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NORMAN, Okla. — During his first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation as president on Friday, Joe Biden is expected to formally apologize for the country’s role in the Indian boarding school system, which devastated the lives of generations of Indigenous children and their ancestors.
“I would never have guessed in a million years that something like this would happen,” said Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna. “It’s a big deal to me. I’m sure it will be a big deal to all of Indian Country.”
Shortly after becoming the first Native American to lead the Interior, Haaland launched an investigation into the boarding school system, which 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 land. It also documented nearly 1,000 deaths and 74 gravesites associated with the more than 500 schools.
No president has ever formally apologized for the forced removal of Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children - an element of genocide as defined by the United Nations - or any other aspect of the U.S. government’s decimation of Indigenous peoples.
During the second phase of its investigation, the Interior conducted listening sessions and gathered the testimony of survivors. One of the recommendations of the final report was an acknowledgment of and apology for the boarding school era. Haaland said she took that to Biden, who agreed that it was necessary.
Haaland, whose grandparents were forced to attend a boarding school, said she was honored to play a role, along with her staff, in helping make the apology a reality. Haaland will join Biden on Friday as he delivers his speech. “It will be one of the high points of my entire life,” she said.
It’s unclear what, if any, action will follow the apology. The Department of Interior is still working with tribal nations to repatriate the remains of children on federal lands, and many tribes are still at odds with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has refused to follow the federal law regulating the return of Native American remains when it comes to those still buried at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
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