Biden to apologize for U.S. government’s Native American boarding schools : NPR

President Biden is expected to formally apologize to the federal government for Indian residential schools during a visit to Arizona on Friday.

Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis told NPR that the formal apology will come as part of Biden’s first official visit to the Native community as president.

Biden’s message marks the first public apology by a sitting U.S. president for federal policies that have wreaked havoc on tribal communities.

“In making this apology, the President acknowledges that as people who love our country, we must remember and teach our entire history, even if it is painful,” the White House said in a statement. “And we must learn from that history so it never repeats itself.”

Lewis said Biden plans to visit Gila Crossing Community School to formally apologize. The White House is also using its visit to Arizona, a battleground state with less than two weeks until Election Day, as an opportunity. Advertise your support for Native American voters in what is likely to be a close election.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is also traveling with the president, and she is visiting tribes as part of her group.path to healingThe tour is intended to give survivors “an opportunity to share their Indian Federal Residential School experiences with the federal government for the first time.”

Earlier this year, the Home Office A report has been published It confirmed that at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children died while attending boarding schools in the system.

“This begins in earnest the healing and reconciliation and redemption of not only residential school survivors, but this sad part of history. An important, very important part of this apology is that something like this happened “It’s about acknowledging that we did it,” Lewis said in an interview ahead of the trip, where he is scheduled to travel with Biden on Air Force One.

Lewis said the visit was a full circle, after Vice President Harris also visited the community earlier this month.

“There will be a sense of relief and confirmation of what residential school survivors have been through,” he said.

From 1819 to 1969 The federal government operated more than 400 boarding facilities. It provided support to schools across the country and more than 1,000 other people, according to a Home Office study. The goal was complete cultural assimilation.

On Haaland’s tour, members of the tribe talked about physical abuse, ignoreand efforts to erase their native language and culture.

Rodney Butler, president of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Mark McCullough, president of the National Congress of American Indians and president of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, and Whitney Gravel, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, were also on the plane. I’m planning on riding. Visited Arizona with Mr. Biden.

“It’s like we’re bringing him. We’re literally taking President Biden, we’re on a plane together, we’re bringing him to Indian Country, we’re bringing him to my community,” Lewis said. he said. “This is the final leg of the journey to healing as part of President Biden’s administration.”

The president’s landmark visit fulfills a promise Biden made to tribal leaders two years ago.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Indian Country as a senator and vice president, but I can tell you here today that the president intends to make his state visit to Indian country official.” Biden said in his speech. 2022 Tribal Summit at the White House.