Biden to apologize for government’s Indigenous boarding schools

By Jennifer Yachnin | 10/24/2024 04:20 PM EDT

The president will visit the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona on Friday with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Joe Biden and Deb Haaland

President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland talk at the White House on Oct. 8, 2021. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Joe Biden will “fully acknowledge the harms of the past” and issue a formal apology Friday to Native Americans for the government’s role in the Indian boarding school system that separated children from their families and sought to eradicate their culture, the White House announced Thursday.

Biden is scheduled to visit the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona on Friday, in his first visit to Indian Country as president. He will be accompanied by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

During his visit, Biden will address the administration’s efforts to bolster government-to-government relationships between tribal nations and the federal government, as well as support for addressing the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

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The president will also apologize for the government’s role in the Federal Indian Boarding School era, which between 1819 and 1969 involved the operation of 408 federal schools across 37 states or then-territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and seven in Hawaii.

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