Biden Issues a ‘Long Overdue’ Formal Apology for Native American Boarding Schools

President Joe Biden formally apologized on Friday for the federal government’s role in forcing Native American children into boarding schools, where many were abused and more than 900 died. It marked the first time an American president issued an official apology for the government’s treatment of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian peoples.

“It’s long, long, long overdue,” said Biden during a speech in the Gila River Indian Community in Laveen Village, Arizona. “Quite frankly, there’s no excuse this apology took 50 years to make.”

This was Biden’s first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation as president, according to the Associated Press’ Graham Lee Brewer. He was joined by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.

“For much of this country, boarding schools are places where affluent families send their children for an exclusive education,” said Haaland at Friday’s event. “For Indigenous peoples, they served as places of trauma and terror. … We all carry the trauma that these policies and these places inflicted.”

Happening Now: President Biden delivers remarks discussing the Biden-Harris Administration’s record of delivering for Tribal communities. https://t.co/KyCRKWWseV

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 25, 2024

Between 1819 and 1969, the government forcibly removed at least 18,000 Native American children from their families and sent them to more than 400 boarding schools. At these schools, the government forced children to assimilate by cutting their hair, taking away their traditional clothing and giving them new Anglicized names. Children were punished for speaking their tribal languages and were forced to adopt Christianity.

“Teachers often ridiculed Indigenous cultural ways, and children felt humiliation and shame around them,” wrote Maddie Henderson for Smithsonian magazine in 2023.

Many children were physically, emotionally and sexually abused. Some ran away and were never seen or heard from again. At least 973 children died from abuse, malnourishment, disease or other causes, according to a recent investigation commissioned by Haaland.

The schools were the government’s solution to its “Indian problem.” The curriculum and practices were designed to “kill the Indian … and save the man.”

“For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books, but now our administration’s work will ensure that no one will ever forget,” said Haaland earlier this week, as reported by the New York Times’ Aishvarya Kavi.

Haaland, whose grandparents and great-grandfather were sent to boarding schools, spent more than a year traveling around the country on a “Road to Healing” tour. Haaland and Bryan Newland, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs, listened to survivors and their descendants tell harrowing stories of their time at the schools. She believes they will “feel seen” by the president, as she tells the Washington Post’s Dana Hedgpeth, Sari Horwitz and Toluse Olorunnipa.

Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community, says Biden’s apology will help “start the healing and the reconciliation and the redeeming of this sad part of history.”

“A significant, very important part of this apology is admitting that this happened,” he tells NPR’s Ximena Bustillo.

Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, describes the government’s formal apology as a “long overdue” gesture and a “profound moment for Native people across this country” in a statement posted to social media. The apology is an “important step,” he adds, but it must be followed by actions, such as preserving Native languages and repatriating cultural items and remains.

“Our children were made to live in a world that erased their identities, their culture and upended their spoken language,” he says. “They often suffered harm, abuse, neglect and [were] forced to live in the shadows.”

However, some say Biden’s apology didn’t go far enough.

“With the stroke of a pen, [Biden] could give us land back, the lands that are being used for national parks,” says Arthur Zimiga, an Oglala Lakota elder, to ICT News’ Mary Annette Pember. “If you’re going to say sorry to someone, there has to be restitution.”

Alex White Plume, a former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who attended boarding schools in South Dakota, echoes that sentiment, adding that he will not accept the president’s apology.

“We need to survive, and in order to survive we need our territories back so we could bring back our language and perform the ceremonies that are specific to places in our territory,” he tells NBC News’ Alex Tabet and Lisa Cavazuti. “So I don’t want to accept an apology. I want [it] to be meaningful.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.