Biden says US native boarding school system was ‘a sin to our soul’ – National
American President Joe Biden on Friday, he officially apologized to Native Americans for the “sin” of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a “stain on American history” during his first presidential visit to Indian country.
“It’s a sin for our soul,” Biden said, his voice full of anger and emotion. “Frankly, there is no excuse why this apology took 50 years to come up with.”
It was a moment of both contrition and frustration as the president sought to acknowledge one of the “most horrific chapters” in the nation’s history. Biden spoke about the abuse and deaths of Native children resulting from federal government policies, noting that “while darkness may hide many things, it erases nothing” and that great nations “must know the right , the bad, the truth about who we are. .”
“I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we have done,” Biden said. The government’s removal of children from their Native American communities and sending them to boarding schools “will always be a significant mark of shame, a stain on American history.” For too long, all of this has happened with virtually no public attention, without it being written in our history books, or taught in our schools. »
Democrats hope Biden’s visit to Gila River Indian Community lands on the outskirts of the Phoenix metro area will also provide a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris’ turnout efforts in a key state of the battlefield. The moment gave Biden a fuller chance to highlight his and Harris’ support for tribal nations, a group that has historically favored Democrats, in a state he won by just 10,000 votes in 2020.
The race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is expected to be just as close, and both campaigns are doing everything they can to improve turnout among base supporters.
“The race is now about turnout,” said Mike O’Neil, a nonpartisan pollster based in Arizona. “The trend lines have been remarkably stable. The question is which candidate will be able to engage their voters in a race that seems destined to be decided by narrow margins.”
Biden has been used sparingly on the campaign trail by Harris and other Democrats since ending his re-election campaign in July.
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But analysts say Biden could help Harris in her appeal to Native American voters — a group that lags behind others in turnout.
In 2020, there was an increase in voter turnout on some Arizona tribal lands as Biden defeated Trump and became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.
Biden, whose presidency is nearing its end, promised tribal leaders nearly two years ago that he would visit Indian Country.
For decades, federal boarding schools were used to assimilate children into white society, according to the White House. Not everyone considered the apology sufficient.
“An apology is a good start, but it is not a true reckoning, nor a sufficient remedy for the long history of colonial violence,” said Chase Iron Eyes, director of the Lakota People’s Law Project and the Sacred Defense Fund.
At least 973 Native American children died in the U.S. government’s abusive boarding school system over a 150-year period that ended in 1969, according to an Interior Department investigation that called for an apology from the U.S. government.
At least 18,000 children, some as young as 4 years old, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools seeking to assimilate them.
“President Biden deserves credit for finally bringing attention to this and other issues impacting the community,” said Ramona Charette Klein, 77, a boarding school survivor and enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “I think it will reflect well on Vice President Harris, and I hope that momentum continues.”
Canada has a similar history of subjugating indigenous peoples and forcing their children to attend boarding schools to be assimilated. The federal government issued a formal apology in 2010.
Pope Francis issued a historic apology in 2022 for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” residential school policy, saying the forced assimilation of indigenous people into Christian society destroyed their cultures, separated them from marginalized families and generations.
Democrats have stepped up their outreach to Native American communities.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, met this month with tribal leaders in Arizona and Nevada. And Clinton, who served as Harris’ surrogate, met last week in North Carolina with the chairman of the Lumbee tribe.
The Democratic National Committee recently launched a six-figure ad campaign targeting Native American voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska through digital, print and radio ads.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is in a competitive race with Republican Kari Lake for the open Arizona Senate seat, visited all 22 federally recognized Arizona tribes.
Harris recently kicked off a campaign rally in Chandler, near where the Gila River reservation is located, by shouting out the tribal leader. Walz is scheduled to travel to the Navajo Nation in Arizona on Saturday.
The White House says Biden and Harris have built strong experience working with Native Americans over the past four years.
The president designated the sacred Avi Kwa Ame, a desert mountain in Nevada, and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, the ancestral footprints of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, as national monuments and restored the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah .
Additionally, the administration has directed nearly $46 billion in federal spending to tribal nations. The money brought electricity to a reserve that never had it, expanded high-speed internet access, improved water sanitation, built roads and much more .
Biden chose former New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to become Interior secretary, the first Native American to be appointed to a Cabinet position. Haaland is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.
She, in turn, ordered a comprehensive review in June 2021 of the troubled legacy of the federal government’s boarding school policies that led Biden to issue a formal apology.
Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, said the Harris and Trump campaigns — and their allies — have made remarkable efforts at microtargeting in Arizona.
“They’re pulling out all the stops to see if they could compete for a few extra votes here and there,” Reilly said. “The Indian community is one of those groups that Harris hopes will outperform and help make a difference. »
Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, contributed to this report.
