Apology long overdue for U.S. Indian boarding schools, says former student

WARNING: This story contains details of experiences at residential schools.

A former student of assimilationist federal Indian boarding schools in the U.S. says Friday's presidential apology was long overdue.

"They should have done it years ago," said Rosie Yellowhair, 74, a member of the Navajo Nation originally from Steamboat, Ariz..

"I'm glad he did that, and I hope there is programs for people that have been hurt from it."

Yellowhair attended boarding schools from age four all the way through Grade 12, including the Steamboat, Keams Canyon and Phoenix boarding schools.

She recalled feeling lonely and trying to run away, being banned from speaking Navajo and suffering punishments that included having to scrub floors with a toothbrush, stand in the corner holding books and being physically hit in the ears.

The apology is a good first step but now there needs to be an effort to help people heal, said Yellowhair.

"I think it's a start," she said.

U.S. President Joe Biden formally apologized to Native Americans on Friday for the "sin" of the government-run system, which for decades forcibly separated children from their parents.

"It's a sin on our soul," Biden said in a visit to the Gila River Indian Community on the outskirts of Phoenix.

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

Biden spoke of the abuses and deaths of Native American children that resulted from the U.S. government's policies, noting that "while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing" and that great nations "must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are."

"I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did," Biden said.

"The federal Indian boarding school policy — the pain it has caused will only be a significant mark of shame, a blot on our record history. For too long, this all happened with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books, not taught in our schools."