Biden to formally apologize for Indian boarding school system

President Joe Biden is scheduled to issue a formal apology Friday for a government-run boarding school system that forcibly separated generations of Native American children from their families.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to issue a formal apology Friday for a government-run boarding school system that forcibly separated generations of Native American children from their families.

"I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago: make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years," Biden told reporters Thursday. "That’s why I’m going. That’s why I’m heading West."

President Joe Biden talks briefly with reporters Thursday as he departs the White House.Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesBiden will deliver his remarks at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna who became the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, and Deborah Parker, chief executive of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, are scheduled to join him on his trip to Phoenix.

At a White House briefing Thursday, Haaland said members of her own family had been forced into the board school system, and she referred to Biden as “the best president for Indian Country in my lifetime.”

“For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books, but now our administration’s work will ensure that no one will ever forget,” she said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/biden-apologize-indian-boarding-school-system-rcna147679

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