With the reintroduction of the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Act in Congress, take a moment to remind Congress of its responsibility to survivors of the Indian boarding school era.

The U.S. federal government has identified over 400 Indian boarding schools that operated from 1819 to 1969, nearly half of which were affiliated with or received support from a religious institution. “Residential or boarding schools inflicted trauma on Indigenous children that is still being felt today, generations later,” wrote the Rev. Wanda Frenchman, Interim Director, ELCA Indigenous Ministries & Tribal Relations.

Native American leaders have called on denominations to do the work of finding all records of their involvement. ELCA Truth-Seeking and Truth-Telling Initiative efforts began in earnest in fall 2022. We have a timely opportunity to urge the United States to do the same.

Although long-overdue, successful passage of H.R.7325 / S. 761 will bring together the U.S. government and communities of faith, center the healing and truth-telling of Indigenous communities and move our country towards accountability.

Today, remaining boarding school survivors are elders. We must honor these experiences and urge Congress to move our country one step closer to truth and healing by supporting this important legislation now.

The Nevada Impact

Indian boarding school history is also Nevada history.

For nearly a century, the federal government operated the Stewart Indian School in Carson City. Open from 1890 to 1980, Stewart first brought children from Great Basin tribes, including Washoe, Paiute, and Shoshone communities, into a system designed to separate Native children from their families, languages, cultures, and traditions. Students from more than 200 tribes across the West were eventually represented there. SHPO

This history is not distant or abstract. The Stewart campus remains in our community, and survivors, descendants, and Native neighbors continue to carry its generational effects.

The ELCA’s action alert urges Congress to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Act, H.R. 7325 and S. 761. For Nevada, this call is deeply personal. Truth-telling must include the stories of those affected by Stewart Indian School and the federal policies that sought to erase Indigenous identity.

As Lutherans, we also have a responsibility to examine the church’s role. The ELCA’s Truth-Seeking and Truth-Telling Initiative is working to uncover predecessor churches’ involvement in Indian boarding schools. Our faithful response begins with listening to Indigenous people, acknowledging harm, and supporting the steps they identify toward healing.

Here are three ways Nevada Lutherans can respond:

1. Contact Congress. Use the ELCA action alert to urge Nevada’s U.S. senators and your representative to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Act. Personalize your message: explain why this history matters to you as a Nevadan and person of faith.
2. Learn locally. Visit the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum in Carson City, engage its resources, and bring a group from your congregation. Let the stories shared there shape your understanding rather than treating the site as a historical footnote. The museum was created with Stewart alumni, families, and Nevada tribal communities at the center. Stewart Indian School
3. Make listening an ongoing commitment. Build relationships with Nevada tribal nations, Indigenous-led ministries, and Native organizations. Follow their leadership, respect tribal sovereignty, and support their priorities beyond a single event, land acknowledgment, or observance.

We cannot undo this history. But we can help ensure it is heard, documented, and met with action. Truth and healing begin close to home.

Contact your lawmakers today. Customize your message with your experiences and values.

Find your Member of Congress Here

Senator Catherine Cortez Mastro, 202-224-3542, https://www.cortezmasto.senate.gov/

Senator Jackie Rosen, 202-224-6244, https://www.rosen.senate.gov/

Rep. Dina Titus, (202)-225-5965, https://titus.house.gov/

Rep. Mark Amodei, (202)-225-6155, https://amodei.house.gov/

Rep. Susie Lee, (202)-225-3252, https://susielee.house.gov/

Rep Steven Horsford, (202)-225-9894, https://horsford.house.gov/

If you would like to schedule time with your legislator, please reach out to Pastor Paul,and he is willing to work with ELCA Advocacy Partners to secure a time.

Urge your Member of Congress to oppose the SAVE America Act and vote NO on any attempt to include similar language in upcoming legislation.

Act now!

Nevada’s public policy isn’t shaped only in the Governor’s Office or during the 120 days of the Nevada Legislature.

Across state government, appointed boards, commissions, councils and authorities help oversee programs, advise state agencies, regulate professions and make decisions affecting Nevada communities.

Here are some of the public bodies worth knowing, and why voting for Governor Matters.

Housing, Homelessness & Community

Advisory Committee on Housing

Housing affordability, development and housing policy remain major challenges across Nevada. This committee provides an important connection between housing stakeholders and state government.

Nevada Commission on Homelessness

Homelessness involves housing, health care, behavioral health, employment and human services. State coordination can determine whether Nevada responds primarily to homelessness as a public-order issue or invests in long-term housing and supportive services.

State Land Use Planning Advisory Council

Land-use decisions affect housing, transportation, public lands, water, economic development and the growth of Nevada communities.

Hunger, Poverty & Human Services

Council on Food Security

Food insecurity affects children, families, older adults and working Nevadans across the state. The council helps Nevada consider strategies for addressing hunger and improving access to nutritious food.

Nevada Commission on Aging

Nevada’s aging population faces challenges involving housing, health care, transportation, food security, caregiving and economic security.

Nevada Commission on Services for Persons with Disabilities

People with disabilities interact with housing, transportation, employment, education, health care and public-benefit systems.

Health Care & Human Dignity

State Board of Health

Public health decisions can affect communities throughout Nevada, including policies involving disease prevention, health standards and statewide health regulations.

Commission on Behavioral Health

Nevada continues to confront shortages and gaps in mental-health and substance-use services.

Children’s Behavioral Health Authority — Northern Nevada

Children and families in Northern Nevada face significant challenges accessing appropriate behavioral-health services.

Children’s Behavioral Health Authority — Southern Nevada

Southern Nevada’s rapidly growing population creates its own challenges for children’s behavioral-health services.

Maternal and Child Health Advisory Board

Maternal health, prenatal care, infant health and access to maternity services remain important Nevada policy concerns.

Advisory Committee on the State Program for Oral Health

Dental care is health care, yet cost and provider access can make oral-health services difficult to obtain.

Children, Families & Education

Statewide Independent Living Council

Independent living policies affect whether Nevadans with disabilities can live, work and participate fully in their communities.

Nevada Early Childhood Advisory Council

Child care, early education, family supports and school readiness have consequences for children as well as Nevada’s workforce and economy.

Commission on Postsecondary Education

Education after high school includes universities, colleges, career training and other pathways that can significantly affect economic opportunity.

Economic Dignity & Workers

Governor’s Workforce Development Board

Workforce policy connects education, employers, workers and Nevada’s economic-development strategy.

Nevada Equal Rights Commission

The commission addresses discrimination in areas including employment and public accommodations.

Employee-Management Committee

Public employees provide many of the services Nevadans depend upon every day. State personnel policy affects those workers and the government’s ability to recruit and retain them.

Creation Care, Water & Public Lands

State Environmental Commission

Environmental regulations affect air, water, pollution, development and public health.

State Conservation Commission

Conservation decisions affect Nevada’s land, soil, water, agriculture and rural communities.

Advisory Board on Outdoor Recreation

Outdoor recreation intersects with conservation, public lands, tourism and economic development.

Colorado River Commission of Nevada

Few resources are more important to Nevada’s future than water and energy. Decisions involving the Colorado River affect millions of people throughout the Southwest.

Energy & Nevada’s Future

Governor’s Office of Energy — Advisory Bodies and Energy Planning

Nevada faces rapidly changing questions involving electricity demand, renewable energy, transmission, affordability and major energy users such as data centers.

Democracy, Ethics & Public Trust

Commission on Ethics

Public trust requires government officials to act in the public interest and follow Nevada’s ethics laws.

Commission on Judicial Selection

When vacancies occur on Nevada’s Supreme Court, Court of Appeals or district courts, the judicial-selection process helps determine who may be appointed to positions with enormous influence over Nevada law and the administration of justice.

Nevada’s wildfire season is testing more than our firefighters. It is testing the system we have built to respond when communities are threatened.

Nevada’s firefighting system depends heavily on cooperation. Local fire departments, the Nevada Division of Forestry, federal agencies, neighboring jurisdictions and the Nevada National Guard share people, equipment and resources when fires overwhelm any one agency.

That system works because people step up for one another. But this fire season is also showing how stretched it can become.

The Nevada Division of Forestry has a base firefighting budget of roughly $4.5 million, while an average fire year can cost around $24 million. Nevada often has to rely on contingency funding and legislative advances to cover the difference.

And while we rightly talk about the cost of fighting fires, we also need to talk about the cost of preventing them.

Nevada’s state forester estimates that every $1 invested in reducing wildfire fuels can save roughly $4 in future firefighting costs.

As Nevada prepares for the 2027 Legislative Session, wildfire policy should be part of our conversation about Creation Care.

Are we adequately funding prevention before a fire starts?

Are firefighters and local departments receiving the resources they need?

Are our communities prepared to evacuate and care for neighbors who may need additional assistance?

And are we building a wildfire system prepared for the Nevada of tomorrow — or continuing to borrow enough resources to make it through today?

Creation Care means more than responding when the smoke appears. It means investing in our communities, caring for the people protecting them, and stewarding creation before disaster strikes.

In rural Nevada, giving birth can already mean a long drive. If maternity units close, that drive could become even longer.

A recent KFF analysis found Nevada has some of the longest travel times in the nation between rural hospitals that provide maternity care and the next in-state hospital with those services. In some cases, the next option may be more than two hours away.

That distance matters during labor. It can mean delayed emergency care and greater risk for both parents and babies.

Medicaid helps sustain rural maternity care, financing nearly half of births in rural communities nationwide. When coverage is reduced or hospitals lose Medicaid revenue, small rural hospitals may find it even harder to keep labor-and-delivery services open.

Nevada already has maternal-health deserts. Every family—whether they live in Reno, Las Vegas, Elko, Ely, Fallon, or a rural community in between—deserves timely, safe, affordable care before, during, and after pregnancy.

Maternal health is rural health.
Maternal health is health justice.
And it must be a Nevada priority.

Read more from KUNR and KFF.

New data required by Nevada’s 2025 AB 420 shows that Clark County School District police used force in 11 incidents involving 21 people during the 2025–26 school year. Eighteen of those people were Black, two were Hispanic, and one was white. Twelve were under age 18.

AB 420 was passed after students, families, and advocates raised concerns about pepper spray and other uses of force in schools. While the final law did not prohibit pepper spray, it required school districts to begin publicly reporting use-of-force data.

This first report is an important step toward transparency—but it also leaves critical questions unanswered. The data does not link each incident to the person’s age, race, school, or type of force used. Nevada must be able to evaluate whether force is being used fairly, safely, and only when truly necessary.

Every student deserves a school community rooted in dignity, belonging, care, and opportunity. Public reporting should lead to stronger accountability, meaningful community oversight, racial-equity review, and greater investment in prevention: counselors, restorative practices, mental-health supports, and de-escalation.

Transparency is a beginning. Nevada must now use this information to ensure our schools are places where every student can learn and thrive.

Read More from The Nevada Independent and Nevada Current.