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https://azmirror.com/2024/10/25/too-shameful-to-acknowledge-biden-delivers-historic-apology-for-indian-boarding-schools/>
"Standing solemnly in front of a crowd full of Indigenous people on the grassy
field of a tribal elementary school near Phoenix, President Joe Biden issued a
formal apology to Indigenous communities across the country for the role the
United States government had in the Native American Boarding School system, a
system that harmed Indigenous people for generations.
“After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program,
but the federal government has never formally apologized for what happened,”
Biden said. “Until today — I formally apologize, as president of the United
States of America, for what we did.”
Biden’s apology was met with loud cheers from the crowd. He is the first
sitting president in the last 10 years to visit a Tribal Nation.
He told the community that it was long overdue and that it was only fitting
that it was given at a tribal school within an Indigenous community deeply
connected to culture and tradition.
“I have a solemn responsibility to be the first president to formally apologize
to the Native peoples, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Native Alaskans and
federal Indian boarding schools,” he said. “It’s long, long, long overdue.
Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took (150) years to make.
Biden said the pain that the federal Indian boarding school policy has caused
will always be a significant mark of shame for the United States.
“For those who went through this period, it was too painful to speak of,” he
said. “For a nation, it was too shameful to acknowledge.”
“This formal apology is the culmination of decades of work by so many
courageous people,” Biden said, acknowledging many who were sitting in the
audience, including the boarding school survivors and descendants.
“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.”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
