In Arizona, Joe Biden apologized for abuses at a boarding school for indigenous people in the United States

GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY — President Joe Biden apologized Friday for abuses committed against Indigenous residential school students for nearly 150 years. It is a “long overdue” historic step that former students and their families are looking forward to.

“After 150 years, the United States government ultimately stopped the program, but the federal government never, ever formally apologized for what happened until today,” Biden told an audience of more than 1,000 tribal and local leaders and tribal members . Gila River Indian Community. “I formally apologize as the United States of America for what we did.”

Biden, introduced by Gila River Gov. Stephen Rowe Lewis, said the apology was an attempt to “right a wrong” and tell a long-ignored history that many Americans never knew about.

“Just because history is silent doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. That actually happened,” Biden said. “Though darkness can hide many things, it erases nothing.”

The apology is “long, long overdue,” Biden said, raising his voice at times in a forceful speech that traced what he called the shameful history of children being taken from their homes and stripped of their families and cultural heritage.

“This is a sin on our soul,” he said, and then asked those gathered to observe a moment of silence.

Biden apologizes on tribal lands south of Phoenix in what could be his last visit to Arizona as president. Before leaving Washington on Thursday, he called the apology “something that should have been done a long time ago.” He was accompanied by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo and the first First Nations Cabinet Secretary.

The event was celebrated with dancing and singing by members of four southern tribes—the Gila River, Ak-Chin and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian communities, as well as the Tohono O’odham Nation—and their neighbors the Pi Posh.

Boarding schools: For nearly 150 years, Indigenous children were sent to residential schools. Here’s what you need to know

Under Biden and Haaland, the federal government completed a three-year study that examined the failed federal policy of sending Indigenous children as young as four to distant boarding schools, a policy that led to generations of trauma.

Brian Newland, assistant minister of Indian Affairs, led much of the investigation and said Friday that during a visit to Australia to learn about the healing path being taken by Indigenous people, one of the women asked him when work to heal the tribal people would begin. be done.

“When, when will our work be completed? When will this be enough? Newland said. “The woman said, ‘When we raise a whole generation of people from birth who live full lives and then leave this earth without carrying the trauma of their ancestors, that’s when this work will be done.’

Newland, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said the next president must continue to work to heal Indian country from the trauma of the residential school era.

Hopi Vice Chairman Craig Andrews, who attended Riverside Boarding School in Nebraska, shared his experiences.

“Even when I was in Head Start, we were still punished for speaking our language.” He said he still remembers how the teacher made the children stretch out their arms and then hit them on the tips of their fingers.

Navajo Nation Speaker Crystalyn Curley said that while the apology does not undo the harm and devastation caused to Indigenous people for generations, she commends President Biden for taking an unprecedented step toward healing and reconciliation.

“President Biden’s apology is a critical acknowledgment of past injustices and wrongdoing by the federal government and lays the foundation for continued recovery,” Curley said. “This moment is both an acknowledgment of what our children have endured and a commitment to a better future in which our voices, culture and traditions are protected and celebrated.”

During the event, Biden acknowledged the importance of appointing the first Native person to lead the Interior Department.

“This is the first time in history that a United States Cabinet secretary has shared the traumas of our past,” said Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo member whose grandparents were sent to boarding schools. “I acknowledge that this injury was caused by the agency I now lead.”

Biden said holding the event at Gila Crossing Community School, which the tribe oversees, was especially significant.

The event was temporarily interrupted by a lone woman protesting that there were more dead students in the unmarked graves than believed. Biden asked law enforcement to allow her to speak her mind, then told her: “A lot of innocent people are being killed, and it needs to stop.”

A few minutes later, law enforcement officers removed the woman from the scene.

Tribal communities have faced the consequences of thousands of children returning home without language, cultural connections or parenting skills because they had no parental role models. Children exposed to chronic stress became dysfunctional adults, whose attempts to become parents created a new generation with similar problems.

The results were presented in second of two reports released May 2022 and July 2024.

Biden’s track record on tribal investments and initiatives

During his speech, Biden also talked about his investments and initiatives. The Administration has directed a government-wide effort to standardize consultation among tribes on issues of public policy development, including natural resources and land use.

Over the past three and a half years, the administration has also provided billions of dollars to tribes for various programs, including:

$32 billion for the American Rescue Plan, the largest direct federal investment in tribal countries in history.
$13 billion in bipartisan infrastructure legislation to build high-speed internet, roads, bridges, mass transit, and clean water sewer infrastructure in tribal communities.
$700 million in the Inflation Reduction Act will invest in Indigenous communities through programs to improve resilience and climate change adaptation, drought mitigation, home electrification and clean energy development.
Committing to allocate billions of dollars in federal contracts—and a significant percentage of total agency procurement—to Native-owned or controlled businesses through the Buy Indian Act, a law that was reactivated under the Biden-Harris administration.

Biden also created new national monuments such as Awi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and Baaj Nwaawjo Ita Kukweni – Ancestral Footprints of Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona after tribes in three states demanded more protections. He restored the borders Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, which was significantly reduced under the Trump administration. And in October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration created Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.

The administration also gave tribes more opportunities for governance partnerships, such as a co-management agreement with 13 tribes that advocated Baaj Nwaawjo Itah Kukweni – Ancestral Footprints of Grand Canyon National Monument as well as the Bears Ears and Awi Kwa Ame monuments.

Haaland: “We’re still here”

Haaland thanked tribe members for having the courage to speak out and share their pain in the face of injustice.

“This means that we all need to be with you today and with our courageous president, who understands the impact of these policies on each of us,” she said.

Despite numerous attempts over the years to destroy tribal cultures, languages and ways of life, she said, “they have failed.”

“Today is a day to remember, but it is also a day to celebrate our perseverance,” Haaland said.

“Despite everything that has happened, we are still here.”

Debra Krol profiles Indigenous communities at the intersection of climate, culture, and trade in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Get to Krol in [email protected]. Follow her on X @debkrol.

Coverage of indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and trade is supported by the Catena Foundation..

USA TODAY’s Michael Collins contributed reporting.