Indianz.Com > News > USET/USET SPF: ‘Together, we can shed a more truthful light on our history’
Rodney Butler, Crystal Williams and Marshall Pierite
From left: Rodney Butler, Crystal Williams and Marshall Pierite at the Gila River Indian Community on October 25, 2024. Photo courtesy United South and Eastern Tribes
President Biden Issues Historic Apology for Indian Boarding School Era In Recognition that Truth and Accountability Are Necessary for Ushering in New Era
Friday, October 25, 2024
Indianz.Com

Today, President Biden has done what no other sitting President has done in the history of the United States: apologized for the United States’ role in one of the darkest eras of United States-Tribal Nation relations, the Indian boarding school era. President Biden apologized for the horrific atrocities our children experienced when they were ripped from their families and homelands and collected for relocation to Indian boarding schools, all with the goal of severing their ties to their Tribal communities and lifeways. Like other federal Indian policies, this was done so that the United States could more easily take Tribal Nations’ lands and resources. President Biden acknowledged that “the federal Indian boarding school policy and the pain it has caused will always be a significant mark of shame,” calling it “a blot on American history.”

USET/USET SPF President, Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Indian Nation said, “President Biden’s acknowledgment of the deep wounds caused by the Indian boarding school era is a crucial step towards healing and reconciliation. We celebrate this historic moment and call upon the United States to further its commitment to honor our histories, restore dignity, and ensure that the voices of Tribal Nations are respected and not left unheard. Together, we can shed a more truthful light on our history, so that we can achieve a brighter future in our Nation-to Nation, sovereign-to-sovereign relationship”

President Biden’s historic apology is the result of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative undertaken by Department of the Interior Secretary Haaland, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Newland, and their staff. Since the Department announced this Initiative in June 2021, it conducted extensive Tribal consultation and historical research and thereafter released two Investigative Reports in May 2022 and July 2024. Combined, these groundbreaking Investigative Reports detail a dark and sad history, including our children’s loss of life and continued confinement at burial holding sites on Indian boarding school grounds. USET SPF provided the Department comments in 2021 and 2024 regarding the impacts of the Indian boarding school era and the need to engage in truth and reconciliation, and we celebrated the 2024 release of the Investigative Report.

We commend this Administration’s efforts to engage in honest truth-telling. As President Biden said in his remarks, despite the cruelty of the Indian boarding school era, it is a “chapter that most Americans don’t know about” and received “virtually no public attention.” We cannot move forward and heal until the United States opens its eyes to its true origins. As President Biden explained, “we must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a Nation” so that we can “learn from history” and “heal as a Nation.” “It takes remembering,” he said. USET SPF emphasizes that we must ensure this now-begun truth and reconciliation effort is institutionalized so it continues and grows into the next Administration and beyond.

President Biden rightly acknowledged that the Indian boarding school era was “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” but we must remember that this is but one of many shameful and horrific chapters. USET SPF calls on the United States to ensure its truth and reconciliation efforts encompass the full history of the United States’ federal policies aimed at assimilation and termination of Tribal Nations and lifeways. It is a history of broken promises that caused intergenerational, compounding trauma and stunted the natural growth of our Tribal governments and communities.

President Biden also acknowledged the many Native children who died while in the custody of and due to the conditions within Indian boarding schools. USET SPF has fought to force the federal government to repatriate Native children back to their Tribal communities from Indian boarding school graveyards under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. We must continue our Tribal communities’ healing by repatriating our children still held against their will. President Biden called on Indian Country to believe in “the possibility to usher in a new era to a Nation-to-Nation relationship grounded in dignity and respect.” USET SPF celebrates this and is advocating for a new era of federal Indian law and policy based in true diplomacy, where we are able to fully exercise our inherent sovereign rights and authorities and receive the full debts owed to us under the trust and treaty obligations, including through a Marshall Plan for Tribal Nations.


United South and Eastern Tribes (USET)
Established in 1969, the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET) is a non-profit, inter-Tribal organization serving 33 federally recognized Tribal Nations from the Northeastern Woodlands to the Everglades and across the Gulf of Mexico. USET is dedicated to enhancing the development of Tribal Nations, improving the capabilities of Tribal governments, and improving the quality of life for Indian people through a variety of technical and supportive programmatic services.

USET Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF)
Established in 2014, the USET Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF) is a non-profit, inter-Tribal organization advocating on behalf of 33 federally recognized Tribal Nations from the Northeastern Woodlands to the Everglades and across the Gulf of Mexico. USET SPF is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and advancing the inherent sovereign rights and authorities of Tribal Nations and in assisting its membership in dealing effectively with public policy issues.