The US president has “formally” apologized for the mistreatment of Native American children placed in boarding schools for more than a century in an effort to erase their culture.
“A sin that stains our soul”: US President Joe Biden presented a historic apology on Friday to Native American people, whose children were torn from their families for more than a century by the state to place them in boarding schools where they were mistreated, with the aim of forced assimilation. The goal of these boarding schools was to erase Native American culture, language, and identity. Many children have suffered physical, psychological or sexual violence there, according to a recent government report. “I formally apologize, as President of the United States, for what we have done”declared Joe Biden from the Gila River Native American reservation, in Arizona, after observing a moment of silence to honor “lost people and generations living with this trauma”.
These boarding schools existed between the beginning of the 19th century and the 1970s. According to the government report, at least 973 children died in these structures. “The children arrived at school, were undressed, their hair, which was said to be sacred, was cut off. Their names were literally erased, replaced by an English number or name.listed the American president. Some were “forced into forced labor, some adopted without the consent of their biological parents, others left for dead and buried in unmarked graves”he added in a passionate speech. It is about “from one of the most horrific chapters in American history”insisted Joe Biden. “The pain caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a stain on American history.”
American bishops recognize the role of the Catholic Church
These presidential apologies, rare, are “so historic that I’m not sure I can adequately express the impact”Interior Minister Deb Haaland, the first Native American minister in the United States, declared Thursday. They “mean much more than words could express”. It was under his leadership that a major investigation was launched in 2021, resulting in a detailed report. She also led a tour, called “Path to Healing”in 12 Native American communities, in order to give victims the opportunity to share their testimony.
“For more than a century, tens of thousands of Native children, as young as four years old, were taken from their families and communities and forcibly placed in boarding schools run by the U.S. government and religious institutions.”declared the minister. “That includes my own family.” “For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books”she added. American Catholic bishops this year formally recognized the role of the Church in “trauma” inflicted on Native Americans, and apologized. In neighboring Canada, the same practice of residential schools was carried out, and the country has also opened its eyes in recent years to this dark page in its history. The wound was rekindled in 2021 with the discovery of more than a thousand anonymous graves on the sites of former Catholic residential schools for indigenous people. During a visit to Canada in the summer of 2022, Pope Francis asked “forgiveness for the wrong committed”.
The Joe Biden administration has implemented a whole series of measures to support Native American nations and improve relations with the federal state. Several ancestral places have been designated “national monuments”decrees were issued to impose consultation “regular” et “robust” Native American governments by federal agencies, and several billion dollars have been invested in the construction of infrastructure on Native American reservations. Joe Biden's trip also comes in the middle of the presidential campaign, led by his vice-president Kamala Harris against Republican Donald Trump, in an extremely close race. In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly won Arizona, a key state which could, with others, swing the outcome of the vote in November, and which is one of those where the Native American population is the largest in the United States. United.
