American Indian College Foundation President Cheryl Crazy Bull on the president’s apology

Guest’s opinion. The Aboriginal residential school experience affects almost every Aboriginal person. American alive today.

The federal government’s policy was to completely assimilate the indigenous people. This assimilation was to be achieved by separating children from their families, banning the use of native languages, and forcing children and young people to adopt Western practices, including insisting that they renounce their spiritual ways and become Christians. During this period, many children were subjected to physical and sexual abuse, malnutrition and mistreatment for generations. This summer, the Department of the Interior called on the U.S. government to formally apologize for the lasting trauma inflicted on Native Americans. The trauma resulting from these events affects everyone Indian The country today.

And yet this dark period in American the history is largely unknown to non-Indigenous people. It is my hope that President Biden’s apology will not only raise awareness of the true history of Indigenous people in our country, but will also be a step toward national reconciliation and healing.

We join tribes, Indigenous organizations, and our Native kin and allies in calling for restorative action. Today, we call on the federal government and philanthropy to make significant investments in restorative and healing approaches and institutions to reverse the damage caused by the residential school era. The Indigenous people we support, from our youngest children to our college students deserve this investment. Tribal college and the university movement that emerged more than 50 years ago in support of local, Native-led, and tribally controlled education deserves such investment.

We also thank Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe of New Mexico whose grandparents and great-grandparents were taken from their homes and sent to residential schools. Under her leadership, an investigation into residential schools was launched three years ago, marking the first time the U.S. government has scrutinized schools and listened to the stories of residential school survivors and their descendants. Secretary Haaland’s leadership was vital to the formal apology. American Indian and Alaska Natives received today.”

Cheryl Crazy Bull, Wasinyanpi Win (“They Depend on Her”), President and CEO of the American Indian College Foundation, is a citizen of the Sikangu Lakota Nation. She has held her position with the American Indian College Foundation since 2012.

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