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Education is at a Crossroads: Help Us Illuminate the Path Forward.听

Native American leaders and survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system are calling on the Biden administration to do more than apologize to facilitate healing for their communities. 

Their calls have been mounting for decades, but the remarks marked a milestone: the first time a U.S. President ever acknowledged and apologized for the system where federal agents removed children from their parents, often at gunpoint, sending them to schools thousands of miles from home, stripping families of their language and culture.

The exact number of children who were forced into boarding schools in the U.S. for over 150 years is unknown, due to poor record keeping, but nearly 19,000 have been confirmed. Physical, sexual and psychological abuse was rampant at the schools often run by religious institutions. Some children were referred to only as numbers, pre-teen girls were raped and sent home pregnant. Thousands never returned home.

Addressing the public on the Gila River Reservation outside of Phoenix, Arizona on October 25, President Joe Biden fulfilled a long-delayed promise to visit Indian country and called the boarding school system a 鈥渟in on our soul,鈥� adding there was 鈥渘o excuse鈥� for how long-overdue the acknowledgement was and that 鈥渘o apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy. But today, we鈥檙e finally moving forward into the light.鈥�
The timing of the visit has also been noted as a to to cast votes for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. But many Native Americans are by government inaction to adequately protect lands, provide access to quality education and healthcare, and enact an .

Survivors and descendants both acknowledge how meaningful Biden鈥檚 speech was after centuries of fighting for recognition from the federal government, and call on the administration to act swiftly on the apology. 

鈥淚n his last two weeks in office, we demand that President Biden also pass S.1723/H.R.7227: The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act,鈥� said the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, a nonprofit that has worked with survivors and Tribal leaders for over a decade to educate about the system and facilitate repatriations.听

The legislation would provide a path for investing in language and culture revitalization efforts, educating the American public on the system via museums or curricula, and establishing trauma-informed mental health resources. 

It would also enable subpoenas to be used to investigate the scale of the system: Catholic entities have been able to hold onto private records for decades, some of which contain the only known photographs or remnants of survivors鈥� ancestors. Reintroduced in both the Senate and House last year, the bill has yet to reach a vote. 

The mental and physical health concerns of survivors and lack of widespread reconciliation reached national spotlight earlier this year when the Interior Department released its final on the system, which revealed at least 1,000 Indigenous children died or were killed. The schools operated using over $23 billion federal dollars, adjusted for inflation. 

Thousands were subject to child labor to operate facilities and be 鈥渙uted,鈥� working without wage for white families near the schools.

Angelique Albert, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and chief executive of the nation鈥檚 largest direct scholarship provider for Native students, Native Forward, referred to the boarding schools not as places of education but as places of 鈥渆xtermination.鈥澨�

Just as slavery was used as the tool to harm Black people across the Americas, 鈥渆ducation was the tool to harm us, to assimilate us. That鈥檚 the tool where we lost our children,鈥� Albert said, adding that the apology is a testament to the work done by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation鈥檚 first Native American cabinet member and former recipient of their scholarships, to unearth survivor testimony and investigate the system. 

鈥淪he鈥檚 in the very position that implemented the boarding schools. Do you understand? It gives me chills,鈥� Albert said, emphasizing how critical it is for the federal government to maintain close relationships with Tribal nations and put more funding behind college access for Native youth so their voices can be heard in positions they鈥檝e been historically excluded from.听

While the apology, however late, is a 鈥渃ritical first step in the truth and reconciliation process for Native and Indigenous communities,鈥� Albert stressed, 鈥淚ndian boarding school policies are not a horror of the past 鈥� these institutions operated through 1969, and many Native people who were subjected to these cruel policies are still living today.鈥�

The boarding school system, while the focus of President Biden鈥檚 remarks, was not the only widespread, forced removal of Native children. Throughout the 60s and 70s, over a third were removed from their families and overwhelmingly placed in non-Indian homes after discriminatory welfare investigations. 

In Washington, Native children were placed in foster care and adopted at rates 19 times greater than their peers. The practice was widespread until 1978鈥檚 Indian Child Welfare Act was passed by Congress, who stated 鈥渨holesale separation of Indian children from their families is perhaps the most tragic and destructive aspect of American Indian life today.鈥� 

Native populations now face , including the highest rates of substance abuse, suicidal ideation and chronic illnesses, which researchers have linked to centuries of genocide, disinvestment and generational trauma. 

Following Biden鈥檚 address, an Indigenous collective gathered to pray, mourn, sing and in South Dakota, on the lands of what will soon be the , a 鈥渃ulture-based school鈥� for Lakota, Dakota and Nakota children.

鈥�, we took to the land and reminded the world that we are the children of survivors 鈥� We will honor our ancestors by holding this country accountable for what it has done to our people,鈥� NDN Collective president Nick Tilsen said in a release. 鈥淭he U.S. government tried to exterminate and erase us. We will continue to remind them they have failed at doing so, and the warrior spirit of our ancestors lives in all of us.鈥� 

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