Biden apologizes to Native Americans for federal boarding school system

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• President Biden apologized to Native Americans for the federal boarding school system, marking a historic first for a U.S. president.
• Interior Secretary Deb Haaland praised Native resilience, acknowledging the trauma caused by the agency she now leads.
• Attendees, including scholars and community members, viewed the apology as a first step toward healing, amid emotional reflections on past injustices.

LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. — President Joe Biden marked his visit Friday to Arizona's Tribal communities with a historic apology. The commander-in-chief expressed remorse for the U.S. government's boarding school policies that harmed Native American communities.

"After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program," Biden said at the Gila Crossing Community School in Arizona.

"But the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened — until today. I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America."

He is the first president to apologize to Native Americans for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative that took children as young as 4 years old away from their families and forced them into boarding schools.

"The pain it has caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a blotch on American history," Biden said.

"We're a great nation. We do not erase history. We make history. We learn through history and we remember so we can heal," he said.

A pro-Palestine protester interrupted Biden's remarks midway through, and the U.S. Secret Service rushed the person away. Biden said, "Let her go. ... A lot of innocent people are being killed," before reverting to his official address.

The president was well received by Native American attendees, but many in the audience felt the historic moment was a mere first step toward accepting a painful history.

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland praises Native American's resilience

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, in her remarks, praised the resilience of Native Americans for holding on to their culture. "We know that the federal government failed. It failed to annihilate our languages, our traditions, our life ways," she said. "It failed to destroy us because we persevere." She is the first Native American woman to serve as a cabinet secretary. "I acknowledge that this trauma was perpetrated by the agency that I now lead," she said.

Under Haaland's leadership, the Department of the Interior released a report identifying 417 schools in 37 states, including at least eight in Utah and 47 in Arizona. The department's latest report about the schools included eight recommendations, and an acknowledgment and an apology topped the list.

Arizona State University professor Otakuye Conroy-Ben said she thought the president's apology for the wrongdoings of the boarding school era was "much needed and appreciated."

She admitted the morning's programming made her emotional. "My own parents were sent away to boarding school, and I really wanted to be here today to hear that from the president," she said.

But for others, Biden's words were bittersweet. Caleigh Curley, a PhD student at the University of Arizona, and Eugene Sommers, a representative of the White Earth Nation, one of six bands that make up the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, sat at a table inside the school at the end of the event.

Despite their gratitude toward Biden and Haaland for the historic address, both of them said they agreed the president's apology is just the beginning of a long road to healing. Sommers said the day's programming brought up a lot of emotions for him associated with his reservation's history. "It's sometimes hard to hear a lot of that but it was really motivating for me that we're ... actually holding people accountable."

A day filled with heavy emotions for Native American attendees

Outside the school, Curley's mother, Waukera Taylor, echoed similar feelings. "There's a lot of trauma we've lived through, as far as Indigenous people, and knowing that our grandparents went through a lot."

Taylor's family lost their Native American last name, or their Hopi name, when her dad, Wayne Taylor, was sent to boarding school.

"He's around 70. He's trying to get his last name back," she said. She also hopes to use her family's Hopi name in the future.

"My grandparents — they're no longer here, but ... they protected us and taught us everything that we should know to carry our Indigenous ancestry," said Taylor as her lips quivered. "Having my girls here so that they can talk to their children one day — it was very important. We asked my youngest if she could call out of work today, just so she could be here and witness this."

Utah House Democratic Leader Angela Romero joined Biden and Haaland at the historic event. Calling the president's apology "deeply meaningful," Romero said she is "committed to honoring this history and working to support Indigenous communities here in Utah," according to a press release.

Biden's visit to Arizona comes nearly 11 days ahead of the 2024 election. The Grand Canyon State has attracted a number of politicians from both political parties as polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are tied, or Trump is barely ahead. Biden won Arizona by just 10,000 votes in 2020.

Although neither Biden nor other speakers raised the topic of the election, Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis hailed Biden as "Indian Country's president," and applauded the historic investments Native Americans have received because of the Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration is responsible for sending $45 billion in resources to Native American communities — enough money to bring "generational change," Haaland said during a press gaggle en route to Arizona.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Gitanjali Poonia

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Gitanjali Poonia is an early career journalist who writes about politics, culture and climate change. Driven by her upbringing in New Delhi, India, she takes pride in reporting on underserved and under-covered communities. She holds a bachelor’s in electronic media from San Francisco State University and a master’s in journalism from Columbia Journalism School.