Biden to Apologize in Arizona for 150-Year Indian Boarding School Policy

Oct 24, 2024, 10:50 PM

President Joe Biden is set to issue a formal apology for the U.S. federal government's role in the Indian boarding school system, a policy enforced over 150 years that led to the forced removal and assimilation of Native American children. In a speech scheduled for Friday at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, his first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation as president, Biden will acknowledge the atrocities committed in government-run boarding schools, where many Indigenous children faced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and more than 950 died. This marks the first time a sitting U.S. president has formally apologized for the government's involvement in these assimilation efforts that aimed at erasing tribal identities and are considered an element of genocide as defined by the United Nations.