Biden travels to Arizona to apologize for the history of the Native American Boarding School

The Ministry of the Interior has conducted an investigation the federal Indian boarding school system in the United States, identifying more than 400 schools and more than 70 cemeteries.

Arizona was that home to 47 of these schoolswhich were attended by Natives children taken from their families and tried to assimilate them through education – and often through physical punishment.

The legacy of the federal Indian boarding school system is not new to the indigenous population. For centuries, indigenous peoples across the country have experienced the loss of their culture, traditions, language and land.

“This is an incredibly suppressed history that so many people didn’t know about and is now seeing the light of day,” Haaland said. “I have to believe that people will heal from what we were able to do, and especially hearing President Biden, who has been the best president for Indian Country in my lifetime, say that he is sorry, there are no words.”

Biden plans to visit Indian Country for the first time on October 25, where he will join Haaland to apologize at Gila River Crossing School.

“Some of our seniors who survived boarding school have been waiting their entire lives for this moment,” Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community, said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror.

“It will be incredibly powerful and redemptive if the President makes this apology to Indian soil,” he added. “If only for a moment, on Friday this will rise to the top and the most powerful person in the world, our president, will shine a light on this dark history that has been hidden.”

The night the Greyhounds came

Haaland said Biden, the first sitting president willing to apologize, is making Indian Country feel seen because of the “terrible history of Native American Boarding Schools and assimilation policies aimed at pushing Native people out of their communities” so long’ has been ignored.

“It was an outright attack and genocide that our communities have experienced for centuries, and we are still here,” Haaland said. “Nothing the federal government or anyone else has done over the centuries has succeeded in eradicating us.”

“We have persevered,” she added. “I am so proud that the sitting president recognizes that. It’s amazing and I’m very grateful.”

When April Ignacio, co-founder of Indivisible Tohono, heard that the president is ready to apologize, he said it is a historic event because they are finally recognizing the government’s role in a national policy of forced assimilation against the first peoples of this country .

“Never in my life did I think we would be here,” Ignacio said. “This apology is long overdue, and the impact the boarding school era had on our loss of culture and language must be coupled with immediate action through reparations.”

In 2023, Ignacio said, Indivisible Tohono organized a caravan of 18 Tohono O’odham elders who were boarding school survivors and visitors to testify during the Road to Healing Tour organized by the Department of the Interior.

Ignacio said she has five generations of boarding school survivors and attendees in her family. She shared her story during the Road to Healing tour.

“As co-founder of Indivisible Tohono, I thank President Biden for his willingness to address the historic and ongoing impact of the Indian boarding school policy,” Ignacio said. “This apology is consistent with President Biden’s pledge to honor sovereignty, and this historic recognition will be part of his legacy.”

Praise for Biden’s upcoming apology is being shared by tribes across the country, including the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

“President Biden’s apology is a profound moment for Native peoples in this country,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a written statement. “I applaud the President for long overdue recognition of the pain and suffering inflicted on tribes and boarding school survivors.”

Hoskin said Oklahoma was home to 87 boarding schools, which were attended by thousands of Cherkee children. Today, he said, almost every Cherokee Nation citizen is feeling the impact.

“Our children are made to live in a world that erases their identity and culture and turns their spoken language upside down,” he said. “They often suffered from harm, abuse, neglect and were forced to live in the shadows.”

The Cherokee Nation is one of the largest tribes in the United States with more than 450,000 tribal citizens. About 141,000 of them live within the tribe’s reservations in northeastern Oklahoma.

“The significance of this public apology by the President on behalf of this nation is amplified and is an important step that must be followed by continued action,” Hoskin said.

He said the Home Office’s recommendations in the boarding school report, especially those focused on the preservation of indigenous languages ​​and the repatriation of ancestors and cultural objects, could be a path to real healing.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued a statement on Biden’s upcoming apology, expressing his appreciation to the president for recognizing “one of the most painful and overlooked chapters in our country’s history.”

“For generations, indigenous children, including many from the Navajo Nation, were subjected to an education system that aimed to erase our languages, cultures and identities,” Nygren said. “This dark chapter caused untold suffering, trauma and loss, and its impact continues to reverberate through our communities.”

The Navajo Nation has the largest tribal landmass in the country, covering parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. A large number of federally operated boarding schools were established throughout the Navajo Nation.

In having Biden recognize the legacy of Native American boarding schools, Nygren said he is honoring the resilience of survivors and their families.

“He sends the message that healing and truth are central to building a just future,” he added. “The Navajo Nation stands ready to work with its administration, as well as the next administration, to continue to expose the truth, honor those lost, and ensure these atrocities are never repeated .”

***UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional comments.

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