President Joe Biden apologized for U.S. government-run Native American Boarding schools. Clark Adomaitis has more.
CLARK: On Friday, President Biden spoke to a crowd at the Gila River Indian Community south of Phoenix, Arizona.
JOE BIDEN: Native communities silenced their children's laughter and play were gone. Children would arrive at schools. Their clothes taken off, their hair that they were told was sacred was chopped off, their names literally erased, replaced by a number or an English name. // I formally apologize as president United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize. It's long overdue
CLARK: Over the course of 150 years, Indian Boarding schools aimed to exterminate Indigenous culture by removing children from their families and suppressing their languages and cultural practices. Children were also subject to otheratrocities including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.
Indigenous leaders at Fort Lewis College are applauding Biden’s apology. Last year, History Colorado reported that between 30 and 50 children from the Fort Lewis boarding school are buried in the cemetery on the grounds where the former boarding school stood.
HEATHER SHOTTON: it has been a long time coming, and something that is needed to start the healing process and so that we can recognize that history,
CLARK: Heather Shotton is the Vice President of Diversity Affairs at Fort Lewis College. She’s a citizen of the Wichita and affiliated tribes, and is Kiowan Cheyenne. Shotton says she appreciates Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland’s leadership in this issue.
HEATHER SHOTTON: particularly having an indigenous person in the Department of Interior leading has probably had a great deal of influence, and has been critical to have that type of representation
CLARK: Ernest house Jr is a member of the ute mountain Ute tribe and a Fort Lewis College board member.
ERNEST HOUSE JR: There's not anybody in Indian country or from tribal communities that has not been either personally impacted by a relative, a family member, a connection by this historical trauma that this this dark chapter
CLARK: House wants the US government to take action after Biden’s apology. He wants funding for language programs.
ERNEST HOUSE JR: 574 federally recognized tribes, yet less than 200 still speak our native language. You know, the languages were stripped from these students once they went to Indian boarding schools, the culture and and what made them unique was stripped away. We need to be thinking about ways and to be able to support those and bring those back. You know, there's so much of that generation that that was lost.
CLARK: The Department of Interior reports that almost 1000 Indigenous children died at federal Indian boarding schools. The state of Colorado is continuing to fund research into the state’s Indian Boarding schools.
For KSUT and KSJD, I’m Clark Adomaitis.