Air Force One flies over Tempe as President Biden prepares to issue an apology to local tribal leaders.
PHOENIX – President Joe Biden’s arrival in Phoenix marks a few firsts for the President and for our country.
It’s the first visit to Arizona for Biden since he announced he was not running for re-election in July.
Biden is speaking to the Gila River Community tomorrow morning, and he will be formally apologizing for the country’s role in the abusive Native American boarding school system that took some 18,000 Indigenous children away from their families.
The system, which was in place for roughly 150 years and aimed to assimilate Native American kids, reportedly led to nearly 1,000 deaths.
This will be the first time a U.S. President has apologized for the government’s role, which some have called a form of genocide, but there is no word yet if any formal action will follow the apology.
President Joe Biden arrives in Phoenix to campaign
President Biden is in Arizona to issue a historic apology to the local Native American community and help campaign for Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. FOX 10’s Nicole Krasean has more.
“I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago to make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years, that’s why I’m going, that’s why I’m headed West,” Biden said before his arrival.
The Democrats have been making an effort to reach out to Native American voters in this election.
Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz visited the Gila River Indian Community a few weeks ago, and Walz is set to visit Window Rock in Navajo Nation on Saturday.
In the 2020 election, some Native communities voted 90% for Biden, who went on to win Arizona by less than 11,000 votes.
