In a historic address, U.S. President Joe Biden formally apologized to Native American communities for the federal policy of government-funded boarding schools, institutions that forcibly assimilated Native children and subjected them to widespread abuse. Speaking on Native American land in Laveen, Arizona, Biden described these schools, which operated over a span of 150 years, as “one of the most horrific chapters in American history.”
“Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 150 years to make,” Biden remarked, calling for a moment of silence to honor the lives lost and those bearing the lasting trauma. Biden’s apology acknowledged the government’s forced removal of Native children from their families and communities to boarding schools, an act intended to “assimilate” them into American society but which, in practice, led to significant physical, emotional, and cultural harm.
The historical impact of these schools is staggering. A report presented by CNN notes that at least 18,000 Native American children were removed from their homes and placed in boarding schools between 1819 and 1969. Many children were forced into hard labor, some were subjected to physical and sexual abuse, and others suffered deaths that went unmarked and undocumented. “Native communities silenced – their children’s laughter and play were gone,” Biden stated, acknowledging how generations of Indigenous children faced forced separation from their culture, language, and family.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to hold a U.S. Cabinet position, has actively led efforts to investigate the impact of these boarding schools. Her department released a comprehensive report this summer that confirmed at least 973 children from Native communities died while attending these institutions.
Reflecting on the abuse and losses suffered by Native children, Biden said, “As president, I believe it is important that we do know there were generations of native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know, with people they never met, who spoke a language they had never heard.” He added, “Children abused emotionally, physically and sexually, forced into hard labor, some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents, some left for dead in unmarked graves.”
In his address, Biden admitted that no apology could truly make amends for the historical injustices faced by Native Americans under the federal boarding school policy. However, he emphasized a collective need to move forward with transparency and justice: “We’re finally moving forward into the light,” he stated, underlining the government’s commitment to reconciliation and support for Native communities.