Central IL Native American reacts to federal apology for abusive assimilation in boarding schools [Video]

BRIMFIELD (25News Now) – A local descendent of the Powhatan tribe is calling the awareness of an investigation against the federal government ‘healing’.

On Friday, a U.S. president finally apologized for a federal policy that forcibly separated generations of Indigenous children from their families and sent them to federally-backed boarding schools for 150 years.

“I formally apologize. This is long, long, long overdue,” said Pres. Joe Biden at a press conference in front of Native American people in Arizona. “Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.”

An investigation identified more than 400 institutions involved across 37 states. It identified the deaths of at least 973 Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children who attended the boarding schools. Many of them suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

Powhatan tribe descendant Waylon McCamy said history was swept under the rug and ignored.

“People knew that this happened, and they didn’t speak …