Biden set to apologize to Native Americans for Indian boarding schools
Source: Washington Post
October 24, 2024 at 2:05 p.m. EDT
President Joe Biden plans to formally apologize Friday for the U.S. government’s role in running hundreds of Indian boarding schools for a 150-year period that stripped Native American children of their language and culture in a systematic effort to force them to assimilate into White society, according to administration officials.
These remarks would be the first time a U.S. president has apologized for the atrocities suffered by tens of thousands of Native children who were forced to attend the boarding schools over several generations. From 1819 to 1969, the U.S. government managed or paid churches and religious groups to run more than 400 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states.
“It’s extraordinary that President Biden is doing this,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary, in an interview with The Washington Post. “It will mean the world to so many people across Indian Country.”
Biden is set to make his historic announcement at the Gila Crossing Community School outside of Phoenix. The visit — his first to Indian Country as president — comes as Biden seeks to burnish his legacy before leaving office and boost his vice president’s campaign for the presidency less than two weeks before Election Day.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/10/24/biden-set-apologize-native-americans-indian-boarding-schools/
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Link to White House FACT SHEET - FACT SHEET: President Biden Touts Historic Support for Indian Country and Transformation of the Nation-to-Nation Relationship with Tribal Nations
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