Canadian Indigenous leaders say US President Joe Biden's apology for his country's residential school system is just the first step in addressing generations of harm.
Biden apologized Friday for the U.S. residential school system that separated Indigenous children from their parents for more than 150 years, calling it “one of the most important things” he has done as president.
The apology comes 16 years after former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for Canada's residential school system.
It follows an investigation into residential schools led by US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the country's first indigenous cabinet minister, which was prompted by the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves at the site of a residential school in Kamloops. British Columbia.
“The federal Indian boarding school policy and the pain it has caused will always remain a great mark of shame, a stain on American history,” Biden said during a speech at a Gila River Indian community in Arizona. “It's a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake. It is a sin against our souls.”
Former Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine, who became one of the first Canadians to speak publicly about the abuse he suffered at residential school in 1990, when he detailed his own experiences at Fort Alexander Residential School in Manitoba, said Canada has “tremendous influence.” About the United States, which has begun to take into account its history.
“The American government can no longer turn a blind eye to the residential school experience in the United States,” he said.
“And ultimately they decided it was the right thing to do, and it certainly was.”
In 2021, Haaland launched an investigation that found that at least 973 Native American children died in the US residential school system, including from disease and abuse. Biden acknowledged Friday that the real number is likely “much higher.”
The United States government implemented a policy of forced assimilation in 1819 in an attempt to “civilize” the Native Americans. For more than 150 years, indigenous children were forced to attend schools, many of which were run by churches. Many children have been subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
The investigation found marked and unmarked graves in 65 of the more than 400 boarding schools across the country. Haaland, whose grandparents attended boarding school, led listening sessions for two years on and off reservations across the United States to allow school survivors to tell their stories.
“No one will ever forget it”
When the results were released last summer, Haaland said there should be a formal apology from the federal government.
“For decades, this terrible chapter has been hidden in our history books,” Haaland said Friday in Arizona. “But now, the work of our administration will ensure that no one will ever forget.”
Fontaine said the United States should now form its own truth and reconciliation commission, as Canada did in 2008, and should consider compensating boarding school survivors.
There is currently a bill pending before Congress that would create a “Truth and Healing Commission” to further document the history of residential schools and make recommendations for government action.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said the history of American boarding schools reflects the experiences of First Nations in Canada.
“The impacts of these schools have impacted generations,” Woodhouse Nepinak said in an email statement.
“This recognition is important, but recovery will take time. “I urge President Biden and the next president-elect after next month's election to meaningfully engage with Native American communities and ensure this apology leads to real actions that address the harm caused.” “
Biden said Friday that the “vast majority” of Americans remain unaware of what he called “one of the most terrible 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.
“A long road ahead”
In 2015, the commission issued a final report concluding that the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide. In total, 150,000 Indigenous children were separated 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 a huge part of Canadian history that has been exposed to more Canadians than ever before,” Fontaine said. “And I think this is very possible in the United States as well.”
But Eva Jewell, assistant professor of sociology at Metropolitan University of Toronto and director of research at the Yellowhead Institute, believes it will take a long time for the United States to achieve a “national understanding” of the residential school system.
“The political culture in the United States is very hostile to any type of justice-oriented education,” he said. “So I think when it happens, it will probably be in fairly progressive states.”
A belief in American exceptionalism could explain why the apology took so long, Jewell said. “I think American political culture has an unapologetic attitude toward its history,” he said.
Stephanie Scott, executive director of Canada's National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, said Biden's apology is positive, but “only a first step.”
“There is a long way to go to address current harms, reparations and continued revelations of the truth to achieve reconciliation,” he said in a statement, adding that Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission could serve as a model for other countries.
The commission's 2015 report documents how Canada's residential school system was modeled on 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 establish a similar system.
