Biden apologizes for Native American children forced into federal boarding schools

chairman Joe BidenFriday in Arizona apologized to the Native Americans because the federal government forced her children into boarding schools where she said they were abused and deprived of their cultural identity.

“For indigenous peoples, they have served as places of trauma and terror for more than 100 years. Tens of thousands of indigenous children as young as four have been taken from their families and communities and forced into boarding schools run by the US government and religious institutions,” he said.

“Nearly 1,000 documented deaths of native children, although the actual number is likely to be much, much higher. Generations, culture and language lost. Trust lost. It’s terribly, terribly wrong. It’s a sin on our souls,” he continued he.

“I formally apologize as the president of the United States of America for what I did,” he said with emphasis. “I officially apologize!”

“It’s long, long, long overdue,” he said. “Quite frankly, there is no excuse that it has taken 50 years to make these apologies. The Federal Indian Boarding School policy and the pain it caused will always be a significant mark of shame. A stain on American history.”

The White House had called his trip to the Gila River Indian community out Phoenix — his first in Indian country as president — “historic.”

Beforehand, officials said he would discuss the Biden-Harris administration’s track record on deliveries to tribal communities, including making good on his promise to visit the swing state, which happens close to Election Day.

“The president also believes that to usher in the next era of federal-tribal relations, we must fully acknowledge the harm of the past,” the White House said.

“For over 150 years, the federal government ran boarding schools that forcibly removed generations of Native children from their homes to boarding schools, often far away. The Department of the Interior (DOI) Indian boarding school investigation report, at least 973 children died in these schools,” the White House said.

“The federally run Indian boarding school system was designed to assimilate Native Americans by destroying Native culture, language, and identity through harsh militaristic and assimilationist methods,” it said.