President Joe Biden’s first trip to Indian Country was to the Gila River Indian Community in October to formally apologize for the atrocities caused by the U.S. Indian boarding school system.

Biden, along with other federal officials, including leaders from the Interior Department, traveled to the Gila Crossing Community School in Laveen on October 25. Area tribal leaders, including those of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, attended the historic event. 

From 1869 through the 1960s, countless Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities and taken to boarding schools established by the U.S government and local churches. As a result of the mass atrocities conducted by the federal government under the philosophy of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” the true number of Indigenous children lost to boarding schools may never be accurately tabulated. 

In 2022, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland released their investigative report, “Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative,” which revealed their findings regarding the traumas boarding schools caused from 1819 to 1969. 

O’odham Action News first reported on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative findings earlier this year in the March 7 issue. The article included coverage of the February 13 Senate hearing regarding Senate Bill 1723/H.R. 7227, otherwise known as a bill to establish a “Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act.”

On July 30, the Interior Department published volume 2 of its Federal Indian Boarding School Investigative Report, which included new discoveries of more U.S. boarding schools and additional Indigenous children lost to the tragedies. “These policies caused enduring trauma for Indigenous communities,” said Haaland at the time. 

President Biden’s October visit was his first to Indian Country. His wife, First Lady Jill Biden, visited Indian Country 10 times during Biden’s presidency. The last U.S. presidential visit to Indian Country was when President Barack Obama visited Bristol Bay, Alaska, in 2015. Obama also visited the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. 

As part of the welcoming, traditional singers and dancers from the Gila River Indian Community and the Tohono O’odham Nation performed. The SRPMIC group Birds Singing and Dancing by the River helped to welcome the guests and close out the ceremony. 

Haaland was introduced by Miss Gila River 2024-2025 Susanna Osife. “Today, we welcome President Joe Biden to the ancestral homelands of the Pima and Maricopa peoples,” began Secretary Haaland. “Every day, but particularly today, I think of the ancestors. We’re here because they persevered. In the air we breathe and the land we walk on. We tell those stories because Native American history is American history.” 

In the moments leading up to Biden’s speech, Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis thanked everyone in attendance and introduced President Biden. “We are here to address the past and take the first difficult and necessary steps to begin the healing,” Governor Lewis said. 

Once President Biden was at the podium, he addressed the audience, seated out on the football field. Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Vice-President Ricardo Leonard and Council members Jacob Butler and Mikah Carlos were in attendance. Additionally, select students and staff from the Salt River Schools and the Accelerated Learning Academy were invited to attend. 

“I say this with all sincerity: This, to me, is one of the most consequential things I’ve ever had an opportunity to do in my whole career and as president of the United States. It’s an honor, a genuine honor to be in this special place on this special day,” began Biden. 

He detailed the tragedies that occurred at federal boarding schools, highlighting how Indigenous children were stripped, literally and metaphorically, of their identities, language, culture and families. “Children would arrive at schools. Their clothes taken off. Their hair that they were told was sacred was chopped off. Their names literally erased and replaced by a number or an English name,” Biden said. “It’s long, long, long overdue. Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make. 

“After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program, but the federal government has never formally apologized for what happened until today. I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize! And it’s long overdue.”

Moments later, a protestor shouted directly at Biden, highlighting the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. “What about the people in Gaza? What about the people in Palestine, huh?” she yelled as she was escorted away by Gila River Police and the Secret Service. An additional protestor then stood up and held up a poster which read, “There are still babies in mass graves, your apology means nothing.” She too was escorted out by officials. 

The audience let out groans and boos at the momentary interruption, but Biden stated to the crowd as the protestors were being apprehended, “Let her talk. Let her go. There’s a lot of innocent people being killed and it has to stop.”

As Biden neared the end of his speech, he extended his gratitude to the Indigenous individuals who have served in the military. “The whole of America should know; all Americans should know [that] Indigenous people volunteer to serve in the United States military five times more than any other single group. Five times. Many having paid the ultimate sacrifice in every war since our founding,” he said. 

“I know no apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy. But today, we’re finally moving forward into the light. For too long, this nation sought to silence the voices of generations of Native children, but now your voices are being heard. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you.”