Biden to officially apologize for cruelty in Indian boarding schools for the first time
Kyiv • UNN
The US President plans to recognize the federal government's atrocities in Indian boarding schools between 1819 and 1970. Native American children were subjected to violence and forced assimilation in more than 500 institutions.
President Joe Biden will apologize to Indian communities for the federal government's role in the abuse of Indian boarding schools.
Writes UNN with reference to Axios.
On Friday, President Biden will formally apologize to indigenous communities for the US government's role in abuses committed at federal Indian boarding schools attended by Native American children after they were forcibly removed from their homes.
The action aims to recognize the atrocities committed over 150 years by the boarding school policy that sought the cultural assimilation of native children.
“The federal government-run Indian boarding school system was designed to assimilate Native Americans by destroying their culture, language, and indigenous identity through harsh military and assimilationist methods,” the White House said in a statement.
Reference
Native boarding schools were established by the federal government between 1819 and 1970, taking children away from their families. The goal was to destroy Native culture by forcing Native children to assimilate to the American way of life. In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were over five hundred such institutions, many of them run by churches.
Indigenous children were emotionally and physically abused in schools, often beaten and deprived of food for speaking their native language.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of the Interior launched the first federal investigation of the residential treatment system. In 2023, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native woman to hold a cabinet position, led a tour called “The Road to Healing” listening to survivors' stories.
In addition to the investigation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an oral history project, an initiative aimed at preserving the memory and history of the victims, promoting historical reparations, and understanding the consequences of the policy.
