President Joe Biden will formally apologize on Friday for the US government’s role in forcing Indigenous children into boarding schools, where they were subjected to widespread physical and sexual abuse, and where nearly 1,000 died.
“I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago: to make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years,” Biden said on Thursday as he departed for Arizona, where the address will take place.
Between 1869 and the 1960s, over 18,000 Indigenous children, some as young as four, were forcibly removed from their families and placed in the boarding school system. These schools, often run by Christian churches, were part of a forced assimilation policy aimed at “civilizing” Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and Native Hawaiians, implemented by Congress in 1819.
Children were subjected to brutal punishments, including beatings, sexual abuse, and were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing their cultural traditions. Many were separated from their families for years.
“To usher in the next era of the Federal-Tribal relationships we need to fully acknowledge the harms of the past,” the White House said in a statement.
This historic apology marks the first time a U.S. president has acknowledged the devastating impact of the boarding school system. The United Nations has defined this policy as an act of genocide.
Canada has a similar history of forcing Indigenous children into boarding schools for assimilation. In 2022, Pope Francis issued a historic apology for the Catholic Church’s role in this policy, stating that it destroyed Indigenous cultures, severed families, and marginalized generations.
Previous U.S. apologies include a 1993 apology from President Bill Clinton to Native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, and a 2008 apology from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for the forced removal of children. In 2022, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a similar apology.
