Opinion

Lise Balk King: Obama remains silent on an apology for Natives

Monday, December 5, 2011

"On Wednesday June 11, 2008, all of Canada was asked to take pause to participate in an unprecedented national event. Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked his 30 million Canadian citizens to tune in to Parliament for a live nationally broadcast Apology to their country’s First Nations, their indigenous peoples. The task was specific and long overdue: “The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly. We are sorry,” said Harper. He specifically addressed the government’s role in assimilating Native children through church-run residential (boarding) schools, and sought a turning point in the troubled history between Native peoples and the Canadian state.

This was a national event of healing, and it included direct apology to tribal leaders and former residential school students who were in attendance in Parliament. The apology amounted to nothing less than a shared mea culpa for Canadians and a sense of acknowledgment and relief for Native peoples. Phil Fontaine, head of the Assembly of First Nations and a victim of abuse at residential school, was in attendance that day to receive the apology, “We heard the government of Canada take full responsibility for this dreadful chapter in our shared history…Finally, we heard Canada say it is sorry,” said Mr. Fontaine.

In direct contrast to Canada’s shared national moment of state and communal responsibility, it might surprise you to learn that the United States has also offered an official Apology to Native people. On Saturday, December 19, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Native American Apology Resolution into law."

Get the Story:
Lise Balk King: A Tree Fell in the Forest: The U.S. Apologized to Native Americans and No One Heard a sound (Indian Country Today 12/3)