Arizona:
President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized for the U.S. government’s role in running abusive Native American boarding schools for more than 150 years, but the event drew jeers over his support for Israel’s war in Gaza. .
“This is one of the most significant events of my career,” Biden said in his apology at an outdoor soccer field and track field in the village of LaVine near Phoenix, Arizona. .
“This is a sin of our souls. … We formally apologize.”
Hundreds of people attended, many wearing traditional tribal costumes. They cheered as Biden apologized for the intergenerational trauma inflicted on Native American communities across the country as a result of residential schools.
Biden faced a brief interruption when a pro-Palestinian demonstrator shouted, “How can you apologize for genocide when you’re committing genocide in Palestine?”
The president responded, “Many innocent people are being killed and this has to stop.”
After Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the United States’ support for Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon sparked months of demonstrations across the United States. Rights groups are calling for an arms embargo on Israel as tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the region and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip battle hunger and disease.
Israel and the United States deny the genocide allegations brought against Israel in the World Court in connection with Gaza, and the United States maintains its support for its allies.
Friday’s visit marked Biden’s first visit to Indian Country during his tenure and is part of an effort to cement his legacy in his final months in the White House.
Arizona is also one of seven battleground states in the November 5 US presidential election between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Indigenous person to hold a cabinet position, had launched an inquiry to recognize the problematic legacy of the federal government’s Indigenous residential school policy.
An Interior Ministry investigation report released in July found that at least 973 children died in these schools. Haaland’s family was among the children forced into boarding schools.
From 1819 to the 1970s, the United States implemented policies that established and supported hundreds of American Indian boarding schools across the country. The goal was to culturally assimilate Native Americans by forcibly removing them from their families, communities, religions, and cultural beliefs.
Like the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have recently reviewed past abuses against Indigenous communities, including children in schools.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
