Canadian Indigenous Leaders Declare U.S. President Joe Biden’s apology because his country’s residential school system is only the first step toward healing generations of suffering.

Biden on Friday apologized for the US boarding school system that for more than 150 years separated Indigenous children from their parents, calling it “one of the most important things” he has done in as president.

The apology comes 16 years after former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for Canada’s residential school system. This follows an investigation into boarding schools by US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the country’s first indigenous cabinet secretary, which was sparked by the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves at the site of a boarding school in Kamloops, British Columbia.

“The federal Indian boarding school policy and the pain it caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a stain on American history,” Biden said during a speech to the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. “This is horribly, horribly wrong. It is a sin for our soul.

Former Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine, who was one of the first Canadians to speak publicly about his residential school abuse, said Canada had “a huge influence » about the United States which was beginning to take into account its own history.

“The U.S. government can no longer turn a blind eye to the boarding school experience in the United States,” he said. “And they ultimately decided it was the right thing to do, and it certainly is.”

In 2021, Haaland launched an investigation that found at least 973 Native American children died in the U.S. boarding school system, including from disease and abuse. On Friday, Biden acknowledged that the true number was likely “much, much higher.”

The U.S. government implemented a policy of forced assimilation in 1819 in an effort to “civilize” Native Americans. For more than 150 years, indigenous children were forced to attend schools, many of which were run by churches. Many children were physically, emotionally and sexually abused.

The investigation uncovered marked and unmarked graves in 65 of the country’s more than 400 boarding schools. Haaland, whose grandparents attended boarding school, led listening sessions for two years on and off reservations across the United States to allow survivors of the schools to tell their stories.

When the findings were released last summer, Haaland said the federal government should issue a formal apology.

“For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books,” Haaland said Friday in Arizona. “But now, our administration’s work will ensure no one ever forgets.”

Fontaine said the United States should now launch its own truth and reconciliation commission, as Canada did in 2008, and should consider compensating residential school survivors. A bill is currently before Congress that would establish a “truth and healing commission” to further document the history of boarding schools and make recommendations for government action.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said the history of American boarding schools echoes that of Canada’s First Nations.

“The impacts of these schools have affected generations,” Woodhouse Nepinak said in an emailed statement. “This recognition is important, but healing will take time. I urge President Biden, and the new president-elect after next month’s election, to meaningfully engage with Native American communities and ensure that this apology leads to real actions that address the harm caused. “

On Friday, Biden said the “vast majority” of Americans are still unaware of what he called “one of the most horrific chapters in American history.”

This was also the case in Canada before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave survivors the opportunity to share their experiences, Fontaine said. In 2015, the commission released a final report concluding that the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide. In total, 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families to attend Canadian residential schools, the last of which closed in 1996.

“It was a dark chapter, unknown to most Canadians, but it has become an integral part of Canadian history and has been exposed to more Canadians than ever before,” Fontaine said. “And I think it’s entirely possible in the United States as well.”

But Eva Jewell, an assistant professor of sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University and research director at the Yellowhead Institute, says it will take a long time for the United States to achieve a “national understanding” of the boarding school system.

“The political culture in the United States is very hostile to any form of justice-oriented education,” she said. “So I think where that happens is probably going to be in pretty progressive states.” Jewell said a belief in American exceptionalism could explain why the apology took so long. “I think American political culture takes an unapologetic stance on its history,” she said.

Stephanie Scott, executive director of the Canadian National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, said Biden’s apology is positive, but “only a first step.”

“There is a long road ahead to address ongoing harms, reparations and continued revelations of the truth in order to achieve reconciliation,” she said in a statement, adding that the Truth and Canada’s reconciliation can serve as a model for other countries.

The commission’s 2015 report documents how Canada’s residential school system was modeled after that of the United States. In 1879, lawyer and journalist Nicholas Davin wrote a report on American industrial boarding schools for indigenous children and recommended that Canada create a similar system.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 26, 2024.

With files from The Associated Press