FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2024
Press Contact: AKNWRC Communications Tel: (907) 378‑3339
media@aknwrc.org www.aknwrc.org
Statement from the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center on President Biden’s Apology for Indian Boarding Schools
FAIRBANKS, AK—The Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center (AKNWRC) uplifts President Biden’s formal public apology to Indigenous peoples for the federal government’s role in operating Indian boarding schools. This apology, the first ever from a sitting U.S. President, marks a significant step toward healing generational trauma in Alaska Native and American Indian communities. This long-awaited acknowledgment comes after decades of advocacy from tribal leaders and organizations across Alaska and the nation.
The boarding school system, which separated thousands of Alaska Native children from their families, Tribes, communities, and cultural practices, inflicted profound damage that continues to impact our communities today. From the late 1800s through the 1960s, the federal government and churches forced Alaska Native and American Indian children to attend these institutions, where many suffered physical, emotional, and cultural abuse. The presidential apology represents an essential recognition of this dark chapter in American history and its lasting effects on Native families and communities.
“While an apology cannot undo the generational trauma inflicted by the boarding school system, it represents a crucial step toward justice and healing,” said Tami Truett Jerue, Executive Director of AKNWRC. “We call on the federal government to follow this apology with meaningful action, including increased support and technical assistance for Native-led healing programs, language revitalization efforts, and resources to address the ongoing impacts of historical trauma in Tribal communities. The strength and resilience of Alaska Native peoples endure, and we remain committed to supporting our communities’ healing journey.”
In Alaska, Presbyterian missionaries established the first boarding school in Sitka in 1878. In total, more than thirty boarding schools were established in various regions of Alaska. Initially operated by Christian missionaries, these boarding schools were eventually taken over and operated by the federal government beginning at the turn of the 20th century.
In total, hundreds of thousands of American Indian and Alaska Native children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and churches. According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, Alaska Native and American Indian children were voluntarily or forcibly removed from their homes, families, and communities during this time and taken to schools far away where they were punished for speaking their Native language, banned from acting in any way that might be seen to represent traditional or cultural practices, stripped of traditional clothing, hair and personal belongings and behaviors reflective of their Native culture. They experienced treatment that, in many cases, constituted torture for speaking their Native languages.
About the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center:
Organized in 2015, the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center is a tribal nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence against women with Alaska’s 229 tribes and allied organizations. AKNWRC board members are Alaska Native women raised in Alaska Native Villages and have 153 years of combined experience in tribal governments, nonprofit management, domestic violence, and sexual assault advocacy (both individual crisis and systems), and grassroots social change advocacy at the local, statewide, regional, national, and international levels. AKNWRC’s philosophy is that violence against women is rooted in the colonization of Indigenous Nations.
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P.O. BOX 80382, Fairbanks, AK 99708
(907)328‑3990