On Friday, Oct. 25, at Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, President Joseph Biden delivered a formal apology on behalf of the United States to an assembly of Native American leaders for the genocidal impact of 150 years of U.S. Indian boarding schools, which sought to erase Indigenous people, culture and languages.
“I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did,” said Biden. “It’s long overdue.”
This apology came as a result of years of work by Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo. The U.S. Department of the Interior oversees U.S. relations to American Indians, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians.
The federal Indian boarding school policy, the pain it has caused, will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history.
President Joe Biden
As the first Indigenous woman to lead the Department of the Interior, Haaland has played a prominent role in federal efforts to address the intergenerational trauma caused by federal Indian boarding schools and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP), especially women. Building on decades of advocacy by Indigenous leaders, survivors and community members, Haaland has spearheaded initiatives like the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative and the creation of the Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
The Not Invisible Act Commission, established in 2020, represents a significant milestone in these collective efforts to shed light on the MMIP crisis. Bringing together survivors, family members, Tribal leaders, law enforcement and service providers, the commission gathered testimony from nearly 600 participants. Its findings, documented in the “Not One More” report, called for survivor advocacy, legislative reform and intergovernmental coordination to address systemic barriers and injustices.
In March 2024, the Departments of the Interior and Justice issued their formal response to the “Not One More” report. This response outlined critical steps to address MMIP with a focus on regional coordination, culturally grounded care, and systemic reform.
Among the notable implementations:
- The establishment of regional MMIP offices, ensuring community-specific resources are available to address local challenges.
- The formalization of Healing and Response Teams (HRTs), which provide culturally specific, trauma-informed care to survivors and families.
- The expansion of Tribal Community Response Plans (TCRPs), improving collaboration among federal, state and Tribal authorities in missing persons investigations.
- Enhanced data-sharing initiatives through the Department of Justice’s Tribal Access Program (TAP).
“These measures are vital, but they demand more than administrative implementation,” said Haaland. “The scale and severity of this issue demand a comprehensive and sustained response. We must focus on improving safety, prevention, justice, support services and healing for AI/AN communities through increased funding, policy reform and action-oriented programs.”
The Not Invisible Act Commission’s work has been shaped by the voices of survivors and families who testified during its hearings. “At best we are invisible; at worst, we are disposable,” said Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan during the Minneapolis hearing.
Survivors across regions described the enduring pain of systemic failures but also shared stories of resilience and hope. “I know how we can die from this; and I know how we can live through this, too,” said one survivor during the Anchorage, Alaska, hearing.
Efforts like the “Not One More” report aim to mitigate jurisdictional challenges by expanding Tribal Community Response Plans and advocating for amendments to Public Law 280 (PL 280). Enacted in 1953, PL 280 transferred criminal jurisdiction over Tribal lands in specific states to state governments, often without Tribal consent. This policy not only weakened Tribal authority but also left Indigenous communities dependent on state systems ill-equipped—or unwilling—to serve their needs. Legal scholar Sarah Deer has described PL 280 as emblematic of how federal policies undermine Tribal governance by prioritizing state and federal systems over Indigenous frameworks.
However, these reforms stop short of addressing deeper structural issues. Increased funding for Tribal law enforcement and victim services, while critical, only addresses the symptoms of a larger systemic issue. The dispossession of Indigenous lands and resources remains at the heart of the inequities that perpetuate violence against Native peoples. Without confronting these foundational injustices, federal interventions will continue to fall short. As Deer and other scholars have argued, the U.S. legal framework itself must be interrogated for its role in sustaining these cycles of violence.
“This work requires all of us to face our trauma, relive unimaginable pain and envision a future where our loved ones are safe,” Haaland said during a commission plenary session.
Moving forward, the work ahead demands not only accountability but transformative action—action that centers Indigenous voices, restores Tribal sovereignty and builds a foundation for lasting change.
I acknowledge that this trauma was perpetrated by the agency that I now lead. For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books.
Secretary Deb Haaland
Long Overdue U.S. Apology for Indian Boarding Schools
Haaland is also working for accountability and healing for the harms done by the federal Indian boarding school system. In his address on Oct. 25, Biden described the federal Indian boarding system:
“Children abused—emotionally, physically and sexually abused. Forced into hard labor. Some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents. Some left for dead in unmarked graves. And for those who did return home, they were wounded in body and in spirit—trauma and shame passed down through generations.”
Biden is the first president to visit Indian Country, and the first to apologize for the atrocities of the U.S. government’s boarding school system that mandated removal of children from their families and tribes, devastating Native American children and families.
“Generations of Native children stolen,” said Biden. “The federal Indian boarding school policy, the pain it has caused, will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history. I am here today to right a wrong, to chart a new path toward a better future for us all.”
The apology marked a rare instance of federal acknowledgment of the atrocities committed under the Indian boarding school system. While significant, Indigenous advocacy has long emphasized that genuine healing requires reparative actions beyond settler-state recognition.
In June 2021, shortly after her appointment to head the Department of the Interior, Haaland announced the formation of a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to recover the history and address the harms of the U.S. government’s policy of taking Indigenous children from their families and communities.
Haaland has traveled across the country on a “Road to Healing” tour to hear the stories of Indigenous survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system and connect communities with trauma-informed support.
After an extensive investigation, the Interior Department released a report in May 2022 with the first-ever list of federally operated Indian boarding school sites and associated marked and unmarked burial sites. The investigation found that from 1819 to 1969, the federal government operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states and territories. The Interior Department has identified marked and unmarked burial sites at approximately 53 different schools across the system. The report has maps with the general locations of schools in current states and profiles of each school. To document the experiences of the generations of Indigenous people who attended the federal boarding school system, Haaland launched an oral history project in September 2023 to gather first-person survivor narratives.
“This is the first time in history that a United States Cabinet secretary has shared the traumas of our past, and I acknowledge that this trauma was perpetrated by the agency that I now lead,” said Haaland after Biden’s apology. “For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books. But now our administration’s work ensures that no one will ever forget.”
Biden’s apology is just a first step, said Indigenous advocates, who are calling for the return of the remains of children who died at one of the first and most notorious federal Indian boarding schools, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
“We ask the administration to expedite the return of our relatives buried on these former school grounds to their rightful resting places,” said Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians.
Indigenous advocates are also calling on the U.S. government to fully fund initiatives requiring all schools to teach the Indigenous languages of their regions and restoring original place names across the landscape—from mountains and rivers to cities and streets—returning them to their Indigenous names in Native languages.
“Such restoration of language and place names is not merely symbolic but represents a fundamental act of cultural justice and healing, returning what was systematically erased through colonization,” said Joely Proudfit, a professor at California State University San Marcos.
Macarro urged Congress to pass legislation that would “further illuminate this history and support the ongoing journey toward healing.”
“As proud citizens of our Tribal Nations and of the United States, we hold hope that this historic moment will be a catalyst for lasting, reparative measures,” said Macarro.
