Generations of Trauma: Biden’s Apology Sparks Reflection on the Legacy of Native American Boarding Schools

On Oct. 25, President Joe Biden formally apologized to Native Americans for the federally funded boarding schools that took Indigenous children from their families, abused them, and forced them to assimilate. These schools operated from 1819 through the 1970s.

President Biden called this time “one of the most horrific chapters in American history.” Throughout the U.S., there were over 500 Native American boarding schools — several in the Pacific Northwest. According to an investigative report released by the U.S. Department of the Interior, there were 15 in Washington (17 according to the criteria of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition). 

“Kids were told that it was bad to be Indian, to adhere to Indian customs,” said Sasha Harmon, professor emerita of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. “It meant dropping their native language, ways of dressing, all kinds of ways of conducting themselves. Much of that had to be coerced — made to happen by pretty harsh discipline.”

A few of the schools that were in our region include the Tulalip Indian School on the Tulalip reservation and the Puyallup Indian School (later named Cushman Indian School), which is now the site of Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma. These two were small Catholic mission schools that evolved into restrictive, federally run government schools. 

Young Indigenous students would be punished severely for things like speaking their native language, and generations of Indigenous families suffered mental, physical, and sexual abuse at these schools. Disease would often run rampant, and a large number of Indigenous children across the country died in Indian boarding schools, including 60 reported deaths in the Pacific Northwest.

Cecile Hansen, chairwoman of the Duwamish Tribal Council, says her mother went to the Chemawa Indian School in Oregon. What happened at the school affected her for the rest of her life, Hansen says. 

“She cared about all of us … but she wasn’t the huggy-huggy mom. She wasn’t affectionate,” Hansen said. “[The school] set a pattern for her.”

Even the present generation can suffer from intergenerational trauma — when the effects of a trauma are passed down from one generation to the next. Harmon recalls taking her students to the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) to see an exhibit about the schools, and one student being unable to participate because it was too painful to look at. 

“These are not her words, but essentially my understanding is that [her] mother’s problems as a mother traced to the fact that she went to the boarding school,” Harmon said. “When you take kids out when they’re quite young, and sometimes they don’t get a chance to go home, or they can only go home for a short time in the summer, they not only don’t learn their elders’ culture, but they don’t learn how to be in a family, and how to be parents.” 

The federal apology is symbolic, and Hansen says she was pleased to hear it when it came out, but there’s still work to be done. 

“Across the nation, tribes aren’t being taken care of — no food, no land, no water. That’s still going on today,” Hansen said. 

In addition to the formal apology, the Department of Interior’s investigative reports also recommend investing in violence prevention and community healing, building a national memorial, returning former federal boarding school sites to Native nations, and more. No other actions or plans have yet been released to the public.