(Editor’s note: This story originally published by The New York Times has been supplemented with President Biden’s remarks about Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl.)
GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY, Arizona — President Joe Biden ventured into Native American territory Friday to offer a formal apology on behalf of the U.S. government for the mistreatment of generations of children who were taken away from their families in an effort to strip them of their culture, history and language.
Highlighted in his speech was the life story of Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, who was also presented with a National Humanities Medal by Biden in a ceremony Monday at The White House.
During a visit to the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, Biden decried what he called “a sin on our soul” and promised to do more to make up for the federal government’s former policy of forcibly removing Native American children and putting them in boarding schools where they faced abuse and neglect that led in some cases to death.
Sealaska Heritage President Rosita Worl stands for a picture with actor and literacy activist Levar Burton during a ceremony Monday at The White House where she was presented with a National Humanities Medal. (Sealaska Heritage Institute photo)
“The federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened — until today,” the president told a cheering crowd that included families afflicted by the policy. “I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize. It’s long overdue.”
He added that “quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make” and acknowledged that it could only mean so much after so long. “I know no apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy,” Biden said. “But today, we’re finally moving forward into the light.”
Biden singled out two Native people for their notable achievements after being forcibly placed in boarding schools. The first was was Jim Thorpe, who received the Medal of Freedom early in Biden’s term, who the president noted “was taken from his home but went on to become one of the greatest athletes ever, ever, ever in all of American history.”
In a longer narrative, he shared Worl’s life experiences and the significance of Friday’s apology for people like her.
“More than 80 years ago, she was a six-year-old when she was taken to a federal boarding school,” Biden said. “She spent three years without her family, her family not knowing if she’d ever come home. Nine years old, she was one of those who did come home.”
“Over the next seven decades, she became a leading anthropologist and advocate, building a new era of understanding. Her story, from being taken from her home as child to standing in the Oval Office receiving one of the nation’s most consequential medals, is a story of the truth, the power of healing.”
“When Rosita sees young people singing traditional songs, just like we heard today, she says, and I quote, ‘We will hear the voices of our ancestors, and we are now hearing it through our children.’”
“For too long, this nation sought to silence the voices of generations of Native children, but now your voices are being heard.”
“That’s the America that we should be. That’s the America we can all be proud of. That’s who we are. For God’s sake, let’s make sure we reach out and embrace, because you make us stronger. You are America.”
Biden’s visit culminated years of study and discussion by his administration led by Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American interior secretary, whose own family was affected by a practice that lasted from the early 1800s to the late 1960s. An investigative report by her department in July found that at least 19,000 Native children were sent to federal boarding schools, and nearly 1,000 died while attending them.
In addition to an apology, the report called on the federal government to create a national memorial to commemorate the children’s deaths and educate the public; invest in research and help Native communities heal from intergenerational stress and trauma; and revitalize Native languages.
Biden has signed legislation to invest more than $45 billion in tribal nations, focusing particularly on infrastructure and health systems on reservations. The Gila River Indian Community, outside Phoenix, has received more than $80 million in federal funds to build a pipeline to irrigate crops amid drought conditions.
The community’s governor, Stephen Lewis, thanked Biden onstage. “We’ve never had a president and vice president who have done more for Indian country,” he said.
Doug Kiel, a citizen of the Oneida Nation and a scholar at Northwestern University’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, said Biden’s apology was a “significant acknowledgment” of the injustices.
But he added that “true healing demands” more concrete actions, including returning stolen lands, honoring indigenous sovereignty and fulfilling treaty obligations. “Without such tangible steps, the apology risks remaining a symbolic gesture without fostering real accountability and justice,” he said.
The president made his visit in the final days of a heated campaign to choose his successor. While it took him away from the major centers of the deadlocked race, Native Americans make up 6% of the population in Arizona, one of seven battleground states that political strategists believe will settle the contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Biden, the fifth sitting president to visit Native American territory, said it was important for Americans to own up to their history even when it is ugly. “We must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation,” he said. “That’s what great nations do. We’re a great nation; we’re the greatest of nations. We do not erase history, we make history, we learn from history. And we remember so we can heal as a nation.”
Haaland, who introduced him, choked up as she talked about her own family’s experiences. “We know that the federal government failed,” she said. “It failed to annihilate our languages, our traditions, our life ways, it failed to destroy us because we persevered.”
In an interview, Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, recalled that three generations of her family had been rounded up from their village in New Mexico and sent away to boarding schools. Her great-grandfather was sent to the East Coast and both of her grandparents were sent more than a hundred of miles away to Santa Fe. Her mother, who also attended a boarding school, was later too afraid to teach her children their native language, Keres.
“I felt that my life had been definitely affected by the generational trauma,” Haaland said. She can only speak a small amount of Keres. “I’m sorry to say that that is the situation with a lot of folks.”
She said the administration was pursuing other recommendations in the July report in the time it has until leaving office in January. “We have 90 days left in this administration,” she said, “and we’re going to work as hard as we possibly can.”
• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
