No president has ever formally apologized for the forced removal of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children, or any other aspect of the U.S. government’s decimation of Indigenous peoples.
By Graham Lee Brewer, Associated PressFILE - Elders from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in southeastern Montana listen to speakers during a session for survivors of government-sponsored Native American boarding schools, in Bozeman, Mont., Nov. 5, 2023.
Shortly after becoming the first Native American to lead the Interior, Haaland launched an investigation into the boarding school system, which found that at least 18,000 children, some as young as 4, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools that sought to assimilate them, in an effort to dispossess their tribal nations of land. It also documented nearly 1,000 deaths and 74 gravesites associated with the more than 500 schools.
It’s unclear what, if any, action will follow the apology. The Department of Interior is still working with tribal nations to repatriate the remains of children on federal lands, and many tribes are still at odds with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has refused to follow the federal law regulating the return of Native American remains when it comes to those still buried at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
Friday’s apology could lead to further progress for tribal nations still pushing for continued action from the federal government, because it’s an acknowledgement of past wrongs left unrectified, something “known and buried,” said Melissa Nobles, Chancellor of MIT and author of “The Politics of Official Apologies.”
No such commission exists in the U.S. A bill to establish a truth and reconciliation process was introduced last year by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but it remains in the Senate.
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