LANSING (MI)
WLNS [Lansing MI]
December 19, 2025
By Brad LaPlante
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Friday announced a criminal investigation into Native American boarding schools that operated across the state. Nessel said her department will investigate and prosecute crimes that may have occurred at these sites.
Investigators are asking survivors, witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.
“This investigation seeks to bring truth and accountability to a painful chapter in our state’s history,” Nessel said in a statement. “My office is committed to ensuring that survivors’ voices are heard and that any criminal acts uncovered are thoroughly investigated and, when possible, prosecuted.”Advertisement
Tips can be submitted by email or phone at 517-897-7391 and may be anonymous. More information is available on the investigation’s website.
For more than a century, the federal U.S. government and religious organizations operated Indian boarding schools designed to assimilate Native children by suppressing language, culture and religion. Children’s hair was cut, names were Anglicized and speaking Indigenous languages was punished. Survivors have described routine church attendance, strict discipline and physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
The forced removals of Native American children was a result of the Civilization Fund Act of 1819, which was designed to introduce Indian tribes to the “habits and arts of civilization.” In following years, residential boarding schools were established across the U.S. and used to house relocated Indigenous children.
Documented sites in Michigan include Holy Childhood School of Jesus in Harbor Springs, the Old St. Joseph Orphanage and School at Assinins near Baraga, the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School, Holy Family Orphanage in Marquette, and other mission schools on Mackinac Island, Omena, and in Schoolcraft County. The Mount Pleasant school opened in the 1890s and operated for decades; tribal members say far more students died there than official records reflect. Holy Childhood’s operations stretched into the 1900s, with local Odawa leaders and survivors preserving records and testimony about conditions and abuse.Advertisement
Mackinac Island has multiple historical markers and installations tied to its history, including the Indian Dormitory/Henry R. Schoolcraft plaque and the Mission House and Mission Church. Additionally, Mackinac State Historic Parks installed a Native American history trail with interpretive panels around the island.
The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe in Mount Pleasant hosts an annual remembrance day at the former industrial boarding school site, with sunrise ceremonies, the reading of the names of deceased students, and ongoing plans to preserve buildings and create memorial spaces.
Harbor Springs tributes include the church-associated cemetery, where community efforts have documented burials and unmarked graves. The Diocese of Gaylord acknowledges “painful” past events and notes collaboration with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians during site renovations.
In 2021, the U.S. Department of the Interior launched a nationwide investigation into federal Indian boarding schools to identify the scope of operations and deaths, and to support healing efforts led by tribal nations. Michigan tribal historians and archivists have worked to collect records, survivor accounts, and photographs to document what happened and to reclaim language and traditions.Advertisement
The 2021 initiative resembled a similar effort in Canada, where the remains of 215 children were discovered at the site of a defunct boarding school.