President Joe Biden will formally apologize for the United States' involvement in the boarding school system that devastated the lives of generations of Native children and their ancestors. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna People, expressed her surprise at the revelation of these facts: “Not in a million years would I have imagined that something like this was happening.”
Haaland will join Biden on his first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation as president to deliver his apology speech, a moment she considers of great importance to all Indigenous communities. After taking office as the first Native American to lead the Department of the Interior, Haaland initiated an investigation into the boarding school system. It was discovered that at least 18,000 children, including some as young as 4 years old, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools with the purpose of assimilating them and stripping them of their tribal nation lands.
Haaland made the recommendation for an apology to Biden, who agreed on its necessity. The secretary, whose grandparents were affected by the boarding schools, feels honored to help make this apology a reality. In addition, nearly 1,000 deaths and 74 graves were documented in relation to the more than 500 schools.
The Department of the Interior held listening sessions in the second phase of the investigation, gathering testimonies from survivors. One of the recommendations from the final report was acknowledgment and apology for the era of boarding schools. Haaland believes this moment will be one of the highlights of her life: “It will be one of the highest points of my entire life. It is something very important to me.”