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A r u b a ’ s O N L Y E n g l i s h n e w s p a p e r
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President Biden to apologize for 150-year Indian boarding school policy

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER
Associated Press
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — President
Joe Biden is expected to formally
apologize on Friday for the country's
role in the Indian boarding school
system, which devastated the lives
of generations of Indigenous chil-
dren and their ancestors.
"I would never have guessed in a
million years that something like this
would happen," said Secretary of
Interior Deb Haaland, a member
of the Pueblo of Laguna. "It's a big
deal to me. I'm sure it will be a big
deal to all of Indian Country."
Shortly after becoming the first Na-
tive American to lead the Interior,
Haaland launched an investigation
into the boarding school system,
which found that at least 18,000
children, some as young as 4, were
taken from their parents and forced
to attend schools that sought to
assimilate them, in an effort to
dispossess their tribal nations of
land. It also documented nearly
1,000 deaths and 74 gravesites as-
sociated with the more than 500
schools. Russell Eagle Bear, with the Rosebud Sioux Reservation Tribal Council, talks to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland during a
meeting about Native American boarding schools at Sinte Gleska University in Mission, S.D., on Oct. 15, 2022.
Continued on Page 2 Associated Press