LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden did something Friday that no other sitting U.S.
president has: He apologized for the systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children endured in boarding schools at the hands of the federal government. For 150 years the U.S.
removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them away to the schools, where they were stripped of their cultures, histories and religions and beaten for speaking their languages. “We should be ashamed,” Biden said to a crowd of Indigenous people gathered at the Gila River Indian Community outside of Phoenix, including tribal leaders, survivors and their families. Biden called the government-mandated system that began in 1819 “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” while acknowledging the decades of abuse inflicted upon children and widespread devastation left behind.
For many Native Americans, the long-awaited apology was a welcome acknowledgment of the government’s longstanding culpability. Now, they say, words must be followed up by action. Bill Hall, 71, of Seattle, was 9 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 lead to many more years of shame.
When he first heard that Biden was going to apologize, he wasn’t sure he would be able to accept it. “But, as I was watching, tears began to flow from my eyes,” Hall said. “Yes, I accept his apology.
No.
