UNITED STATES APOLOGIZES TO ALL INDIAN NATIONS

It was pure chance. A certain Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior and leader of the USA Bureau of Indian Affairs had written out an apology to ALL Indians. However, he was already packing his bags as the new administration of George W. Bush was coming in, and they would be removing all public reference to this astonishing (and historic) gesture.

One of the very last orders coming from President Clinton’s government was that the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) ring the last actions of the Second Millennium, they would read, and in public for the only time, America’s historic and indeed brave Apology to the First Nations. Thank you, America.

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Words spoken by the BIA prior to the ‘Document of Apology’

On Point Barrow, Alaska during the final actions of the 20th Century / 2nd millennium, 23rd January 2001. At the time of ‘Siqinnaatchiaq’ when the new sun returns. An old Korean War vintage military tent was set off alone, in the snow, and it was here that BIA Alaska director, Niles Cesar and supported by BIA Fairbanks director Sam Demientieff said these words following prior, and prior to delivering the official Apology.

“In March of 1824, President James Monroe established the Office of Indian Affairs in the Department of War. Its mission was to conduct the nation’s business with regard to Indian Affairs. We have come here today to mark the first 175 years of the institution now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

It is appropriate that we do so in the first year of a new century and a new millennium, a time when our leaders are reflecting on what lies ahead and preparing for those challenges. Before looking ahead, though, this institution must first look back and reflect on what it has wrought and, by doing so, come to know that this is no occasion for celebration; rather it is a time for reflection and contemplation, a time for sorrowful truths to be spoken, a time for contrition.

We must first reconcile ourselves to the fact that the works of this agency have at various times profoundly harmed the communities it was meant to serve. From the very beginning, the Office of Indian Affairs was an instrument by which the United States enforced its ambition against the Indian nations and Indian people who stood in its path. And so, the first mission of this institution was to execute the removal of the south eastern tribal nations. By threat, deceit, and force, these great tribal nations were made to march 1,000 miles to the west, leaving thousands of their old, their young and their infirm in hasty graves along the Trail of Tears.

As the nation looked to the West for more land, this agency participated in the ethnic cleansing that befell the western tribes. War necessarily begets tragedy; the war for the West was no exception. Yet, in these more enlightened times, it must be acknowledged that the deliberate spread of disease, the decimation of the mighty bison herds, the use of poison alcohol to destroy mind and body, and the cowardly killing of woman of children made for tragedy on a scale so ghastly that it cannot be dismissed as merely the inevitable consequence of the clash of competing ways of life. This agency and the good peoples in it failed in the mission to prevent the devastation. And so great nations of patriot warriors fell. We will never push aside the memory of unnecessary and violent death at places such as Sand Creek, the banks of the Washita River, and Wounded Knee.

Nor did the consequences of war have to include the futile and destructive efforts to annihilate Indian cultures. After the devastation of tribal economies and the deliberate creation of tribal dependence on the services provided by this agency, this agency set out to destroy all things Indian.

This agency forbade the speaking of Indian languages, prohibited the conduct of traditional religious activities, outlawed traditional government, and made Indian people ashamed of who they were. Worst of all, the Bureau of Indian Affairs committed these acts against the children entrusted to its boarding schools, brutalizing them emotionally, psychologically, physically and spiritually. Even in this era of self-determination, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs is at long last serving as an advocate for Indian people in an atmosphere of mutual respect, the legacy of these misdeeds haunts us. The trauma of shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to the next, and manifests itself in the rampant alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence that plague Indian country. Many of our peoples live lives of unrelenting tragedy as Indian families suffer the ruin of lives by alcoholism, suicides made of shame and despair, and violent death at the hands of one another. So many of the maladies suffered today in Indian country result from the failures of this agency. Poverty, ignorance, and disease have been a product of this agency’s work.

And so today I stand before you as the leader of an institution that in the past has committed acts so terrible that they infect, diminish and destroy the lives of Indian people decades later, generations later. These things occurred despite the efforts of many good people with good hearts who sort to prevent them. These wrongs must be acknowledged if the healing is to begin.