President Joe Biden did what no president has ever done on Friday. He apologized for the harm done to generations of Native American children, who were taken from their homes and forced to attend federal boarding schools.
For nearly a century starting in 1878, Alaska had more than 100 federally funded schools for Native children — a time in which they were punished for speaking their language, as well as physically and sexually abused.
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President Biden chose the Gila Reservation near Phoenix to make his apology. He said he was glad to hear the voices of young people singing traditional songs at the start of the ceremony — voices that boarding schools had once silenced.
“I formally apologize, as President of the United States of America, for what we did,” Biden said. “I formally apologize.”
The president told the gathering that his apology was among the most consequential things he’d ever done during his career in public service.
“It’s an honor, a genuine honor, to be in this special place, on this special day,” Biden said.
“Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took fifty years to make. The pain it causes will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history. For too long, this all happened with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books, not taught in our schools.”
Jim LaBelle sat among the boarding school survivors in the crowd. LaBelle is an Alaska Native, and a member of the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition. He said that before Biden gave his apology, he and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland together hugged Labelle and his wife.
“It’s almost indescribable, how to express that feeling of acknowledgement. It was just a very spiritual moment,” Labelle said. “He just understood why we were there. “
LaBelle said the president’s apology was a powerful gesture, one that stirred memories of those who never recovered from boarding school trauma and died young, from addiction and suicide.
“When I heard the apology today,” he said, “I was thinking of them, hoping their spirits will feel the words and feelings.”
During his speech, Biden mentioned Rosita Worl, whom he recently awarded the National Medal of Arts for the Humanities in a White House ceremony. He talked about how Worl was taken from her family at the age of 6 and sent to a boarding school. He called her story one of truth and healing, saying that as a leading anthropologist she helped to usher in an era of understanding.
Benjamin Jacuk watched the livestream of the president’s apology from his office at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, where he’s the head researcher for Indigenous history.
Across from his desk, you’ll find a wall covered with pieces of string connected to photographs and sticky notes, almost like what you see in TV shows depicting police detectives’ homicide units.
Jacuk said the spider web of strings is, in a way, the map of a national crime scene.
“That’s exactly what we’re doing at this point, mapping out the genocide of not only Alaska Native peoples, but all, really, at the end of the day, all Indigenous peoples,” he said.
Jacuk is currently looking at the connections between boarding schools and the ideas that flowed between them. Jacuk said it’s important to understand what shaped some of the cruel, militaristic policies that were designed to erase the children’s Native identity. Some of them, he says, stem from schools in Alaska.
Jacuk calls the president’s unprecedented apology “a big deal” but still falls short of what’s needed.
“While an apology is welcome and amazing, the work should never end right here, because this is just the beginning,” he said.
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Jacuk said without truth there can be no healing. And without action, there is no meaningful apology.
The Alaska Federation of Natives had praise for President Biden’s apology but called for tangible steps towards healing and justice.
“We appreciate President Biden’s acknowledgment of the pain and trauma caused by the boarding school policies,” said AFN President Ben Mallott in a statement. “This apology is an important step forward, but it must be accompanied by meaningful actions addressing these historical injustices’ ongoing impacts.”
AFN has called for:
- A comprehensive inquiry into the Indian boarding school era.
- Revitalizing the Native languages and cultures that boarding schools nearly destroyed.
- Bringing home the remains of Alaska Native children who died at boarding schools, so they can be laid to rest with their families and in their communities.
Earlier this month at AFN’s convention, delegates passed a resolution in support of Senate and House bills that would establish a Truth and Healing Commission on Federal Indian Boarding School Policies Act. The legislation also addresses repatriation of children’s graves.