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US Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland answers questions from the media as she visits Arizona for a Biden-Harris canvassing launch in legislative district 9 on June 22, 2024, in Mesa.
Will US apologize for abuse at Native schools?
The American government should formally apologize for forcibly assimilating Native American children through residential schools where nearly 1,000 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children died, according to a report issued Tuesday by the US Department of the Interior.
The report was commissioned by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary. She was reportedly influenced by the experience of Canada in coming to terms with its history of running schools where many children were subject to physical and sexual abuse – schools designed to force Indigenous people to assimilate.
In 2010, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harperformally apologized to Canadian Indigenous people for the Canadians residential school system, which was initially inspired by American schools. Both countries had a formal policy of using the schools to stamp out Indigenous culture.
The report recommends that the United States engage with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on “best practices for healing and redress.” It also suggests a memorial to commemorate the children’s deaths and more help for Native communities to heal from intergenerational trauma.
Last month, American Catholic leaders apologized for the church’s role in the system.
President Joe Biden may want to follow in the footsteps of Harper and preside over a similar apology in Washington before he leaves office in January, although it is not clear whether consultations with Native groups could be conducted in time.
Graphic Truth: Where do most US state names come from?
One is "snow-covered." Another is named for the "virgin queen" of England. A third means "near the great-little mountain." Many of the names of US states come from Spanish, English, and French — the languages of the empires that colonized North America. But by far the greatest number derive from the languages of the Native American peoples who were displaced or killed as part of that sweep of history. Here's a look at where the names of the 50 US states come from.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of the graphic mistakenly identified Delaware as being a name of Native American/Indigenous origin. In fact, the state — like the river and bay — was named for the Baron of De La Warr, a British peerage title held by Thomas West, colonial governor of neighboring Virginia. History buffs will note that De La Warr is itself a title of French origin, but insofar as the state was named for a British lord, we have coded it as such.