{"id":42524,"date":"2024-10-25T18:42:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T22:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=42524"},"modified":"2024-10-28T11:43:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T15:43:27","slug":"uset-uset-spf-together-we-can-shed-a-more-truthful-light-on-our-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/10\/25\/uset-uset-spf-together-we-can-shed-a-more-truthful-light-on-our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"USET\/USET SPF: ‘Together, we can shed a more truthful light on our history’"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Rodney<\/a>
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<\/figcaption>\r\n
President Biden Issues Historic Apology for Indian Boarding School Era In Recognition that Truth and Accountability Are Necessary for Ushering in New Era<\/div>\r\n
Friday, October 25, 2024<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nToday, President Biden has done what no other sitting President has done in the history of the United States: apologized for the United States\u2019 role in one of the darkest eras of United States-Tribal Nation relations, the Indian boarding school era. President Biden apologized<\/a> 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\u2019 lands and resources. President Biden acknowledged that \u201cthe federal Indian boarding school policy and the pain it has caused will always be a significant mark of shame,\u201d calling it \u201ca blot on American history.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nUSET\/USET SPF President, Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Indian Nation said, \u201cPresident Biden\u2019s 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\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nPresident Biden\u2019s historic apology is the result of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative undertaken by Department of the Interior Secretary Haaland, Assistant Secretary \u2013 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\u2019s loss of life and continued confinement at burial holding sites on Indian boarding school grounds. USET SPF provided the Department comments in 2021<\/a> and 2024<\/a> regarding the impacts of the Indian boarding school era and the need to engage in truth and reconciliation, and we celebrated<\/a> the 2024 release of the Investigative Report.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWe commend this Administration\u2019s 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 \u201cchapter that most Americans don\u2019t know about\u201d and received \u201cvirtually no public attention.\u201d We cannot move forward and heal until the United States opens its eyes to its true origins. As President Biden explained, \u201cwe must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a Nation\u201d so that we can \u201clearn from history\u201d and \u201cheal as a Nation.\u201d \u201cIt takes remembering,\u201d 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.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nPresident Biden rightly acknowledged that the Indian boarding school era was \u201cone of the most horrific chapters in American history,\u201d 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\u2019 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.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nPresident 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\u2019 healing by repatriating our children still held against their will. President Biden called on Indian Country to believe in \u201cthe possibility to usher in a new era to a Nation-to-Nation relationship grounded in dignity and respect.\u201d 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<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\nUnited South and Eastern Tribes (USET)
\r\nEstablished 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.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nUSET Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF)
\r\nEstablished 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.<\/em>

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