The U.S. Department of the Interior issued a final investigative report which, for the first time in American history, gives a full account of the federal government’s assimilation of Indigenous children across the country, including 20 Native American boarding schools in Minnesota.

In the report, the federal government said the children, in most cases, were taken from their homes to assimilate them into white culture and often stripped them of their native language and were taught English.

There were boarding schools across Minnesota from Cass Lake in the north to Pipestone in the south.

The Interior Department said there were 973 confirmed deaths of Indigenous children across the country at the boarding schools between 1819 and 1969.

The report concluded there were 74 marked and unmarked burial sites.

The report also recommended the U.S. government issue a formal apology, investing in remedies to the present-day impacts of the Indian boarding school system and returning former federal Indian boarding schools to the affected tribes.