Warm Springs Tribal Council chairman offers response to President Biden’s apology for Indian boarding schools injustice

WARM SPRINGS, Ore. (KTVZ) -- President Biden issued a formal presidential apology on Friday to Native American communities for the atrocities committed against Indigenous children and their families during a 150-year era of forced federal Indian boarding schools.

Jonathan W. Smith, Sr., Chairman, Tribal Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, issued this statement in response. 

"For generations, our people have carried the weight and suffering from this historical injustice carried out against us by the federal government and religious institutions. These boarding schools sanctioned unspeakable emotional, physical and cultural harm against us, forcing us to carry this pain in silence.

"We appreciate the President’s historic and long-overdue acknowledgement of these harms and the government’s formal apology. This is an important first step in our collective healing.

"But the true measure of these words will be in the actions that come from them. We look forward to working together on concrete commitments that demonstrate a genuine redress of this deliberate pain," Smith said.