Joe Biden traveled this Friday to the Gila River Indian Reservation, south of Phoenix (Arizona) to apologize for the first time to Native Americans for the “sin,” he said, of the boarding school system managed by the federal government that for decades It ripped children and young people from their families to take them to places where their customs and language were taken from them to assimilate them into the dominant white culture. It was the first time he set foot on Indian soil since he became president, and he defined that brutal policy as “a stain on American history.”
“I formally apologize as president for what we did,” Biden said in a heartfelt speech that was once interrupted by shouts that disfigured his support for Israel’s war in Gaza. “The federal policy of indigenous boarding schools, the pain it has caused, is a great source of opprobrium, a stain on our history. For too long, all of this happened with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books, not taught in our schools. It’s been a while since [esta disculpa] should have arrived (…). “Frankly, there is no excuse why this apology has taken 50 years to come up.”
The symbolic act of contrition, which can be described as historic, is the consequence of a multi-year investigation commissioned by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, a native of Arizona and the first Native American to take part of a presidential cabinet. Haaland is also a descendant of two survivors of that policy for which they now apologize: her grandparents were separated from their family when they were children. “We know the federal government failed us,” Haaland said before Biden spoke. “He let us down by violating our languages, our traditions, our ways of life. It also failed to destroy us, because we knew how to resist,” he added.
The investigation concluded that at least 973 members of the indigenous peoples of the continental United States, but also Alaska and Hawaii, died in these boarding schools. Biden acknowledged this Friday that “the real number is likely to be much, much higher.” The report estimates that there were 417 institutions in 37 states or associated territories, and that they operated between 1819 and at least 1969. In those places, minors changed their names, had their hair cut, and were prevented from speaking their language or practicing their religion. . They were also subjected to martial discipline. Many of those who did not survive were buried near the boarding schools.
It was the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of indigenous children in similar educational centers in Canada that led the United States to launch its own investigation.
The visit to Arizona by Biden, who resigned last July from seeking re-election, but will be president until January of next year, also admits an electoral reading. With 11 days left until the polls, this will be one of the seven States in which the presidency will be decided, and the candidate Kamala Harris, whom some extremely close polls consider a loser, needs all the support to mobilize voters.
Arizona is also the territory of that group of seven with a greater presence of Native Americans (around 6% of the population), a bloc that has traditionally supported Democrats. Biden won here in 2020 by a narrow margin of just 10,000 votes.
In addition to electing president, on November 5, the candidacy of Jonathan Nez, a member of the Navajo nation, of which he was president between 2019 and 2023, will be voted on in Arizona’s second district. Nez aspires to become the first Native American representative of the State at the Capitol. He faces Republican Eli Crane, a member of the party’s toughest wing. The polls do not show a clear winner in that dispute.
