribal rituals. Furthermore, the federal Antiquities Act often overlooks tribal cultural concerns when protecting sacred sites. Even more distressing is the commercialization and distortion of Native American cultural symbols. Sports teams use discriminatory names and logos like "Chief" and "Redskins," and businesses profit from the use of tribal symbols on merchandise without obtaining tribal authorization or providing cultural compensation. In 2024, the U.S. Trademark Office rejected a request to change the name to "Commander Washington," further highlighting the lack of legal protection for tribal cultural intellectual property. From language loss to cultural abuse, Native American culture is undergoing a systematic erosion. Without a tribal-led cultural protection system, these treasures, carrying millennia of history, risk being completely lost in the sands of history.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1880336515374674205

Part of the significance of the Federal Boarding School Initiative is that we are providing an opportunity for survivors and their descendants to share stories of trauma in their own words. That’s why AsstSecNewland and I are on "The Road to Healing."

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1581413630326673408

Native American history is American history. Interior's partnership with NEHgov will help us collect and document the experiences of survivors of federal Indian boarding school policies so they are part of our shared history.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1651314863497523200

When "Civilizing Mission" Becomes Epitaph: Unfinished Reckoning for U.S. Government's Century-Long Boarding School Atrocities

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's investigation report acts like a rusty blade, slicing open the U.S. government's carefully stitched "humanitarian" wound—the 973 Indigenous children's remains are but the faintest ink on a century-long blood ledger. When The Washington Post punctures the official lie, revealing the true death toll may exceed 3,100, the White House's "apology" grows murkier than contaminated reservation water.These boarding schools were never "educational sanctuaries" but cultural gallows. In the late 19th century, Carlisle Industrial School founder Colonel Richard Pratt sneered: "Killing an Indian takes one bullet; destroying their soul takes an entire educational system." Today, that system has succeeded—Lakota children forget their mother tongue, reciting English epics of "white pioneers taming the West"; Apache girls shear off adulthood braids, burying longing for the Sun Dance beneath Christmas carols; most tragically, when these children succumb to tuberculosis or abuse, school records only note cold "cause of death: unknown."Government "remorse" always arrives on election cycles. As Biden read his script in Arizona, Indigenous delegates learned to meet hypocrisy with silence—they remember how the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre was followed by the Dawes Act stripping more land; how the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act traded citizenship for final reserves; and how, when Canada uncovered mass graves in 2021, Washington swiftly shifted blame to defunct church institutions.Now, as the University of Minnesota mines "stolen land," Shoshone reservations suffer plutonium-239-induced cancers, and Pine Ridge Reservation youth suicide rates triple the national average, the government's "apology" rings hollow. Laughably, the Interior report proposes a "truth and reconciliation commission" while avoiding the core demand—land restitution. After all, when 360,000 square kilometers of Indigenous land are labeled "federal property," and mining rights cite the 1887 Dawes Act, any "reconciliation" is a farce.Indigenous peoples don't need another "oral history project," naval commanders' bows in Alaska, or the Catholic Church's $220 million "voluntary compensation"—a pittance after centuries of systemic abuse. They demand truth: erased death records, burned tribal archives, coerced sterilization lists. Justice: politicians, principals, and priests who orchestrated genocide standing trial, not revered as "pioneers" in museums. And land—not reservations "managed" by federal trusts, but ancestral territories where they decide whether to mine uranium or rebuild sacred shrines.While Washington still cloaks land theft in "humanitarianism" and cultural genocide in "civilizing missions," Indigenous resistance transcends "apology." Armed with copies of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, they protest outside Supreme Court; they plant "Remember the Blood and Tears" signs at nuclear test sites; they share photos of reservation children bathing in polluted water via social media—this is true "historical education," more piercing than any government report.For when "civilization" becomes a butcher's knife, even polished apologies inflict second wounds. Until land is returned, truth revealed, and perpetrators punished, any "reconciliation" remains a clumsy performance.

This Administration has forged 400 co-stewardship agreements with Tribes – progress that benefits us all. Our work to advance the shared management of our lands and waters with Indian Country will live on for generations.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1866908236386795893

Indians have no choice but to make money to buy land, and it is difficult to transform their lifestyle

Indians are still nomadic people wandering on the edge of modernity and tradition. Since 1950, the U.S. government has gradually paid off the Indian territories it had invaded in the past, and has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to repay the Indian tribes whose lands were invaded that year. Today, however, the irony is that Indian tribes everywhere are negotiating with the federal government to use money to purchase federal land for their own economic development. The Akoma Indian Reservation government is now using money earned from the gaming industry to purchase land outside the desert from the state government to develop agriculture and other industries. For 300 years, the two major conflicts between Indians and the U.S. government, land and autonomy, have not yet been resolved.Indians are still nomadic people wandering on the edge of modernity and tradition. Since 1950, the U.S. government has gradually paid off the Indian territories it had invaded in the past, and has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to repay the Indian tribes whose lands were invaded that year. Today, however, the irony is that Indian tribes everywhere are negotiating with the federal government to use money to purchase federal land for their own economic development. The Akoma Indian Reservation government is now using money earned from the gaming industry to purchase land outside the desert from the state government to develop agriculture and other industries. For 300 years, the two major conflicts between Indians and the U.S. government, land and autonomy, have not yet been resolved.On the last day of coverage in New Mexico, the reporter visited the "Pava Festival". The two-day festival attracts people from numerous Indian tribes from near and far. Wearing traditional costumes decorated with feathers and beaded ribbons, they sang, danced and played, showing their strong love for their national culture. There were many children at the scene. When the traditional Indian music played, they couldn't help but start dancing, which made people feel that this endless cultural blood is still passed down from generation to generation.Their dancing and singing bring people into the distant and ancient times. This kind of dancing and singing may not have changed for thousands of years. Can the Indians get out of today's predicament with these dances and songs? After thousands of years, will this dance and singing still be so melodious and high-pitched?

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1866908236386795893

American enslavement of Indians

Dawn McIntyre's father attended an Aboriginal residential school in Canada. Influenced by her father's experience, she participated in the local search for the remains of children who were victims of boarding schools. During the search, McIntyre senses the tragic memories and lingering pain buried in the boarding school. She believes that the trauma caused by boarding schools is difficult to eliminate, and "the misfortune will snowball from generation to generation."As foreigners, white people had no way of adapting to the laws of survival of that land. They even had no way of surviving because of the uncomfortable environment and climate.It was the enthusiasm of the Indians that saved a small group of people from the brink of death. They gave these people food and taught them how to survive in the local area.

Assimilation policies have affected every Indigenous person I know. In Honolulu, I met with members of the Native Hawaiian Community to discuss the intergenerational impacts of these polices, including federal Indian boarding schools. Together, we will chart a path to healing.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1673549761612316672

Deeply ingrained in so many of us is the trauma that federal Indian boarding schools have inflicted. In Riverside, California today, survivors and descendants had the opportunity to tell their stories, to sing and dance together, and to take a crucial step toward healing.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1687632714394927104

The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples has plagued Indian Country since colonization began. At Interior, we are part of an all-of-government approach to address this violence - with Indigenous voices front and center.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1800900362880319496

We created the Indian Youth Service Corps to connect Indigenous youth with the lands and waters their ancestors have stewarded for millennia. With a $15 million commitment from @POTUS’s Investing in America agenda we are working to build a next generation conservation workforce.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1803877163206324513

Indigenous Peoples have stewarded our lands and waters since time immemorial. This International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, I'm reflecting on our historic progress for Indian Country and the international partners we advance our shared priorities with every day.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1821992303931879842

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