Minnesota’s indigenous people watched as President Joe Biden apologized for the trauma suffered by tens of thousands of children in boarding schools. While some think the apology is a good first step, others think it doesn’t go far enough.

Biden spoke before a small gathering on Gila River Indian Community lands just south of Phoenix.

Biden began his speech by saying that apologizing for the nation’s role in exposing children to abuse in residential schools was one of the most important things he had the opportunity to do as president.

“I have a solemn responsibility to be the first president to formally apologize to Indigenous peoples, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives,” Biden said.

“It’s a long, long, long overdue thing. Frankly, there is no excuse for this apology to have taken 50 years. “The federal Indian residential school policy and the suffering it caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a stain on American history,” Biden said.

Biden praised the work of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who has served in Biden’s cabinet for the past four years, for spearheading an investigation documenting the experiences of survivors and their families. Biden took a moment to praise the work of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, a nonprofit organization in Minneapolis, to create pathways for survivors and their families to heal.

Many locals from across the state watched the event from home or work.

Courtesy photo

Bill Carter watched online from work. Carter is a drug and alcohol counselor for the Minneapolis Indian Health Board and a citizen of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

Carter’s aunt, Doris Blank, is a boarding school survivor. At the age of 12, he was taken away from his parents and taken to boarding school in Pipestone. A story about Blank, written last year just before her 100th birthday, described how Blank and another girl ran away from school. The two girls traveled 400 miles to return to their home in northern Minnesota.

Carter spent the first part of the day reflecting on his family’s experiences.

“My grandfather and grandmother (who both lived in Grand Portage) made that long drive diagonally across the state to Pipestone. I don’t think they had much command of English, but they made the trip anyway because they were desperate to get their kids back,” Carter said.

“And when they were denied entry, they set up camp and refused to leave until they were given jobs to join them. And they worked in the Pipestone environment.”

Carter said much of his speech — which he said he thought was a step in the right direction — reflected on his family’s resilience.

Stephen Maturen for MPR News / 2023

George McCauley, a citizen of Nebraska’s Omaha Tribe, watched the event from his home with his wife.

McCauley said he felt the apology should have been covered live by more media outlets, as if he felt there wasn’t enough coverage of the incident.

He said he was impressed by the initial acceptance but felt deeply disappointed by the president’s words. McCauley said she felt Biden needed to say more about the abuse experienced by survivors. McCauley said he believed the apology was not an opportune moment for the president to reconsider his administration’s accomplishments in federal Indian law and policy.

“Our relatives were harassed. Our relatives were killed,” McCauley said. “Everything that people… heard, witnessed, felt and said, ‘We’re sorry, we’re sorry.’ This doesn’t sit well with me.”

“We can all always apologize for anything. It’s just words,” McCauley said.

Biden’s Gila River visit was his first diplomatic trip to a tribal nation during his presidency. Four years ago, when Biden won the presidential bid, he also won the state of Arizona; He became the first democrat to achieve this since 1996.

McCauley said he appreciates the work of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and everyone who works with survivors. McCauley said she believes a healing center is needed for survivors, some of whom have not yet processed their experiences.

Deanna Beaulieu watched the apology at home in her kitchen with her 18-year-old daughter.

Beaulieu is a citizen of the White Earth Nation and works as a victim advocate for the state’s Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. He is also the child and grandchild of residential school survivors. Beaulieu said he felt the president’s speech was a good first step.

“I have never heard a non-Indigenous government official acknowledge what happened to us or what they did to us,” Beaulieu said.

Beaulieu said he appreciated the apology but felt the president’s words needed to be backed up by action.

This, he says, includes economic measures, including land restitution, that will help make up for decades of abuse.

“This is shameful… and it was done through politics.”

Beaulieu said it will take years of thoughtful public policy to undo the generational harm of residential school policies. He said he looks to his own family for strength.

“My grandmother, her mother, my mother and now my daughter… we endured. Our suffering can be healed. Beaulieu, doing this healing work; “If we heal ourselves, we heal others,” he said.

Jaida Gray Eagle for MPR News

Vanessa Goodthunder watched the speech from her home. He is a citizen of the Lower Sioux Indian Community near Morton. Goodthunder is the director of C̣aƞṡayapi Waḳaƞyeża Owayawa Oṭi, a Dakota early childhood language school in Lower Sioux.

“Ihu, I’m glad to hear that at least the official apology has been accepted and that we remain hopeful of action on efforts to revitalize, preserve and sustain our native languages ​​and cultures,” Goodthunder wrote.

“Now is the time to be held accountable for taking action to jointly exercise and support the sovereign rights that the federal government is trying to eliminate. Waƞnna iyehantu, it’s time.”