US President Joe Biden speaks at the 2023 White House Tribal Nation Summit. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Hide Caption
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President Biden plans to formally apologize to federal Native American boarding schools during a visit to Arizona on Friday, according to a Native American tribal governor.
Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis told NPR that the formal apology will come as part of Biden’s first official visit to the Native community as president.
Biden’s message marks the first public apology by a sitting U.S. president for federal policies that have wreaked havoc on tribal communities.
Lewis said Biden plans to visit Gila Crossing Community School to formally apologize. The apology was confirmed by a person familiar with White House thinking who was not yet authorized to speak publicly about the announcement.
Also accompanying the president was Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is part of the Pathways to Healing tour, which aims to give survivors “an opportunity to share their experiences in federal Indian residential schools with the federal government.” He is visiting the tribe as a member of the tribe. first time. ”
Earlier this year, the Interior Department released a report confirming that at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children died while attending boarding schools in the system.
“This begins in earnest the healing and reconciliation and redemption of not only residential school survivors, but this sad part of history. An important, very important part of this apology is that something like this happened “It’s about acknowledging that we did something,” Lewis said in an interview ahead of the trip, where he is scheduled to travel with Biden on Air Force One.
Lewis said the visit was a full circle, after Vice President Harris also visited the community earlier this month.
“There will be a sense of relief and confirmation of what residential school survivors have been through,” he said.
According to a study by the Interior Department, from 1819 to 1969, the federal government operated more than 400 boarding schools and provided support to more than 1,000 boarding schools across the United States. The goal was complete cultural assimilation.
During Haaland’s tour, tribal members told stories of physical abuse, neglect, and efforts to erase Native language and culture.
Rodney Butler, president of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Mark McCullough, president of the National Congress of American Indians and president of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, and Whitney Gravel, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, were also on the plane. I’m planning on riding. Visited Arizona with Mr. Biden.
“It’s like we’re bringing him. We’re literally taking President Biden, we’re on a plane together, we’re bringing him to Indian Country, we’re bringing him to my community,” Lewis said. he said. “This is the final leg of the journey to healing as part of President Biden’s administration.”
The president’s landmark visit, less than two weeks before Election Day, fulfills a promise Biden made to tribal leaders two years ago.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in Indian Country as a senator and vice president, but I can tell you here today that the president intends to make an official visit to Indian Country,” Biden said in 2022. The statement was made at the Tribal Summit held at the White House.
