The harrowing discovery last year of hundreds of unmarked graves at several Indian Boarding School sites in Canada rightly put wheels in motion — wheels already rusty from neglect.

In the immediate aftermath, promises to do better were made by governments, especially in states with their own government-sanctioned boarding school horrors.

Michigan is home to three such sites: Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School; the Holy Childhood Boarding School in Harbor Springs; and the Holy Name of Jesus Indian Mission in Baraga.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2023 proposed budget echoes this promise with a $500,000 one-time appropriation to study “the number of children who were abused, died, or went missing while at these schools, and the long-term impacts on these children and the families of children forced to attend such schools” and deliver a report a year later. This runs parallel to federal efforts led by Deb Haaland, our country’s first Native American cabinet member.

Trouble is, in Michigan, several tribal leaders weren’t involved in these first steps, in the ask, in setting its parameters or know what roles Michigan’s 12 federally recognized sovereign nations will have in the process.

So while the attention and budgeting is welcome, the state needs to watch for blind spots to make sure the course is set — not by well-intentioned bureaucrats — by our Indigenous communities. The state’s role should be one of support, along with bringing the same focused strength in cracking open church record-keeping as it did in its past reckoning with sexual abuse by clergy.

The study and consequent report will no doubt unmask uncomfortable truths.

More than 7,000 more unmarked graves have been discovered at multiple Indian school sites both in the U.S. and Canada. Beyond the horrific scale of these deaths lies the quieter destruction of families, culture and language that scars communities still today — the legacy of these schools.

But we cannot move forward without a clear look behind us — one without bureaucratic blind spots. Support Anishinaabek leadership in charting the course in our state’s drive to find out what happened, why it happened and how its impacts ripple through time and generations.