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President Joe Biden announced he will deliver a formal apology on Friday for the United States’ role in the government-run boarding school system that forced Indigenous children away from their families and subjected them to abuse.
As per the news agency AP, the apology will be made during his visit to the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.
“For too long, the nation’s Indigenous children were treated in ways that scarred generations,” Biden said, acknowledging that it’s a long-overdue apology for the atrocities committed.
The boarding school system, initiated in 1819 and lasting through the 1970s, aimed to assimilate Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children into white American culture.
This system left deep emotional and physical scars on those who endured it, with nearly 1,000 children documented as having died while attending these schools.
Historical background
The investigation, led by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland—the first Native American Cabinet member—revealed that more than 18,000 children, some as young as four, were forcibly removed from their families. Haaland’s personal connection, as her family was also impacted by the boarding school system, made the findings even more poignant.
Haaland’s research identified 417 boarding schools and at least 74 burial sites, with almost 1,000 deaths linked to the system. “For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books,” Haaland said, adding that this apology ensures “no one will ever forget.”
“President Biden’s apology is a profound moment for Native people across this country”, AP quoted Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
“Our children were made to live in a world that erased their identities, their culture and upended their spoken language,” Hoskin said in his statement. “Oklahoma was home to 87 boarding schools in which thousands of our Cherokee children attended. Still today, nearly every Cherokee Nation citizen somehow feels the impact.”
“We need continued action to preserve Native languages and to repatriate ancestors and cultural items,” he stated.
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