The Department of Interior is launching an initiative to investigate the Native American boarding schools that forced assimilation in the 19th and 20th centuries.

“At no time in history have the records or documentation of this policy been compiled or analyzed to determine the full scope of its reaches and effects. We must uncover the truth about the loss of human life, and the lasting consequences of the schools,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Tuesday.

Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative during her remarks at the National Congress of American Indians’ midyear conference.

The announcement comes weeks after the discovery of the