Native leaders say it's a good first step, but want the apology to be followed by more meaningful action.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Gila Crossing Community School, Friday, October 25, 2024, in Laveen Village, Arizona.
President Biden chose the Gila Reservation near Phoenix to make his apology. He said he was glad to hear the voices of young people singing traditional songs at the start of the ceremony — voices that boarding schools had once silenced. Jim LaBelle sat among the boarding school survivors in the crowd. LaBelle is an Alaska Native, and a member of the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition. He says, before the president gave his apology, he and his Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland, together hugged Jim Labelle and his wife.
During his speech, President Biden mentioned Rosita Worl, who he recently awarded the National Medal of Arts for the Humanities in a White House ceremony. He talked about how she was taken from her family at the age of six and sent to a boarding school. He called her story one of truth and healing. The president said, as a leading anthropologist, she helped to usher in an era of understanding.
Jacuk is currently looking at the connections between boarding schools and the ideas that flowed between them. Jacuk says it’s important to understand what shaped some of the cruel, militaristic policies that were designed to erase the children’s Native identity. Some of them, he says, stem from schools in Alaska.
Federal Government National News Benjamin Jacuk Boarding School Apology Gila River Indian Community Jim Labelle Joe Biden Native Boarding Schools Rosita Worl
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