PHOENIX (AP) – President Joe Biden He is making use of his long-promised first presidential visit to India Apologize properly Friday to Native Americans for a government-run boarding school system that has forcibly separated Indian children from their parents for decades.
Democrats also hope Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community’s land on the outskirts of metro Phoenix in Arizona will provide a boost. Vice President Kamala Harris’ Voting efforts in a key battleground state.
Biden, whose presidency is ending, had promised tribal leaders nearly two years ago to visit Indian country.
Speaking to reporters before departing for Arizona on Thursday, the president said an apology for the U.S. government’s role in the abuse and neglect of Native children was “something that should have been done a long time ago.” For decades, federal Boarding schools According to the White House, it was used to integrate children into white society.
In a state he won by just 10,000 votes in 2020, the moment will give Biden a chance to spotlight his and Harris’ support for tribal nations, a group that has historically favored Democrats.
Competition between Harris and Former President Donald Trump It’s expected to be similarly close, and both campaigns are doing their best to boost turnout among base supporters.
said Mike O’Neill, a nonpartisan pollster based in Arizona. “Trends across the board are remarkably consistent. The question is which candidate is going to convert their voters in a race decided by narrow margins.
Biden has been used sparingly on the campaign trail by Harris and other Democrats since ending his re-election campaign in July.
But analysts say Biden could help Harris in his appeal with Native American voters — who have trailed others in turnout.
In 2020, a Increase in voter turnout Biden beat Trump on some tribal lands in Arizona, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.
Biden is making the visit in his official capacity, and the formal apology — which the tribe has long sought — is sure to draw attention among Native Americans across the country.
At least 973 Native American children died in the US government Bad boarding school system During the 150-year period ending in 1969, the U.S. government should apologize, according to an Interior Department investigation.
At least 18,000 children, some as young as 4, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools that sought to integrate them.
“President Biden deserves credit for finally bringing attention to this issue and other issues affecting the community,” said Ramona Charette Klein, 77, a boarding school survivor and member of Chippewa’s Turtle Mountain Band. “I think it reflects well on Vice President Harris, and I hope this momentum continues.”
He said the next president must follow concrete action and begin to remedy the devastation boarding schools have caused to tribals.
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Democrats have stepped up to Native American communities.
Both Harris and his running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walls, met with tribal leaders in Arizona and Nevada this month. And Clinton, who has been serving as Harris’ surrogate, met with the chief of the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina last week.
The Democratic National Committee recently was initiated A six-figure ad campaign targeting Native American voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska through digital, print and radio ads.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is running against Republican Cary Lake for Arizona’s open Senate seat, has also visited Arizona’s 22 federally recognized tribes.
Harris opened a recent campaign rally in Chandler, near the Gila River Reservation, by calling out the tribal leader.
He also reminded the crowd that he was the first Vice President to visit the reservation. She and husband Doug Emhof moved to the community last year.
“I firmly believe that the relationship between tribal nations and the United States is sacred … and we must respect tribal sovereignty, embrace our belief in treaty obligations and affirm tribal self-determination,” Harris said.
The White House says Biden and Harris have made significant progress with Native Americans over the past four years.
He ordained the saint Avi me, A desert mountain in Nevada and the Baja Navajo Ida Kukweni—the ancestral footprints of the Grand Canyon in Arizona—are reclaimed as national monuments and boundaries. Bears National Monument In Utah.
In addition, the administration has paid nearly $46 billion in federal spending to tribal nations. The money has helped bring electricity to places that have not yet had access to electricity, expand high-speed internet access, improve water sanitation, build roads and more.
Biden chose former New Mexico Rep. Deb Holland as his Interior Secretary, the first Native American to be appointed to a Cabinet post. Holland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.
He ordered a comprehensive review of the complex legacy of the federal boarding school policies in June 2021, leading Biden to issue a formal apology.
“He made commitments to Indian Country, and he followed through on every one of those commitments,” Holland said.
Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for a Free and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, said the Harris and Trump campaigns — and their allies — have put a significant amount of effort into micro-targeting in Arizona.
Harris, Reilly noted, is a historically Republican-leaning group focused on chipping away at Trump’s advantage among Mormon voters in the state. Trump, meanwhile, is paying special attention to young people, with the campaign trying to reduce the Democrats’ advantage with young voters.
“They’re pulling out every stop to see if they can wrestle a few more votes here and there,” Reilly said. “The Indian community is one of those groups that Harris hopes to do very well and help make a difference.”
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Associated Press writer Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma contributed to this report.
