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President Joe Biden is taking the historic step to formally apologize for the federal government’s role in the failed Indian Board School era. The first-of-its-kind acknowledgement comes after Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released the final report from a three-year investigation that included formal listening sessions from boarding school survivors and their relatives. The report documented at least 18,000 Native children who were sent to distant live-in schools where they were forced to abandon their languages and cultures. They were subjected to extensive physical and sexual abuse. Nearly 1,000 children died while attending the institutions far from their families. We’ll hear from Sec. Haaland and others who have been working on building the infrastructure of healing from the Boarding School Era.
Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) – Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior
Denise Lajimodiere (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) – co-founder and oral historian with the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition first Native American poet laureate of North Dakota
Jim LaBelle (Iñupiaq) – board member for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
President Joe Biden’s remarks from the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona:
Remarks from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland before Pres. Biden’s boarding schools apology:
Break 1 Music: Healing Song (song) Red Hawk Medicine Drum (artist) New Beginnings (album)
Break 2 Music: Grateful Sun (song) Mike Bern (artist)
I like NIWRC’s statement in response to this apology (pasted below); thanks NAC!
Statement from the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center on President Biden’s Apology for Indian Boarding Schools
LAME DEER, Mont. — The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) welcomes today’s historic apology by President Biden for the U.S. government’s role in the violent legacy of federal Indian boarding schools. This recognition is a critical step in acknowledging the ongoing trauma and generational harm that these policies have inflicted upon Native children and families throughout Indian Country.
For more than a century, federal boarding schools enforced policies of forced assimilation designed to erase Native identities, languages, and cultures—a calculated tool of colonization with impacts still reverberating today. Native peoples continue to endure the consequences of this era, evident in ongoing trauma, loss of cultural heritage, and persistent systemic inequalities.
As an organization dedicated to confronting the ongoing violence against Native women, we recognize that this struggle is not confined to history. The violence of the boarding school era is intricately linked to the disproportionately high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault affecting our communities today, as well as the present crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and relatives. This destructive legacy aimed to undermine the very foundations of Tribal Nations by targeting our most vulnerable—our women and our children. We carry with us the strength of survivors and honor the memories of those who were lost.
This moment must be a catalyst for meaningful action that addresses the ongoing impacts of colonization and trauma. Healing from this violence requires more than acknowledgment; it demands justice. NIWRC joins President Biden, partners, and allies in urging the nation to look directly at this painful chapter in our shared history. The federal government must invest in and prioritize Native-led solutions to restore our safety, sovereignty, and well-being.