At least 973 Native American children died in government boarding schools, inquiry finds

Investigation ordered by US interior secretary found graves at schools established to force Indigenous kids to assimilate

At least 973 Native American children died in the US government's abusive boarding school system, according to the results of an investigation released Tuesday by officials who called on the government to apologize for the schools.

The investigation commissioned by the US interior secretary, Deb Haaland, found marked and unmarked graves at 65 of the more than 400 US boarding schools that were established to forcibly assimilate Native American children into white society. The findings don't specify how each child died, but the causes of death included sickness and abuse during a 150-year period that ended in 1969, officials said.