LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden did something Friday that no other sitting American president has done: He apologized for the systemic abuse of generations of indigenous children endured in boarding schools at the hands of the federal government.

For 150 years, the US removed indigenous children from their homes and sent them to schools, where they were stripped of their cultures, histories and religions and beaten for speaking their languages.

“We should be ashamed,” Biden told a crowd of indigenous people gathered at the Gila River Indian community outside Phoenix, including tribal leaders, survivors and their families. Biden called the government-mandated system that began in 1819 “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” while acknowledging the decades of child abuse and widespread devastation left behind.

For many Native Americans, the long-awaited apology was a welcome acknowledgment of the government’s longstanding culpability. Now, they say, words must be followed by actions.

Bill Hall, 71, of Seattle, was 9 years old when he was taken from his Tlingit community in Alaska and forced into boarding school, where he endured years of physical and sexual abuse that led to many years of of shame. When he first heard that Biden was going to apologize, he wasn’t sure he would be able to accept it.

“But as I watched, the tears started to flow from my eyes,” Hall said. “Yes, I accept his apology. Now, what can we do next?”

Rosalie Whirlwind Soldier, a 79-year-old citizen of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, said she felt “a tingle in my heart” and was glad the historic wrong had been recognised. However, she remains saddened by the irreversible harm done to her people.

Private Whirlwind suffered severe abuse at a school in South Dakota that left her with a lifelong painful limp. The Catholic-run, government-subsidized facility took away her faith and tried to erase her Lakota identity by cutting off her long braids, she said.

“Sorry is not enough. Nothing is enough when you hurt a human being,” she said. “An entire generation of people and our future has been destroyed for us.”

The schools were designed both to assimilate Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children and to dispossess tribal nations of their land, according to an Interior Department investigation launched by Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead the agency .

Introducing Biden on Friday, Haaland said that while the official apology was an acknowledgment of a dark chapter, it was also a celebration of indigenous resilience: “Despite everything that’s happened, we’re still here.”

Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna, commissioned the investigation in 2021. It documented the cases of more than 18,000 indigenous children, 973 of whom were killed. Both the report and independent researchers say the total number was much higher.

The report came with several recommendations taken from school survivor testimony, including mental health treatment resources and language revitalization programs.

The Governor of the Gila River Indian Community, Stephen Roe Lewis, noted that Biden has committed to complying with these recommendations.

“It creates the framework for addressing past policies for boarding schools,” he said.

Benjamin Mallott, president of the Alaska Native Federation, who is Lingít, said in a statement that the apology must be accompanied by meaningful action: “This includes revitalizing our languages ​​and cultures and bringing home our native children who have not yet been returned . so that they can be buried with their families and in their communities.”

That view is shared by Victoria Kitcheyan, chairwoman of the Winnebago tribe in Nebraska, who sued the US military in January, demanding the return of the remains of two children who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

“That healing doesn’t begin until the tribes have a way to bring their children home to be buried,” Kitcheyan said.

In an interview Thursday, Haaland said Interior is still working with several tribal nations to repatriate the remains of several children who were killed and buried at a boarding school.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who last year introduced a bill to establish a truth and healing commission to address the damage caused by the boarding school system, called the apology “a historic step toward long-overdue accountability for the harm done Native Children and their communities.”

And Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who is vice chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, also praised Biden, saying she reinforces the need for a truth and healing commission.

“This acknowledgment of the pain and injustices inflicted on Indigenous communities — while long overdue — is an extremely important step toward healing,” Murkowski said in a statement.

As Biden spoke Friday, tribal members rose to their feet, many recording the moment on their phones. Some wore traditional clothing and others had shirts supporting Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

There was a moment of silence, formal apologies and then an eruption of applause.

At the end of Biden’s remarks, the crowd rose again. There were cries of, “Thank you, Joe.”

Hall, the Seattle boarding school survivor, and others have long advocated for resources to repair the damage. He worries that tribal nations will continue to struggle with healing if the government doesn’t step up, and he still sees a long road ahead.

“It took a lifetime to get here. It will take a lifetime to get to the other side,” he said. “And that’s the really sad part. I will not see it in my generation.”

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By GRAHAM LEE BREWER and SEJAL GOVINDARAO Associated Press. Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.