US Pres. Joe Biden Friday apologized for the US government's history of compelling Indigenous — or Native American, Native Alaskan, or Native Hawaiian — children into boarding schools. Biden said it was something "long overdue."
Biden made his apology at the Gila River Indian Community, where he commented on the 18K or more children who were taken from their parents for over 150 years beginning in 1819.
This follows a Department of the Interior investigation into the schooling program, which was reportedly devised to assimilate Indigenous populations. The probe discovered 973 deaths and 74 gravesites linked to over 500 schools.According to the investigation, some of the children were physically and sexually abused, while others died of disease.
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