Native Americans praise Biden for historic apology for residential schools. They want action to follow

LAVINE VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday did what no other sitting U.S. president has done: He apologized for the systemic violence against generations of indigenous children was in boarding schools under the supervision of the federal government.

For 150 years, the US has removed indigenous children from their homes and sent them to schools where they were stripped of their culture, history and religion and beaten for speaking their native language.

“We should be ashamed,” Biden told a crowd of Native Americans gathered at the Gila River Indian community outside Phoenix, including tribal leaders, survivors and their families. Biden called the government-imposed system, which began in 1819, “one of the most horrific pages in American history,” while acknowledging the decades of child abuse and widespread devastation left behind.

For many Native Americans, the long-awaited apology was a welcome acknowledgment of a long-standing government wrongdoing. Now, they say, words should be followed by deeds.

Bill Hall, 71, of Seattle, was 9 years old when he was taken from his Tlingit community in Alaska and forced to attend a boarding school, where he endured years of physical and sexual abuse that led to years of shame. When he first heard that Biden was going to apologize, he wasn’t sure he could take it.

“But as I was watching, tears began to flow from my eyes,” Hall said. “Yes, I accept his apology. Now, what can we do next?”

Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier, a 79-year-old citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said she felt a “tingle in her heart” and was glad the historic mistake had been recognised. Nevertheless, she is still saddened by the irreversible damage done to her people.

Soldier Whirlwind was brutally abused at school in South Dakota, leaving her with a lifelong limp. She said the government-subsidized Catholic institution stripped her of her faith and tried to eradicate her Lakota identity by cutting off her long tresses.

“An apology is not enough. Nothing is enough when you hurt a person,” she said. “A whole generation of people and our future were destroyed for our sake.”

According to an Interior Department investigation launched by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to head the agency, the schools were created both to assimilate Native American, Alaska Native and Hawaiian children and to dispossess tribal nations of their land.

Introducing Biden on Friday, Haaland said that while the official apology was an acknowledgment of a dark page, it was also a celebration of indigenous resilience: “Despite everything that’s happened, we’re still here.”

Haaland, a citizen of Pueblo Laguna, ordered the investigation in 2021. It documented the cases of more than 18,000 indigenous children, 973 of whom were killed. Both the report and independent researchers say the total was much higher.

The report included several recommendations drawn from the testimonies of school survivors, including resources for mental health treatment and language revitalization programs.

The governor of the Gila River Indian Community, Stephen Roe Lewis, noted that Biden has promised to follow through on these recommendations.

“This lays the groundwork for addressing the boarding school policies of the past,” he said.

Benjamin Mallott, president of the Federation of Alaska Natives, who is Lingit, said in a statement that the apology must be accompanied by meaningful action: “This includes reviving our languages ​​and cultures and bringing home our unreturned Native children so they can be buried with their families and in their communities”.

This view is shared by Victoria Kitcheyan, head of the Winnebago tribe in Nebraska, who in January sued the US military, demanding the return of the remains of two children who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

“This healing will not begin until the tribes find a way to bring their children home to bury them,” Kitcheyan said.

In an interview Thursday, Haaland said the Interior Ministry is still working with several tribal nations to repatriate the remains of several children who were killed and buried at the boarding school.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who last year introduced a bill to create a truth and healing commission to undo the harm done by the residential school system, called the apology “a historic step toward long-overdue accountability for the harm done to Native children and their communities.”

And Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is vice chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, also praised Biden, saying it reinforces the need for a truth and healing commission.

“This acknowledgment of the pain and injustice inflicted on Indigenous communities — while long overdue — is an extremely important step toward healing,” Murkowski said in a statement.

When Biden spoke on Friday, members of the tribe rose to their feet, and many recorded the moment on their phones. Some were in traditional dress, while others had shirts supporting Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

There was a moment of silence, an official apology, and then an explosion of applause.

After Biden’s speech, the crowd rose again. There were shouts of “Thank you, Joe.”

Hall, a Seattle residential school survivor, and others have long advocated for reparations resources. He worries that tribal nations will continue to struggle with healing unless the government steps up, and he sees a long way to go.

“It took a lifetime to get here. It will take a lifetime to get to the other side,” he said. “And that’s the very sad part of it. I won’t see it in my generation.”

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By GRAHAM LEE BREWER and SEJAL GOVINDARAO Associated Press. Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana contributed to this report.