US President Joe Biden will make a public statement on Friday formally apologizing for the US government’s role in running federal boarding schools for Indian children from 1819 to 1969.
As Day.Az reports with reference to TASS, The Washington Post newspaper reported this with reference to representatives of the Washington administration.
According to her information, Biden’s speech will be the first time in history that a US president will apologize for the government’s policies towards indigenous children in North America. The head of state is expected to speak at a school in an Indian community near Phoenix, Arizona.
WP notes that Biden’s visit will also be aimed at strengthening the Democrats’ position in the presidential race. According to her, the current US president seeks to “enhance his legacy before leaving office”, as well as strengthen the campaign of Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris. The newspaper said that although Indians represent a small part of the electorate, their votes could play an important role in swing states, particularly in Arizona, where indigenous people make up 5% of the population.
In July, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a report acknowledging that at least 973 Indian and other indigenous children died in institutions where they were forcibly placed as part of a cultural assimilation program. The boarding school system included more than 400 institutions that were run either directly by the government or by religious groups that received government funding.