Native Americans laud Biden for historic apology over boarding schools. They want action to follow

Associated Press

LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden has done something that no other sitting U.S. president has: He apologized for the systemic abuse generations of Indigenous children endured at the hands of the federal government. Biden told a crowd of Indigenous people gathered at the Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix that the U.S. “should be ashamed” for the pain and devastation inflicted by the boarding school system. For 150 years the U.S. mandated the removal of Indigenous children to the schools, where they were stripped of their cultures, histories and religions and beaten for speaking their languages. Native Americans have broadly welcomed the apology but are calling for actions to support healing.