Canadian Indigenous leaders call Biden's apology for residential schools 'first step'

Canadian Indigenous leaders say U.S. President Joe Biden’s apology for his country’s residential school system is only the first step toward healing generations of harm.

Canadian Indigenous leaders say U.S. President Joe Biden’s apology for his country’s residential school system is only the first step toward healing generations of harm.

On Friday, Biden apologized for the U.S. boarding school system that for more than 150 years separated Indigenous children from their parents, calling it “one of the most consequential things” he’s done as president. 

The apology comes 16 years after former prime minister Stephen Harper apologized for Canada’s residential school system. It follows an investigation of boarding schools driven by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the country’s first Indigenous cabinet secretary, which was prompted by the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves at a residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.

“The federal Indian boarding school policy and the pain it has caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history,” Biden said during a speech at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. “It’s horribly, horribly wrong. It’s a sin on our soul.” 

Former Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine, who was one of the first Canadians to speak publicly about the abuse he experienced at a residential school, said Canada has had “tremendous influence” on the U.S. starting to reckon with its own history.

“The U.S. government could no longer turn a blind eye to the boarding school experience in the United States,” he said. “And they ultimately decided that this was the right thing to do, and it certainly is.”

In 2021, Haaland launched an investigation that found at least 973 Native American children died in the U.S. boarding school system, including from disease and abuse. On Friday, Biden acknowledged the true number is probably “much, much higher.”