President Joe Biden apologized on Friday for the atrocities carried out against Native American children in boarding schools supported by the federal government.
Calling it one of the most horrific chapters in American history, Biden told a group at the Gila River Indian Community, "I formally apologize as the president of the United States of America for what we did ... it's long overdue."
"Quite frankly, there's no excuse that this apology took over 50 years to make," President Biden added.
A report issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior states that 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children died while attending the boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. The report also identified at least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at dozens of school sites.
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The 417 institutions across 37 states or then-territories were meant to assimilate Native American children and were often run by religious organizations with federal funding. However, conditions were often brutal. In some cases, children were removed from their homes and sent to schools far away where they were stripped of their Indigenous clothing and names and were forbidden from speaking their native languages.
In an interview with Scripps News prior to Biden's apology, Deb Haaland, secretary of the Department of Interior, talked about why this issue was personal to her.
"My grandparents were taken away to boarding school, so I understand and have experienced how that terrible era affected my own family," she said.
Biden praised Haaland on Friday, saying it's important that she's leading the department that once was responsible for the atrocities.
