Canadian Indigenous leaders say U.S. President Joe Biden’s apology for his country’s residential school system is only the first step toward healing generations of harm.
On Friday, Biden apologized for the U.S. boarding school system that for more than 150 years separated Indigenous children from their parents, calling it “one of the most consequential things” he’s 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 of boarding schools driven by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the country’s first Indigenous cabinet secretary, which was prompted by the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves at a residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.
“The federal Indian boarding school policy and the pain it has caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history,” Biden said during a speech at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. “It’s horribly, horribly wrong. …