Boarding school history ‘a sin on our soul,’ Biden says in historic apology to Native communities

This post first appeared on ICT.

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Editor’s note: WARNING: This story contains disturbing details about residential and boarding schools. If you are feeling triggered, here is a resource list for trauma responses from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in the U.S. In Canada, the National Indian Residential School Crisis Hotline can be reached at 1-866-925-4419.

GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY — President Joe Biden delivered an historic apology Friday on behalf of the United States for the nation’s dark past with Indian boarding schools, which sought to wipe out Native people, culture and language.

Calling the federal boarding school policies “a sin on our soul,” Biden drew cheers, tears and at least one protester among the hundreds of the mostly Indigenous crowd gathered for the long-awaited announcement.

“After 150 years, the government eventually stopped the program [of boarding schools] but never formally apologized,” Biden told the crowd. “I formally apologize today as President of the United States of America for what we did. I apologize, apologize, apologize!”

“This apology is long overdue and quite frankly there is no excuse this apology took 50 years to make,” he said. “The pain that this has caused will always be a significant mark of shame.”

Biden, in his first visit to tribal lands as president, was introduced to the crowd by Gila River Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis.

“Each of us understands the solemn nature of this day, this moment, this historical time and place that we are all a part of,” Lewis said, praising the Biden administration’s work with tribal communities. “Today’s words will be carried forward by all of us here. This is a day built on respect and honor.”

Biden outlined his administration’s work with tribal communities over the last four years with infrastructure, water, language revitalization, tribal development and recognition of tribal sovereignty.

But he didn’t address specifics about the work that lies ahead for the government to help tribal communities heal from the generational trauma that endures from the boarding school era.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, in her speech handing off to Biden, referenced a “10-year national plan driven by tribal leaders” that will include efforts to revitalize Native languages that many students were beaten for speaking.

Haaland, the first Native person to serve in a presidential cabinet, introduced herself in her Native language.

“Today is a day for remembering, but it’s also a day to celebrate our perseverance,” Haaland said, at one point choking up in tears. “In spite of everything that has happened, we are still here. We are here, healing our souls…. And we are still here doing our best to speak our languages, even if our parents were afraid to teach us. Thank you, Mr. President, for bringing us together.”

Reactions from survivors

The apology drew broad support from survivors, families, Congressional leaders, tribal officials, elders and younger generations of Native people. But many emphasized that the apology is just a first step in helping families and tribal communities heal from the generational traumas of boarding schools.

“I think the spirits of those children who went to (boarding) school before me rejoiced,” said Matthew War Bonnet, 78, Sicangu Lakota from the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota, who attended the announcement Friday. War Bonnet attended St. Francis Mission School for eight years, beginning at age 6.

“It needs to go further and I think it will be an ongoing process, just as it was for us to acknowledge all that happened at the school,” he said.

James LaBelle, Iñupiaq, who survived the Wrangell Institute and Edgecumbe High School, was also in the audience Friday at Gila River.

“Biden’s apology was very heartfelt,’ said LaBelle, a past president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. “He mentioned all of the harms included in the boarding school era, acknowledged all the abuses we experienced; he didn’t leave anything out.

“I feel emotional and overwhelmed,” he said, “but also know that now the real work begins.”

Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians in California and president of the National Congress of American Indians who also attended the announcement, said the apology is “a necessary step” and “foundational.”

“I don’t think it’s possible to move forward into any type of healing, any type of reconciliation until you have the apology,” Macarro said. “People often these days seem to discount the value of the formal announcement of an apology, an actual apology being done … But it really can’t be overstated how important this step is. It is rare for a president, a world leader, to apologize for the actions of a country, a country’s citizens, against another group of citizens within that country.”

But more is needed, he said.

“I think it’s really never going to be enough,” he said. “But that’s one of the areas where that certainly needs focus because that was one of the direct impacts, or destructive impacts, of the boarding schools.”

A long process

The apology Friday, Oct. 25, came after an introduction that included traditional singers and dancers from Gila River, Salt River dressed in tribal regalia, the men rhythmically playing shakers as women sang.

The performances provided an air of ceremony and respectful celebration on three separate stages with backdrops emblazoned with the Gila River language announcing the owners of the lands on which they stood.

Elders, many of them boarding school survivors, sat in the shade, shielding their eyes from the sun, waiting for words that had been too long in coming.

It also came after years of work in the Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and a year-long effort by Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, who traveled across the country gathering testimony from boarding school survivors and families as part of a “Road to Healing Tour.

A final investigative report on Indian boarding schools released in July by the Department of the Interior called for a formal apology from the U.S., but also issued other recommendations, including Congressional approval of a proposed Truth and Healing Commission to further investigate boarding schools, a national memorial to acknowledge those who endured the hardships, and financial support for tribal programs that include repatriation, education, mental health support and community rebuilding.

A bill that would create the Truth and Healing Commission, with authority to subpoena records from church-run boarding schools, is pending in Congress. Officials have been hoping to get it passed by the end of the year, but the likelihood of that appears uncertain.

Tens of thousands of Native children were coerced or forcibly removed from their families to attend boarding schools, starting in the 1800s and continuing into the 20th century. The schools operated under a policy of forced assimilation that kept them isolated from their families, culture and language.

Biden did not mince words in describing the horrors endured by children at the schools, where staff took their traditional clothes, cut their hair and often abused them, psychologically, physically or sexually.

Biden noted in addition to the abuse, some children were put up for adoption, and others died at schools and were buried, some in unmarked graves.

“Trauma and shame passed down through generations,” he said.

He said the apology “to me is one of the most consequential things I’ve ever had to do.”

He asked the crowd for a moment of silence to remember those lost and the generations who have lived with the trauma.

“For our nation, it was too shameful to acknowledge,” he said, adding, “While darkness can hide much, it erases nothing … We do not erase history, we make history, we learn history, and we remember, so we can heal as a nation.”

In closing, Biden said that Native voices were finally being heard.

“That’s the America we should be,” he said. “That’s the America we are.”

The crowd began chanting, “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” as he left the stage.

Also contributing to this report were ICT staff members Kevin Abourezk, Nika Bartoo-Smith, Felix Clary, Pauly Denetclaw, Stewart Huntington, Kolby KickingWoman, Kadin Mills, Miles Morrisseau, Luna Reyna, Amelia Schafer, Shirley Sneve, Mark Trahant and Quindrea Yazzee.