President Joe Biden marked his Friday visit to Arizona tribal communities with a historic apology. The commander in chief expressed remorse to the US government boarding school policies that harmed Native American communities.

“After 150 years, the United States government has finally stopped the program,” Biden said at Gila Crossing Community School in Arizona.

“But the federal government has never formally apologized for what happened — until today. I formally apologize as the President of the United States of America.”

He is the first president to apologize to Native Americans for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which took children as young as 4 years old away from their families and forced them into boarding schools.

“The pain he caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a stain on American history,” Biden said.

“We are a great nation. We are not erasing history. We are making history. We learn through history and remember so we can heal,” he said.

A pro-Palestine protester interrupted Biden midway through his remarks, and the US Secret Service rushed the person. Biden said: “Let her go. … A lot of innocent people are being killed,” before returning to his official address.

The president was well received by the Native American participants, but many in the audience felt the historic moment was merely a first step toward accepting a painful history.

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland praises Native American resilience

In her remarks, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland praised the resilience of Native Americans for preserving their culture. “We know the federal government has failed. It failed to annihilate our languages, traditions and ways of life,” she said. “It failed to destroy us because we persevere.” She is the first Native American woman to serve as Cabinet Secretary. “I recognize that this trauma was perpetrated by the agency I now lead,” she said.

Under Haaland’s leadership, the Department of the Interior released a report identifying 417 schools in 37 states, including at least eight in Utah and 47 in Arizona. The last department report about schools included eight recommendations, and an acknowledgment and an apology topped the list.

Arizona State University professor Otakuye Conroy-Ben said he thought the president’s apology for the mistakes of the boarding school era was “much needed and appreciated.”

She admitted that the morning schedule made her emotional. “My own parents were sent to boarding school, and I really wanted to be here today to hear that from the president,” she said.

But for others, Biden’s words were bittersweet. Caleigh Curley, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, and Eugene Sommers, a representative of the White Earth Nation, one of the six bands that make up the Chippewa Tribe of Minnesota, sat at a table inside the school at the end of the event.

Despite their gratitude to Biden and Haaland for the historic speech, both said they agree the president’s apology is just the beginning of a long road to healing. Sommers said scheduling the day brought up a lot of emotions for him associated with the history of his reservation. “Sometimes it’s hard to hear a lot about it, but it’s been really motivating to me that … we’re actually holding people accountable.”

A day full of heavy emotions for the Native American participants

Outside the school, Curley’s mother, Waukera Taylor, echoed similar sentiments. “There’s a lot of trauma that we’ve lived through, in terms of Indigenous people, and knowing that our grandparents went through a lot.”

Taylor’s family lost their Native American surname, or Hopi name, when her father, Wayne Taylor, was sent to boarding school.

“He is around 70 years old. He is trying to get his family name back,” she said. He also hopes to use his family’s Hopi name in the future.

“My grandparents – they’re not here anymore, but…they protected us and taught us everything we needed to know to carry on our indigenous ancestors,” Taylor said as her lips quivered. “It was really important to have my girls here so they can talk to their kids one day. I asked my youngest if she could call from work today, just so she could be here and witness it.”

Utah House Democratic Leader Angela Romero joined Biden and Haaland at the historic event. Calling the president’s apology “deeply meaningful,” Romero said she is “committed to honoring this history and working to support Utah’s indigenous communities,” according to a news release.

Biden’s visit to Arizona comes nearly 11 days before the 2024 election. The Grand Canyon State has drawn a number of politicians from both political parties as polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump tied, or Trump barely ahead . Biden won Arizona by just 10,000 votes in 2020.

Although neither Biden nor other speakers brought up the topic of the election, Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis hailed Biden as the “President of Indian Country” and applauded the historic investments Native Americans have received because of the Act infrastructure and the Inflation Reduction Act. . The Biden administration is responsible for sending $45 billion in resources to Native American communities — enough money to bring about “generational change,” Haaland said during a press briefing en route to Arizona.