TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The leader of an American Indian tribe wants the federal government to include a former boarding school for Native American children in Kansas in a new federal program investigating whether Indigenous children were buried in unmarked graves in the 1800s and early 1900s. Ben Barnes, chief of the Oklahoma-based Shawnee Tribe, says the tribe wants to know what happened to children at the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway. It is unclear if the Shawnee site will be included because it was run by Methodists, not by the government. But Barnes says federal agents persuaded tribes to send their children to the church-run schools, and the government now has an obligation to locate any missing remains.
Evan Vucci/AP
FILE - In this April 23, 2021, file photo, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks during a news briefing at the White House in Washington. On Tuesday, June 22, 2021, Haaland and other federal officials are expected to announce steps that the federal government plans to take to reconcile the legacy of boarding school policies on Indigenous families and communities across the U.S. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
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