WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden on Dec. 9 designated a new national monument to memorialize the federal government’s oppression of thousands of native American children through the boarding school system founded in the late 19th century.
“An entire generation of native children was literally stolen from their families and tribes and sent away to boarding school,” Biden said during a speech at the White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington. “It was wrong.”
The designation of a monument comes after Biden visited Arizona in October to apologize for the federal Indian boarding school era.
Biden described it as “a dark chapter” in U.S. history that lasted 150 years.
“On behalf of the American people, I felt it was really important for the president of the United States to stand up and right a wrong that had been ignored for a long time and apologize,” Biden said during the summit.
The new monument, called the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument, will be located at the site of a former boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1879, the Carlisle school was the first such school and has come to symbolize the brutality of the boarding school system.
“The new national monument will tell the story of the oppression endured by thousands of Native children and their families at this site and the harmful legacy of the broader Indian boarding school system that the federal government operated or supported across the country for more than 150 years,” the White House said in a statement.
The Carlisle school and other boarding schools were part of the federal government’s attempt to separate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their families and assimilate them. According to available federal records, at least 973 native American children died in these schools, and those who survived frequently faced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
“From 1879 to when it ceased operations in 1918, the Carlisle School subjected 7,800 children from more than 140 Indian Tribes (including Alaska Native Villages) to its coercive education program,” the White House stated.
The boarding school system, which operated from the early 19th century until the mid-20th century, was made up of more than 400 federally supported schools across the United States.
At the summit, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the country’s first-ever indigenous Cabinet secretary, delivered an emotional speech, praising Biden for his support for Native Americans.
“President Biden has been the best president for Indian country in my lifetime,” she said.
During the summit, Biden also announced the launch of a 10-year plan to revive native languages, including promoting native language schools and programs in the country.
So far, the Biden administration has announced $45 billion in investments in Native American communities to improve infrastructure, expand health care, advance education, and address systemic and historic injustices, according to the White House.
“All told, in four years, we’ve created 200,000 jobs for Native Americans,” Biden said, noting that there has been an $8 billion increase in federal contracts for Native businesses.
