President Joe Biden formally apologized to Native Americans for the “sin” of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a “blot on American history” in his first presidential visit to Indian Country.
“It’s a sin on our soul,” Biden said at the Oct. 25 event, his voice full of anger and emotion. “Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.”
It was a moment of both contrition and frustration as the president sought to recognize one of the “most horrific chapters” in the national story. Biden spoke of the abuses and deaths of Native children that resulted from the federal government’s policies, noting that “while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing” and that great nations “must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are.”
“I formally apologize as president of United States of America for what we did,” Biden said. “The Federal Indian boarding school policy — the pain is has caused will only be a significant mark of shame, a blot on our record history. For too long, this all happened with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books, not taught in our schools.”
More than 900 children died at the government-funded schools, the last of which closed or transitioned into different institutions decades ago. Their dark legacy continues to be felt in Native communities where survivors struggle with generational trauma from the torture, sexual abuse and hatred they endured.
Survivors of boarding schools recount abuse
A nationwide re-examination of the system was launched in 2021 by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico and the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary.
She and other Interior officials held listening sessions over two years on and off reservations across the U.S. to allow survivors of the schools and their relatives to tell their stories.
Former students recounted harmful and often degrading treatment they endured at the hands of teachers and administrators while separated from their families. Their descendants spoke about traumas that have passed down through generations and are manifest in broken relationships, substance abuse and other social problems that plague reservations today.
Haaland’s grandparents were among them — taken from their community when they were 8 years old and forced to live in a Catholic boarding school until they were 13.
“Make no mistake: This was a concerted attempt to eradicate the quote, ‘Indian problem’ — to either assimilate or destroy Native peoples altogether,” Haaland said in July when findings of the agency’s investigation were released. The top recommendation from the agency was for the government to formally apologize.
Unmarked graves and repatriations
At least 973 Native American children died in the boarding system. They included an estimated 187 Native American and Alaska Native children who perished at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in southeastern Pennsylvania. It’s now the site of the U.S. Army War College. Its officials continue repatriations — just last month, the remains of three children who died at the school were disinterred and returned to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana.
The Interior Department’s investigation found marked and unmarked graves at 65 boarding schools. The causes of death included disease and abuse. More children may have died away from the campuses, after they became sick at school and were sent home, officials said.
The schools, similar institutions and related assimilation programs were funded by a total of $23.3 billion in inflation-adjusted federal spending, officials determined. Religious and private institutions that ran many of the schools received federal money as partners in the campaign to “civilize” Indigenous students.
Not everyone saw President Biden’s apology as sufficient.
“An apology is a nice start, but it is not a true reckoning, nor is it a sufficient remedy for the long history of colonial violence,” said Chase Iron Eyes, director of the Lakota People’s Law Project and Sacred Defense Fund.
Others viewed it as an important step in a long process.
“President Biden deserves credit for finally putting attention on the issue and other issues impacting the community,” said Ramona Charette Klein, 77, a boarding school survivor and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “I do think that will reflect well on Vice President Harris, and I hope this momentum will continue.”
Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community’s land on the outskirts of Phoenix’s metro area could be a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris’ turnout effort in a key battleground state. The moment gave Biden a fuller chance to spotlight his and Harris’ support for tribal nations, a group that historically has favored Democrats, in a state he won just by 10,000 votes in 2020.
Biden, whose presidency is winding down, had promised tribal leaders nearly two years ago that he would visit Indian Country.
