On Friday, President Biden will make a significant move by formally apologizing for the federal government’s role in operating boarding schools where countless Native American children endured abuse, neglect, and cultural erasure. “I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago: to extend a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children over so many years,” Mr. Biden stated as he departed the White House en route to Phoenix, where he will address the Gila River Indian Community.
This trip marks Mr. Biden’s inaugural visit to a Native American reservation as president and represents the first time in American history that a sitting president has offered an apology for the atrocities committed under federal oversight for more than a century. From the early 1800s until the late 1960s, the U.S. government systematically removed Native children from their families and communities, placing them in boarding schools designed to erase their tribal identities and cultural practices.
“For decades, this painful chapter was omitted from our history books,” remarked Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American Secretary of the Interior, who accompanied the president on Air Force One to Arizona. “However, our administration is committed to ensuring that this history is never forgotten.” Ms. Haaland, a citizen of the Laguna Pueblo, expressed deep emotion as she shared her own family’s experiences with federally run Indian boarding schools. She noted that the prospect of the government apologizing to survivors and their descendants once seemed “far-fetched.”
During his address, Mr. Biden is anticipated to highlight the legislation he has enacted, which has allocated over $45 billion in federal funding to tribal nations, particularly aimed at enhancing infrastructure and health systems on reservations. The Gila River Indian Community, located just outside of Phoenix, has received upwards of $80 million in federal support to develop a pipeline that will irrigate crops amid ongoing drought conditions.
