Joe Biden to apologize for residential school system

Photo: Andrew Harnik Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead the department, will join President Biden on Friday on his first diplomatic visit to an Indigenous nation, where he will deliver remarks.

Graham Lee Brewer – Associated Press in Norman, Okla.

Published at 5:11 p.m.

• United States

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to issue a formal apology Friday for the country’s role in the residential school system, which devastated the lives of generations of Indigenous children and their ancestors. Many were physically, emotionally and even sexually abused, and nearly 1,000 died there.

“I never imagined that something like this would happen,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo. “This is a significant event for me. I’m sure it’s going to be a significant event for all of Indian Country.”

Shortly after becoming the first Indigenous woman to lead the Interior Department, Haaland launched an investigation into the residential school system.

It found that at least 18,000 children, some as young as 4, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools that sought to assimilate them, in an effort to dispossess their tribal nations of their lands. The investigation also found nearly 1,000 deaths and 74 graves associated with more than 500 schools.

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No president has ever formally apologized for the forced removal of indigenous children, including the First Peoples of Alaska and Hawaii, — an element of genocide as defined by the United Nations — or for any other aspect of the U.S. government’s decimation of indigenous peoples.

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During the second phase of its investigation, the Interior Department conducted listening sessions and collected testimony from survivors. One of the recommendations in the final report was an acknowledgement and apology for the residential school era. Haaland said she shared this with Joe Biden, who agreed it was necessary.

Steps after the apology ?

Secretary Haaland, whose grandparents were forced to attend one of these residential schools, said she was honored to play a role, along with her staff, in helping make this apology a reality. She will join President Biden on Friday on his first diplomatic visit to a Native American nation, where he will deliver remarks.

“This will be one of the highlights of my entire life,” she said.

It’s unclear what, if any, action will be taken following the apology.

The Interior Department continues to work with First Nations to repatriate the remains of children on federal lands, and many nations remain at odds with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has refused to follow federal law governing the return of Native American remains in the case of those still buried at the Carlisle Native American School in Pennsylvania.

“President Biden’s apology is a significant moment for the indigenous people of this country,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin told The Associated Press.

“Our children were forced to live in a world that erased their identity, their culture and upended their language,” Hoskin also said. “Oklahoma was home to 87 boarding schools that thousands of our Cherokee children attended. To this day, almost every citizen of the Cherokee Nation feels the impact of that in some way.”