On Friday, October 25, 2024, at a ceremony at the Gila Crossing Community School outside of Phoenix, President Joe Biden formally apologized to Native Americans for “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” the government-funded boarding schools where Indigenous children were forced to abandon their history, culture, and language over a 150-year time span. 

“Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 150 years to make,” Biden said, after calling for a moment of silence to “remember those lost and the generations living with that trauma.” 

About 18,000 children were taken from families and forced to attend over 400 boarding schools across 37 states or then-territories in the time period of 1819 through 1969. An official government report issued this summer stated that at least 973 children died at these federal boarding schools.  

“As president, I believe it is important that we do know there were generations of Native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know, with people they never met, who spoke a language they had never heard,” Biden said. 

“Native communities silenced—their children’s laughter and play were gone,” he added. “… Children abused emotionally, physically and sexually abused, forced into hard labor, some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents, some left for dead and unmarked graves.” 

Children who returned home, the president added, were “wounded in body and spirit.” 

Biden said that “no apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy.” But, he added, “we’re finally moving forward into the light.” 

IAIA President Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee Nation) said, “This is an important step in acknowledging the legacy of trauma the boarding school system triggered for Native Americans. Although no formal apology can erase the generations of harm that this system created, at IAIA we believe that acknowledgment of the issue will facilitate healing in our communities. We encourage our students to express their response to this trauma through their creativity, bringing this long-held and deep-seated pain to light through the healing power of art, culture, and community connectivity.” 

IAIA is not only the birthplace of contemporary Native American art, it has also been the educational home for acclaimed, innovative artists, writers, filmmakers, performers, and leaders since 1962. Founded on the campus of the former Santa Fe Indian Boarding School—a site marked by historical harm and trauma—IAIA evolved into a school and curriculum dedicated to celebrating Indigenous agency, resilience, and self-determination. Our mission of empowering creativity and leadership has prepared generations of Indigenous students, representing hundreds of Tribal Nations, with the skills, knowledge, and experience to preserve, protect, and perpetuate the very Native cultures, arts, and lifeways Indian Boarding Schools actively, but unsuccessfully, worked to destroy.  

Image: Manuelita Lovato (Kewa Pueblo) in front of the IAIA Administration Building, circa 1964. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of IAIA Research Center of Contemporary Native Arts (RCCNA). IAIARG03/01.15-0001.001.