Arizona:
President Joe Biden formally apologized on Friday for the US government’s role in running abusive Native American boarding schools for more than 150 years and was mocked at the event for his support of Israel’s war on Gaza.
“To me, this is one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever had the opportunity to do in my entire career,” Biden said in his apology at an outdoor soccer and track and field field in Lavigne Village, Arizona, near Phoenix.
“It’s a sin on our soul… I formally apologize.”
Several hundred people attended, many of them in traditional tribal costumes. They cheered as Biden apologized for the generational trauma the Native American community is facing because of boarding schools across the country.
Biden faced a brief interruption when a pro-Palestinian protester shouted: “How can you apologize for genocide while committing genocide in Palestine?”
The president responded, “There are a lot of innocent people being killed and it has to stop.”
US support for Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel led to months of demonstrations in the United States. Human rights activists have called for an arms embargo against Israel as tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the region and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip struggle with hunger and disease.
Israel and Washington deny genocide charges brought against Israel at the World Court in connection with Gaza, and Washington maintains its support for its ally.
Friday’s trip marked Biden’s first visit to Indian country while in office and is part of his efforts to cement his legacy in his final months in the White House.
Arizona is also one of seven battleground states in the tight race for the Nov. 5 U.S. election, which pits Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris against former Republican President Donald Trump.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as cabinet secretary, had launched an inquiry to acknowledge the troubled legacy of federal Native American boarding school policies.
A Home Office investigative report published in July found that at least 973 children had died in these schools. Haaland’s family members were among the children forced into boarding schools.
From 1819 to 1970, the United States implemented policies to establish and support hundreds of American Indian boarding schools in the United States. Their goal was to culturally assimilate Indians by forcibly removing them from their families, communities, religions and cultural beliefs.
Like the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have in recent years reviewed past abuses against Indigenous communities, including children in schools.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated channel.)
