Jeff Ruch, director of PEER’s Pacific office, said the report pointed to the BIE’s “lack of administrative competence and responsible oversight. So for example, I mean, one of the most attention-grabbing parts of the report was reports of sexual assault on students that was drawing no official response. Moreover, there was no protocol, no policy, no nothing.”
Ruch called that “fairly shocking, particularly given the checkered history of Indian education and the concerns” that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American cabinet secretary, “has been voicing” as her department has begun to reckon with the history of the United States’ boarding school system for Native American kids.
Ruch said he and his colleagues at PEER, which has a long history of pursuing accountability within the federal government, also was surprised that Haaland didn’t intervene and press the Inspector General’s office to investigate Haskell directly.