Washington [US], October 25: At least 973 children died in Native American boarding schools, a program designed to assimilate the group.
US President Joe Biden apologized on October 24 for the US government's role in running boarding schools for Native Americans that abused students more than 150 years ago, according to Reuters.
The boarding school system for Native Americans , who lived there before Europeans discovered the continent, was designed to assimilate Native Americans "by destroying their culture, language, and identity through militaristic and assimilationist methods," according to a White House statement. Biden is the first president to formally apologize for those actions, according to Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to hold the position, has launched an investigation into the impact of federal policies on Native American boarding schools. An Interior Department investigation report said at least 973 children died in these schools.
From 1819 to the 1970s, the United States implemented policies to establish and support hundreds of boarding schools for Native Americans, also known as Indians, across the country.
The purpose of these boarding schools was to assimilate Native American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian children by forcing them into schools and separating them from their families, communities, languages, religions, and cultures, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The United States spent a lot of money during that period to run boarding schools and enforce assimilation policies. Many students living in these schools suffered physical and emotional abuse and some died, according to Reuters.
"The President believes that in order to usher in the next era of Federal-Tribal relations, we must fully acknowledge the harms of the past. By apologizing, the President acknowledges that we, as patriots, must remember and teach our full history, even when it is painful. And we must learn from history so that it never happens again," the White House stressed in a statement.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper