I'm Jason Epperson. This is RV Miles, and it's time for this month's National Park News Roundup.

I'm Jason Epperson. This is the America's National Parks podcast, and it's time for this month's

National Park News Roundup. Welcome back, everybody. First up, President Biden has established the

Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in Carlyle, Pennsylvania,

as the 432nd site in the National Park System.

The proclamation for the new National Monument acknowledges the painful past of forced assimilation of native children

through the implementation of federal Indian boarding school policies.

Established in 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first off-reservation

boarding school for native children and youth in the continental United States.

By the time it ceased operations in 1918, Carlisle School had subjected more than 7,800 Indian children from more than 140 Indian tribes, including Alaska native villages, to its coercive form of education.

Some children were as young as five years old when they arrived.

The school served as the template for more than 400 additional institutions

across 37 states that were part of a forced assimilation system designed to eliminate native

languages, religions, and cultures. The proclamation designates a 24.5-acre national monument

to be managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the U.S.

Department of the Army.

Quote, this addition to the National Park System that recognizes the troubled history of

U.S. and tribal relations is among the giant steps taken in recent years to honor tribal

sovereignty and recognize the ongoing needs of native communities repair past

damage and make progress towards healing said National Park Service Director Chuck Sam's

the agency's first tribally enrolled director my mother grandparents and countless

more relatives experienced firsthand the impact of Indian boarding schools. I couldn't be more humbled

...