USA Biden plans apology for mistreatment of indigenous children

US President Joe Biden wants to issue a formal apology for the treatment of indigenous children who were forced into an abusive boarding school system. He is about to do something that should have been done a long time ago, he said.

He will formally apologize to the indigenous people "for the way we have treated their children for so many years," Biden said as he left the White House on Thursday.

It is planned that Biden will make his official apology on Friday during a visit to the Gila River reservation in the US state of Arizona. Arizona is one of the states with the highest proportion of indigenous people - and is highly contested in the US presidential election on November 5. The White House explained that the apology was being issued to "remember and teach all of our history, even if it is painful".

"For the president to take this step tomorrow is so historic that I'm not sure I can adequately put into words its impact," said US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first female Indigenous minister in US history.

Practice ended in 1978

For more than 150 years, it was common practice in the US to separate Indigenous children from their families and culture and place them in US government-run boarding schools in order to force them to assimilate into mainstream society.

A recent government report pointed to numerous cases of physical, psychological and sexual violence in the homes for indigenous children and the deaths of more than 950 children. This policy of forced assimilation only ended in 1978 with the passing of the so-called Indian Child Welfare Act by the US Congress.

SDA