LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. – President Joe Biden did something on Friday that no other US president has done: Apologized for systematic abuse Generations of Native children were educated in boarding schools run by the federal government.

For 150 years, the United States removed Native children from their homes and sent them to schools; Here they were stripped of their culture, history and religion and beaten for speaking their own language.

“We should be ashamed,” Biden told a crowd of Native Americans, including tribal leaders, survivors and their families, gathered at the Gila River Indian Community outside Phoenix. Biden called the government-mandated system, which began in 1819, “one of the most horrific chapters in American history” while also acknowledging decades of abuse of children and women. widespread destruction left behind.

For many Native Americans, the long-awaited apology was a welcome acknowledgment of the government’s long-standing flaw. They say words must now be followed by action.

Bill Hall, 71, of Seattle, was 9 years old when he was taken from his Tlingit community in Alaska and forced to participate in a ceremony. boarding schoolshe endured years of physical and sexual abuse that led to further shame. When she first heard Biden would apologize, she wasn’t sure she could accept it.

“But as I watched it, tears started flowing down my face,” Hall said. “Yes, I accept your apology. Now what can we do next?”

Rosalie Hurricane Soldier, a 79-year-old citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said she felt “a tingling in my heart” and was glad the historical wrong was acknowledged. Still, he continues to grieve the irreparable harm done to his people.

The Hurricane Soldier suffered severe mistreatment at a South Dakota school that left him with a painful limp for life. She said the Catholic-run, government-funded facility took away her faith and tried to eliminate her Lakota identity by cutting off her long braids.

“I’m sorry, it’s not enough. Nothing is enough when you hurt a human being,” he said. “An entire generation of people and our future were destroyed for us.”

The schools were designed both to assimilate Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children and to dispossess tribal nations of their lands, according to an Interior Department investigation launched by Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead the agency.

Haaland, who introduced Biden on Friday, said the official apology was an acknowledgment of a dark chapter but also a celebration of Indigenous resilience: “Despite everything that’s happened, we’re still here.”

Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo citizen, launched the investigation in 2021. The investigation documented more than 18,000 cases of Indigenous children, 973 of whom were murdered. Both the report and independent researchers say the overall number is much higher.

The report came with several recommendations drawn from testimony from school survivors, including resources for mental health treatment and language revitalization programs.

Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis noted that Biden has promised to implement these recommendations.

“This sets the framework for addressing the residential school policies of the past,” he said.

Lingít Benjamin Mallott, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, said in a statement that the apology must be accompanied by meaningful action: “This includes revitalizing our languages ​​and cultures and bringing home our Native children who have not yet returned so they can be buried with their families and communities.”

That view is shared by Victoria Kitcheyan, chief of the Winnebago Tribe in Nebraska, who filed a lawsuit in January against the U.S. Army seeking the return of the remains of two children killed at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

“That recovery doesn’t begin until tribes have a way to bring their children home to rest,” Kitcheyan said.

In an interview Thursday, Haaland said Interior is still working with several tribal nations to repatriate the remains of several children killed and buried at a boarding school.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who introduced a bill last year to establish a truth and healing commission to address the harms caused by the residential school system, called the apology “a historic step toward long-overdue accountability for the harms caused by the residential school system.” . Indigenous children and their communities.

And Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who is vice chair of the Senate Native American Affairs Committee, also praised Biden, saying he reinforced the need for a truth and healing commission.

“Acknowledging the suffering and injustices inflicted on Indigenous communities is an extremely important – though long overdue – step towards healing,” Murkowski said in a statement.

Tribal members stood as Biden spoke Friday, and many captured the moment on their phones. Some wore traditional clothing, while others wore shirts supporting Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

There was a moment of silence, a formal apology, and then applause.

After Biden’s statements, the crowd stood up again. There were shouts of “Thank you, Joe.”

Hall and others who survived the Seattle boarding school have long advocated for resources to repair the damage. He worries that tribal nations will continue to struggle to recover unless the government steps in, and he sees a long road ahead.

“It took a lifetime to get here. It’s going to take a lifetime to get to the other side,” he said. “That’s the saddest part. I won’t see this in my generation.”

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Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.