Historic apology in the United States for the abuse of indigenous children

Photo: Andrew Caballero Reynold Agence France-Presse The U.S. President greets members of an Indigenous community upon their arrival at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 24, 2024.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds – Agence France-Presse and Lucie Aubourg – Agence France-Presse respectively in Phoenix and Washington

Published on October 25

• United States

“A sin that stains our soul”: US President Joe Biden on Friday issued a historic apology to Indigenous peoples, whose children were taken from their families for more than a century by the state to be placed in residential schools where they were abused, with the aim of forced assimilation.

The goal of these residential schools was to erase Indigenous culture, language and identity. Many children there suffered physical, psychological or sexual abuse, according to a recent government report.

“I formally apologize, as president of the United States, for what we did,” Biden said from the Gila River Reservation in Arizona, after observing a moment of silence to honor “the people lost and the generations living with this trauma.”

These boarding schools existed from the early 19th century to the 1970s. According to the government report, at least 973 children died in these facilities.

“Children would come to school, be stripped naked, their hair, which was said to be sacred, would be cut off. Their names were literally erased, replaced by a number or an English name,” the American president listed.

Some were “forced into hard labor, some adopted without the consent of their biological parents, others left for dead and buried in unmarked graves,” he added in an impassioned speech.

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It is “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” Joe Biden hammered home. “The pain caused will always be a great mark of shame, a stain on American history.”

The Church involved

The rare presidential apology is “so historic that I’m not sure I can adequately express its impact,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet minister, said Thursday. It “means so much more than words can express.”

It was under her leadership that a major investigation was launched in 2021, resulting in a detailed report. She also led a tour, called “The Healing Journey,” to 12 Native communities to give victims the opportunity to share their stories.

“For more than a century, tens of thousands of Native children as young as four were taken from their families and communities and forcibly placed in boarding schools run by the U.S. government and religious institutions,” the secretary said. “That includes my own family.”

“For decades, this terrible chapter has been hidden from our history books,” she added.

The American Catholic bishops formally acknowledged this year the role of the Church in “the trauma” inflicted on Indigenous people, and apologized.

In neighboring Canada, the same practice of residential schools was carried out, and the country has also opened its eyes in recent years to this dark page of its history.

The wound was rekindled in 2021 with the discovery of more than a thousand anonymous graves on the sites of former Catholic residential schools for Indigenous people.

During a visit to Canada in the summer of 2022, Pope Francis asked for “forgiveness for the evil committed.”

Read also

• Joe Biden to apologize for residential school system for indigenous people
• Cayugas and Senecas want to be masters in their own house
• Nearly 1,000 Indigenous children died in U.S. residential schools
• Canada apologizes to nine First Nations

Series of measures

The Joe Biden administration has implemented a series of measures to support Indigenous nations and improve relations with the federal government.

Several ancestral sites have have been designated “national monuments,” decrees have been issued requiring “regular” and “robust” consultation with indigenous governments by federal agencies, and billions of dollars have been invested in building infrastructure on indigenous reserves.

Joe Biden's trip also comes in the middle of the presidential campaign, led by his vice-president Kamala Harris against the Republican Donald Trump, in an extremely tight race.

In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly won Arizona, a key state that could, along with others, swing the outcome of the election in November, and which is one of those with the largest indigenous population in the United States.