Biden to Apologize for History of Native Boarding Schools
Biden to Apologize for History of Native Boarding Schools
The Facts
US Pres. Joe Biden is heading to Arizona to "make a formal apology" for the US government's history of forcing indigenous, or American Indian, children into boarding schools. Biden said it was something he should've "done a long time ago."
Biden will make his apology at the Gila River Indian Community, where he's expected to comment on the 18K or more children who were taken from their parents for over 150 years beginning in 1819.
The Spin
While the US government claimed they were "civilizing" the Natives, in reality, they were removing these children from their families and forcing them to practice the religion, culture, and language of their colonizers. They were also physically and emotionally punished for not adopting these foreign lessons, thus instilling generational fear and trauma. Either by force or self-censorship, Native peoples have slowly lost most of their history.
While the history of post-conquest Native Americans is full of tragedy, the attempt to use White or American guilt as a form of penance has done no one good. In both Canada and the US, laws have been written specifically for the economic benefit of Natives, but to no avail. Instead of making modern Americans apologize for the past, society should study and respect this complicated history.