PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT: In an historic first, President Biden today delivered an apology for a U.S. policy that forcibly separated generations of indigenous children from their families for more than 150 years, sending them to federally backed boarding schools for forced assimilation into white society.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did.

(CHEERING) JOE BIDEN: I formally apologize.

I have a solemn responsibility to be the first president to formally apologize to the Native peoples, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Native Alaskans, and federal Indian boarding schools.

It's a long, long, long overdue.

Quite frankly, there's no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.

The federal Indian boarding school policy, the pain it has caused, will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history.

GEOFF BENNETT: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched an investigation into the boarding school system shortly after she became the first Native American to lead the department.

The investigation uncovered generations of abuse and trauma and the deaths of at least 973 Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children who attended the boarding schools.

The Washington Post's Dana Hedgpeth has been covering the story, and she attended the ceremony today in Arizona.

She joins us now.

Thanks for being with us.

This is a part of U.S. history that far too many Americans know about.

Help us understand the systemic forced assimilation of Native American children.

Remind us what this investigation foundation found.

DANA HEDGPETH, The Washington Post: Geoff, thank you so much for having me.

It has been a historic day here in Phoenix, just outside of Phoenix, on the Gila River School.

The investigation started with Secretary Deb Haaland, who should be noted for being the first Native American Cabinet secretary, which that alone tells you something.

Deb Haaland, this issue is still personal for her.

Her grandparents, her great-grandfather went to Indian boarding schools.

She took this as a major initiative during her time under the Biden administration, launched a three-year, $21 million investigation looking into boarding schools.

What makes that remarkable is that she was the first person, she was the first interior secretary.

She's investigating the very department that ran these 400-plus boarding schools across the country.

No one had looked at this history in 150 years, a very troubled history of wrongdoings, mistreatment, physical, sexual, emotional, mental abuse; 973 of those children did not make it home.

They died at the schools, Geoff.

This was -- her investigation alone was quite remarkable and historic in and of itself and found, as you mentioned, the children who died there, some in marked, some in unmarked graves, sadly.

Those that did make it home were very traumatized.

They were abused, mistreated.

They did not receive the fullest of education.

They did manual labor, which President Biden noted too today.

They learned the very basics of academics.

Secretary Haaland today mentioned that when people -- many people think of boarding schools, they think of an elite education.

I was so refreshed to hear her bring this up, because this was so far from being an elite education.

This was not at all elite.

So, Haaland revealed all that in her investigation.

And this was the culmination of that work.

She asked for an apology, a presidential-level apology.

And that's what she got today from President Biden, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes, the first time a U.S. president has apologized for the atrocities suffered by tens of thousands of Native children.

How was it received?

DANA HEDGPETH: As you could hear from the clip you played of President Biden, I sort of smiled and got a slight chill.

There was cheers.

There were survivors, some of whom I have talked to, who are just -- they're heroes.

They're special people.

There were tears.

Many folks said -- I have talked to Haaland's Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland, his own relatives, he has experience of this, at boarding schools.

He was her point person her investigation and said: "I have so many mixed emotions today."

Those mixed emotions being sense of sadness for those who did not make it home, a sense of gratefulness, as he said, that this time has finally finally come.

Those who did not make it home and those who survived are getting the acknowledgment.

And that means so much to Native people, to be acknowledged on this dark and forgotten chapter of American history.

GEOFF BENNETT: Understanding the importance of the acknowledgement, a question, though.

What, if any action, follows this apology?

DANA HEDGPETH: Well, we will have to see.

There was a lot of reaction afterwards of people saying sort of, what next?

The Washington Post, I was part of a team this summer that published a very extensive report where we looked at the sexual abuse specifically at many of these schools that were run by not just the U.S. government, but by religious groups and churches.

In our investigation, The Washington Post found that 122 priest, brothers and nuns at 22 schools across the United States sexually abused Native American children.

The Catholic Church, the pope has yet to apologize for the atrocities here in the U.S.

He did do an apology several years ago in Canada.

And that was seen and heard.

And many Native American survivors here in the U.S. would like to see him -- that's the next step -- do that same apology here in the U.S.

Many Native Americans -- also, this was brought up today in reaction -- is that an apology is the first step of healing.

We heard this over and over again from many folks who were present and those who are advocates in this arena.

An apology is that first step in healing, Geoff, acknowledging a dark history, forgotten chapter of the U.S. history.

It's not just Native American history.

This is all of our history.

Deb Parker of the Native -- NABS, the healing coalition that has been working on this issue, would like to see, I know, more money spent for language, cultural revitalization.

These very things that were stripped from generations of people has left a gap in the knowledge and the passing to younger generations.

It was very powerful today to see people, not just Native elders, but also young people, teenagers.

Those folks, there's a gap in knowledge, and that needs to be closed, and the only way to do that is with funding for cultural revitalization programs and language programs.

There's many folks who've never talked about this history, and I really think Biden's stepping forward, speaking of it, we cannot underestimate how powerful that is to be acknowledged.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dana Hedgpeth of The Washington Post, thanks so much for being with us.

We appreciate it.

DANA HEDGPETH: Thank you for having me, Geoff.

Good to see you.