WASHINGTON – On Monday afternoon, President Joe Biden received a standing ovation from tribal leaders at the 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, DC. As part of the welcome, he received an Indigenous blanket from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community).
The blanket was presented to the President in recognition of the unprecedented attention the Biden-Harris administration has paid to Indian Country over the past four years. This included allocating more than $45 billion to indigenous communities and appointing Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. After her confirmation to the Senate, Haaland made history as the first Native American to serve in a presidential cabinet position.
President Biden humorously noted that the blanket, made by Eighth Generation, would have been a fitting addition to the White House National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony last week.
“I could have used that blanket when I was lighting that Christmas tree,” Biden said. “We were both freezing.”
Monday’s summit was the fourth and final of the Biden-Harris administration. The president will leave office on January 20, 2025.
Usually at the summits an important announcement is made regarding Indian Country. This year’s announcement was accompanied by a proclamation designating the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School as a national monument.
“Approximately 7,800 children from more than 140 tribes were sent to Carlyle – stolen from their families, their tribes and their homelands. It was wrong to make the Carlisle Indian School a national model,” Biden said at the White House summit. “We don’t erase history. We acknowledge it, we learn from it and we remember it so that we never repeat it again.”
The proclamation fulfills another recommendation made in the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, Part II, released last summer.
Monday’s action builds on Biden’s historic presidential apology to the Gila River Indian Community and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s leadership to establish and lead research and listening sessions with tribes and indigenous communities across the country as part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.
The President emphasized the importance of the monument which will serve as a reminder of the horrific part of American history in which Native Americans were taken from their homes and placed in Indian boarding schools. Many of the students were subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
“I don’t want people to forget 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now and pretend it didn’t happen,” the president said of the administration’s efforts to Westernize Native Americans.
The children sent to the repurposed Army barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, were “stolen from their families, their tribes and their homelands,” Biden said.
“It was wrong,” he declared.
“We don’t erase history. We acknowledge it, we learn from it, and we remember it so we never repeat it,” Biden added. “We remember it so we can heal. That is the purpose of memory.”
About the Author: “Levi \”Calm Before the Storm\” Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded the Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print category\/ online by the Native American Journalists Association. He is a member of the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net.
Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net
