Biden to apologize to Native Americans for era of boarding school atrocities [Video]

President Biden will issue a formal presidential apology to the Native American community for atrocities committed against Indigenous peoples during the era of federal Indian boarding schools, he announced Thursday. The apology is set to be issued in Arizona on Friday, according to a source familiar with the president’s announcement. 

“I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago,” Mr. Biden told reporters before boarding Marine One on Thursday afternoon. “Make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years.”

From 1819 through the 1970s, the federal government established and supported Indian boarding schools throughout the country to assimilate Alaska Native, American Indian and Native Hawaiian children into White American culture by forcibly removing them from their families, communities and belief systems. Many children who attended these boarding schools endured emotional and physical abuse, and some …