Faith and Values: Biden’s formal apology to Native tribes for boarding schools was long past due

It was heartfelt, emotional and long past due.

On Oct. 25, 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 where he said the old boarding school system was a “sin.”

The apology comes some 50 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 a gathering at the Gila River Indian Community outside of Phoenix. He called the government-mandated 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, in 2024, is the first American president to apologize for the genocide.

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

Trauma leaves a lasting legacy

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

Some people may say the schools have been closed since the 1970s, so people should get over it. In reality, 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 worthy to be in society.

During the schools, children were told to never speak their own language, wear their traditional clothes or practice their own religion. This was a foundation of acclimation by the government to remake the children into acceptable white society members. What it did was tell the children their cultures were not worthy of living side-by-side Anglo, African American and other cultures.

Let’s help lay our victims to rest

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 ensured 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 the restoration of Indigenous languages that 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 acknowledgement 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.

It has taken several lifetimes to reach this point. Indigenous people do hope Biden’s speech at Gila River is just the beginning, not the ending, to healing so many broken lives and families.

An award-winning journalist and public relations professional, Rebecca “Becky” 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 the Native American Journalists Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. She and her husband, Roger Saunders, live in Moscow, Idaho, with their two cats.