MINNEAPOLIS— A historic apology Friday from the President of the United States. President Biden expressed the country’s regret about the government’s role in the abuse and neglect of Native American children.
For about 150 years, thousands of Native children were forced to attend federal boarding schools to be assimilated into white society.
Nearly a thousand Native American children died in the government boarding school system, according to a 2022 Home Ministry report.
Now this terrible chapter in American history is no longer hidden. But many Indigenous families are still dealing with generational trauma caused by those schools.
“I go back and think about all the things I’ve lost,” George Lussier said.
Lussier said it is difficult to put into words how much of his culture and history was lost because his parents were forced to go to boarding schools.
“We weren’t even taught about our culture, it wasn’t even talked about,” Lussier said.
He says every Native American alive today is influenced by what the federal government and religious institutions did from 1819 to the 1970s, forcing Native people to assimilate into white American culture.
“My dad always talked about it, he said they ran away and then they would take them, send them back and who knows what they did to them when they came back,” Lussier said.
Lussier said his father didn’t talk much about his treatment at boarding school. His mother never talked about it.
“The most important thing we need to take away is that Native American history is American history and we need to tell the full story of our country,” said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Flannagan was with Mr. Biden in Arizona.
“It was incredibly powerful to witness the President of the United States’ apology about federal boarding school policies while my daughter sat next to me,” Flanagan said.
She hopes people do their own research to learn more about the boarding school era and the policies that took away generations of language and culture from Indigenous people.
For Lussier, the president’s apology is too little, too late. He said the apology means nothing to him.
“But I’m honest, the way I’ve been treated all my life. It’s up to the individual to accept it and some people won’t,” Lussier said.
The lieutenant governor said she understands these feelings, but hopes what happens in the future will heal old wounds.
Flanagan said the apology is the first step toward healing. It comes with an investment in language revitalization and other resources to help restore some of what has been taken from indigenous people.
