President Joe Biden plans to formally apologize Friday for the U.S. government’s role in running hundreds of Indian boarding schools for a 150-year period that stripped Native American children of their language and culture in a systematic effort to force them to assimilate into White society, according to administration officials.
These remarks would be the first time a U.S. president has apologized for the atrocities suffered by tens of thousands of Native children who were forced to attend the boarding schools over several generations. From 1819 to 1969, the U.S. government managed or paid churches and religious groups to run more than 400 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states.
“It’s extraordinary that President Biden is doing this,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary, in an interview with The Washington Post. “It will mean the world to so many people across Indian Country.”
Biden is set to make his historic announcement at the Gila Crossing
Indian Country as president — comes as Biden seeks to burnish his legacy before leaving office and boost his vice president’s campaign for the presidency less than two weeks before Election Day.
While Native American voters make up a small slice of the electorate, their votes could prove determinative in closely divided states such as Arizona. Biden’s move could have a reverberating impact with tribal members, whose votes are especially critical in North Carolina, Nevada, Michigan and other battleground states.
Biden won in Arizona in 2020 by less than 1 percentage point, carrying a state where Native Americans make up more than 5 percent of the population. The White House has billed Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community as a promise kept, noting that his administration has given unprecedented amounts of funding to build roads and bridges, improve access to high-speed internet, and provide clean water for tribal communities.
For her part, Vice President Kamala Harris has sought to play up her record on issues important to Native Americans in recent campaign events, including a rally this month in Arizona. Former president Donald Trump and his Republican allies have also courted Native American voters during his presidential campaign, hoping to win over a group that typically leans Democratic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...gnet-boardingschools-nav_inline_collection_12
Biden’s Friday event follows a report released by the Interior Department this summer that found that at least 973 Native American children, who were taken from their homes, died of disease and malnutrition at the schools. Many other children were physically abused, sexually assaulted and mistreated. The Interior Department urged the U.S. government this summer to formally apologize for the enduring trauma inflicted on Native Americans.
Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe of New Mexico whose grandparents and great-grandfather were taken from their homes and sent to boarding schools, launched the investigation three years ago, the first time the U.S. government had closely scrutinized the schools. Along with Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, Haaland spent more than a year traveling from Oklahoma to Alaska on a tour billed as “The Road to Healing.” At 12 stops, for up to eight hours a day, they listened to stories of emotional, physical and sexual abuse told by survivors and their descendants.
“I think the folks who suffered through that era personally — the survivors, the descendants — will feel seen by the president,” Haaland told The Post. “That’s something that a lot of people have not experienced in this country and throughout our history.”
By 1900, 1 in 5 Native American school-age children were sent to a boarding school, sometimes thousands of miles from their families. Children were stripped of their names and instead often assigned numbers. Their long hair was cut and they were beaten for speaking their languages, leaving deep emotional scars on Native American families and communities.
At least 80 of the schools were operated by the Catholic church or its affiliates. The Post, in a year-long investigation published in May, found at least 122 priests, sisters and brothers assigned to 22 boarding schools since the 1890s were later accused of sexually abusing Native American children under their care. Most of the documented abuse, which involved more than 1,000 children, occurred in the 1950s and 1960s.
These remarks would be the first time a U.S. president has apologized for the atrocities suffered by tens of thousands of Native children who were forced to attend the boarding schools over several generations. From 1819 to 1969, the U.S. government managed or paid churches and religious groups to run more than 400 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states.
“It’s extraordinary that President Biden is doing this,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary, in an interview with The Washington Post. “It will mean the world to so many people across Indian Country.”
Biden is set to make his historic announcement at the Gila Crossing
Indian Country as president — comes as Biden seeks to burnish his legacy before leaving office and boost his vice president’s campaign for the presidency less than two weeks before Election Day.
While Native American voters make up a small slice of the electorate, their votes could prove determinative in closely divided states such as Arizona. Biden’s move could have a reverberating impact with tribal members, whose votes are especially critical in North Carolina, Nevada, Michigan and other battleground states.
Biden won in Arizona in 2020 by less than 1 percentage point, carrying a state where Native Americans make up more than 5 percent of the population. The White House has billed Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community as a promise kept, noting that his administration has given unprecedented amounts of funding to build roads and bridges, improve access to high-speed internet, and provide clean water for tribal communities.
For her part, Vice President Kamala Harris has sought to play up her record on issues important to Native Americans in recent campaign events, including a rally this month in Arizona. Former president Donald Trump and his Republican allies have also courted Native American voters during his presidential campaign, hoping to win over a group that typically leans Democratic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...gnet-boardingschools-nav_inline_collection_12
Biden’s Friday event follows a report released by the Interior Department this summer that found that at least 973 Native American children, who were taken from their homes, died of disease and malnutrition at the schools. Many other children were physically abused, sexually assaulted and mistreated. The Interior Department urged the U.S. government this summer to formally apologize for the enduring trauma inflicted on Native Americans.
Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe of New Mexico whose grandparents and great-grandfather were taken from their homes and sent to boarding schools, launched the investigation three years ago, the first time the U.S. government had closely scrutinized the schools. Along with Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, Haaland spent more than a year traveling from Oklahoma to Alaska on a tour billed as “The Road to Healing.” At 12 stops, for up to eight hours a day, they listened to stories of emotional, physical and sexual abuse told by survivors and their descendants.
“I think the folks who suffered through that era personally — the survivors, the descendants — will feel seen by the president,” Haaland told The Post. “That’s something that a lot of people have not experienced in this country and throughout our history.”
By 1900, 1 in 5 Native American school-age children were sent to a boarding school, sometimes thousands of miles from their families. Children were stripped of their names and instead often assigned numbers. Their long hair was cut and they were beaten for speaking their languages, leaving deep emotional scars on Native American families and communities.
At least 80 of the schools were operated by the Catholic church or its affiliates. The Post, in a year-long investigation published in May, found at least 122 priests, sisters and brothers assigned to 22 boarding schools since the 1890s were later accused of sexually abusing Native American children under their care. Most of the documented abuse, which involved more than 1,000 children, occurred in the 1950s and 1960s.
