Apology long in coming, and in time for Native American Heritage Month

Just in time for November’s Native American Heritage Month came a heartfelt, emotional and long-past-due apology.

On Friday, Oct. 25, at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, President Joe Biden gave a formal apology to Native American tribes for the generations of abuse Indigenous children suffered at Indian boarding schools. It is notable the president teared up and his voice choked with emotion during his talk, in which he called the old boarding school system a “sin.”

The apology comes 46 years after the last traditional boarding school closed. Still, Biden acknowledged that for 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their homes and stripped of their cultures.

“We should be ashamed,” Biden told the gathering outside of Phoenix. He called the government-mandated school system, “one of the most horrific chapters in American history.”

It is also important to point out that since 1819, when the schools began to indoctrinate Indigenous children into white society, Biden is the first American president to apologize for the attempted genocide.

As many tribal leaders said after the apology, this is a good first step. Now, those words must be followed up with action.

Today, thousands of Native Americans and their families are still struggling with the trauma inflicted on Indigenous people by the schools. The thousands of children who were abused physically, sexually and emotionally, plus the number of children killed at the schools, have left a legacy of trauma.

Some people may say the schools have been closed since 1973, so people should “get over it.” But the shame and horror felt by the people who were children in the schools remains and is being passed down through families.

Shame is a wicked emotion that worms its way through not only the person’s life, but transitions down through children, grandchildren and so on. It is a feeling of not being enough to be included in society.

In the schools, children were told to never speak their own language, wear their traditional clothes or to practice their own religion. This was forced acclimation by the government to remake the children into acceptable Anglo society members. What it did was tell the children their cultures weren’t good enough to live side-by-side Anglo and other cultures.

As a child, I well remember my great-grandmother telling me to be glad I can “pass” (as white) because “it is a shame to be Indian.”

Occasionally, I feel her as I fight to make Indigenous voices heard. Grandmother did not attend a boarding school, but family stories from the schools insured she knew that being Indian was “less than” and that she should try to be more Anglo. She died in 1978 still feeling that shame, which was passed on to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

To some Indigenous people, saying sorry is not enough to the Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Hawaiian Natives who endured the schools. But as a first step, Biden promised to make good on restoration of Indigenous languages which were lost or are endangered and to provide mental health services for still-suffering families.

By laying a framework to address the ongoing trauma, Biden’s apology on behalf of the government is a good acknowledgment of what happened. Another good step would be to recover the rest of the bodies of the children killed and buried at the schools. Laying the children to rest with their families would be an active part of the healing process.

On Oct. 26, the second step came as an apology from the U.S. Navy for destroying the Tlingit village of Angoon 142 years ago when sailors shelled and burned the village, destroying homes, canoes and supplies. In this case, conditions became so dire for the villagers that the elderly sacrificed themselves so the children could have the available food resources. Apologies for other atrocities committed against Alaska Natives are being set.

It has taken several lifetimes to reach this point. Indigenous people do hope Biden’s speech at Gila River is just the beginning, not an ending. Finding ways to heal so many broken Indigenous lives and families would be a great way to celebrate Native American Heritage Month.

Tallent was a journalism faculty member at the University of Idaho for 13 years before her retirement in 2019. She is of Cherokee descent and is a member of both the Indigenous Journalists Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. She also writes for Faith and Values News (spokanefavs.com).