Native News
NABS Oral History Project Reaches 20th Stop in Billings, Montana
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) will host the 20th stop of its nationwide Oral History Project in Billings, Montana, as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the stories of Native American boarding school survivors.
The project will take place May 4–8, 2026, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Billings, where NABS is inviting Native American relatives who attended boarding schools prior to 1970 to participate in professionally recorded video interviews.
Organizers say the Montana stop represents a critical opportunity for survivors to document their lived experiences. The interviews will become part of a permanent archive housed at the Library of Congress, ensuring these histories are preserved for future generations.
The Oral History Project is a key component of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a national effort to document and reckon with the legacy of the federal boarding school system and its impact on Indigenous communities.
“We are grateful to be returning to Montana to gather boarding school survivor stories for the 20th stop of this historic project. Their lived experiences and truths deserve to be heard and preserved. It is more important than ever to gather and honor their stories, as our elders are getting older. This part of our history must be known in order to support healing for Indigenous peoples and communities,” said Charlee Brisette, co-director of the initiative.
Participation is limited, and organizers are encouraging early registration. Interviews will be conducted by appointment only and are open to survivors who attended federally supported Indian boarding schools in the United States before 1970.
The Billings event marks another milestone in the coalition’s broader mission to ensure that the voices of boarding school survivors are recorded, recognized, and honored as part of the ongoing healing process across Indian Country.
To learn more, please visit https://boardingschoolhealing.org/oral-history-project or contact the oral history project team at 651-650-4445 or OralHistoryProject@nabshc.org.
To learn more about Indian boarding schools in Montana, please visit, https://bit.ly/4dEbqpE.