Update: Doug Burgum was sworn in as Secretary of the Interior on Jan. 30.
Recently departed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched the nation’s first-ever accounting of the abusive government-run Indian boarding schools. While leading the department, the granddaughter of boarding school survivors and this country’s first Indigenous cabinet secretary revealed thousands of unmarked children’s graves. The former Congress member spent a year on a Road to Healing Tour, listening intently to first-person testimony with tears in her eyes.
Today, her would-be successor, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, has been confirmed by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources following an 18-2 vote. He is widely expected to receive full Senate confirmation. The incoming Secretary of the Interior sold his software company to Microsoft for $1.1 billion, has longstanding ties to the fossil fuel industry and has boosted oil and gas interests.
The man who would oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs is also viewed favorably by tribal leaders in his state, who note his work to strengthen the federal Indian Child Welfare Act in North Dakota and describe his policies as governor favorably.
Will Burgum’s Interior continue the ongoing project to document the harms of Indian boarding schools?
Interviews with boarding school survivors, child welfare leaders and tribal members reveal a mix of concern and cautious optimism that the work Haaland set in motion will continue.
“We have an obligation as tribal members and people who care about kids, families and tribes collectively, to understand that there may be efforts to retrench,” said Linda S. Spears, president and CEO of the Child Welfare League of America. “It will be very hard for us to have a person like Deb Haaland in that role, no matter who’s president. Deb was extraordinary and accomplished things that had not been accomplished in the Interior in many, many decades, so it would be hard to replace her.”
But one of the partners working with the Interior Department on collecting oral histories from boarding school survivors — a work that remains incomplete — expressed no reason to doubt the work will continue.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition “will continue working with the Department of the Interior to advance the oral history project in accordance with our grant agreement, ensuring that established goals and priorities remain on track,” a statement sent to The Imprint read. “Our focus remains steadfast in serving Indian boarding school survivors and providing a safe space for them to share their experiences.”
Under Haaland’s Ieadership, the department produced two reports on Indian boarding schools, the first official account of the nearly 1,000 school children who died at the government-run institutions that ripped families and tribes apart between 1819 and 1969. The Department announced eight needed reforms “to support a path to healing the nation” from the intergenerational wounds still suffered today.
With Secretary Haaland speaking poignantly for a public reckoning, some recommendations were accomplished — including the first presidential apology for the schools, and the establishment of a national memorial at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.
“My grandmother and my mother carried scars from that era that they passed down to me,” Haaland wrote in a Jan. 6 essay reflecting on her recent work. “I have sought to shed light on this legacy and leverage my platform to amplify the voices of those who deserve to be heard. Because Native American history is American history.”
But other recommendations her department called for remain unaddressed: The repatriation of children’s remains, public education campaigns and researching former students’ health and economic impacts among them. It’s unclear whether Secretary Burgum will continue this work, given that it is not an issue he’s addressed in the past, according to the public record.
Born in Arthur, North Dakota — a small town with a current population of 324 — Burgum has stayed connected to his farmtown roots through family farm partnerships: he remains a member of Arthur Companies, Inc., an agriculture business company founded by his grandparents in 1906. He earned his billionaire status after selling his company to Microsoft, starting first as CEO and president of Great Plains Software, which was then a fledgling company in the early computer software industry. After Great Plains was acquired by Microsoft in 2001, Burgum worked there for six years as senior vice president.
Burgum, 68, began campaigning for U.S. president in June 2023, but dropped out in December, with his campaign statement blaming “clubhouse debate requirements” that kept him from qualifying for multiple Republican debates. Burgum served as governor of North Dakota from 2016 to 2024.
During a January 2024 campaign event in Des Moines, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump called Burgum “one of the best governors in our country.”
As governor, he codified North Dakota’s state version of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, the law strengthening tribal sovereignty in child abuse and neglect cases that aims to keep foster children within their families and communities.
The Indigenous news outlet ICT has reported favorable responses to Burgum’s appointment by tribal leaders in his home state, with supporters praising his work in the energy sector. He’s also credited with improving respectful relationships and dialogue between North Dakota and the five federally recognized tribes headquartered there today.
Boarding school survivor Ramona Klein, who was sent to North Dakota’s Fort Totten Indian Boarding School, is watching all this carefully.
“I’m hoping that Doug Burgum will continue with the work of the Indian boarding school initiative. That’s very important to me,” said Klein, 77. “Personally, I know that he has relationships with the tribal nations in North Dakota. I think they’re positive relationships.”
Haaland’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the likely future of her department’s efforts, and a spokesperson for Burgum said comment could not be provided as Burgum had not yet officially been sworn in.
