Biden apologises for abusive Native American boarding schools and their legacy

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden apologised on Thursday for the US government's role in running abusive Native American boarding schools for more than 150 years, marking an acknowledgement of devastation the community endured for generations.

Here is why it is important.

US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to be a cabinet secretary, had launched a probe to recognise the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies. An investigative report by the department found that at least 973 children died in these schools.

The federally-run Indian boarding school system was designed to assimilate Native Americans "by destroying Native culture, language and identity through harsh militaristic and assimilationist methods," the White House said on Thursday.

No US president had formally apologised for that action until now.

"The president also believes that to usher in the next era of the Federal-Tribal relationships we need to fully acknowledge the harms of the past," the White House said in a statement.

"In making this apology, the president acknowledges that we as a people who love our country must remember and teach our full history, even when it is painful. And we must learn from that history so that it is never repeated."

From 1819 through the 1970s, the United States implemented policies establishing and supporting hundreds of American Indian boarding schools across the nation.

The purpose of these federal boarding schools was to culturally assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children by forcibly removing them from their families, communities, languages, religions and cultural beliefs, the Interior Department said.

The US spent over $23 billion, in 2023 inflation-adjusted terms, during that period to run the schools and associated assimilation policies.

While children attended federal boarding schools, many endured physical and emotional abuse and in some cases died.

Like the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have in recent years reviewed past abuse toward indigenous communities, including children in schools.