Biden travels to Arizona to apologize for Native American boarding school history

The Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted an investigation federal Indian boarding school system throughout the United States, discovering more than 400 schools and more than 70 burial sites.

Arizona was home to 47 of these schoolsin which the roots took part children who were removed from their families and tried to assimilate them through education—and, often, physical punishment.

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

“It’s an incredibly hidden story that so many people didn’t know about, and now it’s out there,” Haaland said. “I have to believe that people will recover from what we’ve been able to do, and certainly to hear from President Biden, who has been the best president of Indian country in my lifetime, to say he’s sorry, it’s beyond words.”

Biden plans to make his first visit to Indian Country on Oct. 25, where he will deliver his apology with Haaland at the Gila River Crossing School.

“Some of our senior residential school survivors have been waiting their whole lives for this moment,” Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror.

“When the president delivers that apology on Indian soil, it will be incredibly powerful and redemptive,” he added. “If only for a moment on Friday, it will rise to the top, and the most powerful man 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, being the first sitting president to apologize, is helping Native American country feel seen because the “horrible history” of Native American residential schools and assimilation policies aimed at pushing Native people out of their communities have been ignored “for so long” .

“It was a blatant attack and genocide that our communities have been through for centuries and we’re still here,” Haaland said. “Nothing that the federal government or anyone else has done in those centuries has succeeded in uprooting us.”

“We persevered,” she added. “I’m so proud that the current president recognizes this. It is amazing and I am deeply grateful.”

After learning that the president was willing to apologize, Indivisible Tohono co-founder April Ignacio said it was a historic event because they were finally acknowledging the government’s role in a national policy of violent assimilation against the First Nations of this land.

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

In 2023, Ignacio said, Indivisible Tohono organized a caravan of 18 Tohono O’odham elders, residential school survivors, and visitors to testify on the Road to Healing tour organized by the Department of the Interior.

Ignacio said there are five generations of residential school survivors in her family. She shared her story during the “Road to Healing” tour.

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

Tribal nations across the country, including the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, are applauding Biden’s upcoming apology.

“President Biden’s apology is an important moment for Native people in this country,” Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in a written statement. “I applaud the president for acknowledging the pain and suffering caused to tribals and residential school survivors that is long overdue.”

Hoskin said there are 87 boarding schools in Oklahoma that serve thousands of church children. Today, he said, almost every citizen of the Cherokee Nation feels that influence.

“Our children have been forced to live in a world that has erased their identity, their culture and turned their spoken language upside down,” he said. “They were often harmed, abused, neglected and forced to live in the shadows.”

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 reservation in northeastern Oklahoma.

“The significance of this public apology by the president on behalf of this nation is heightened, and it is an important step that must be followed,” Hoskin said.

He said the Home Department’s recommendations in the residential school report, particularly those focused on the preservation of indigenous languages ​​and the repatriation of ancestors and cultural relics, could be the path to real healing.

Navajo President Buu Nygren issued a statement about Biden’s upcoming apology, thanking the president for acknowledging “one of the most painful and forgotten chapters in our country’s history.”

“For generations, Indigenous children, including many from the Navajo Nation, have been subjected to an education system that has sought to erase our languages, culture and identity,” Nygren said. “This dark chapter has caused untold suffering, trauma and loss, and its impact is still felt in our communities today.”

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

While acknowledging Biden’s legacy of Native American residential schools, Nygren said he was honoring the resilience of survivors and their families.

“It sends a message that healing and truth are key to building a just future,” he added. “The Navajo Nation stands ready to work with his administration, and the next, to continue to uncover the truth, honor those who lost their lives, and ensure these atrocities never happen again.”

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

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