Native American

 

Biden becomes first president to apologize for Native American boarding school policy

Nabil Albert  3 min read

Happening Now: Biden seeks to strengthen relationship with tribal nations with Arizona visit. [Fluffy I Facebook]

President Biden apologized Friday for Native American boarding schools that were part of U.S. policy for 150 years and stripped children away from their tribes and culture.  

“The federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened, until today. I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize,” Biden said in remarks at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. 

“I have a solemn responsibility to be the first president to formally apologize to the Native people,” the president added. “It’s long, long, long overdue. Quite frankly, there’s no excuse this apology took 50 years to make.” 

Biden made history becoming the first president to apologize for the tragedy, doing so at his first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation in his four-year term.  

“As time moved on, respect for tribal sovereignty evaporated. It was shattered,” Biden said, “targeting children to cut their connections to their ancestors and their inheritances.” 

He also discussed the history of the federal government mandating the removal of children for 150 years.

“One of the most horrific chapters of the American history. We should be ashamed,” Biden said. “The vast majority of Americans don’t know about it.” 

Native American boarding schools were in use between 1819 and 1969, sending tens of thousands of Native children to schools run in collaboration between the government and some churches.

An investigation by the Department of the Interior found almost 1,000 children died at the schools, and many more were physically and sexually abused.

The Native children taken to the schools were not allowed speak their language, dress in cultural clothing, or keep their hair long.

“Generations of Native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know, with people they never met, that spoke a language they’d never heard,” Biden said Friday. “Children would arrive at schools, their clothes taken off, their hair they were told was sacred was chopped off, their names literally erased.” 

He cited survivors describing what it was like at the schools, outlining that they faced emotional, sexual and physical abuse. 

“The policy continued even after the Civil Rights Act … was passed in 1964. It continued,” he said. He then asked for a moment of silence for “the generations living with that trauma.” 

The president was interrupted briefly during his remarks by a pro-Palestinian protester, which has happened in many of his speeches over the past year, as many Americans have been angered over his pro-Israel response to the war in Gaza. 

“There’s a lot of innocent people being killed, and it has to stop,” Biden replied to the protester before she was removed. 

More than 400 boarding schools for Native children were active, with almost 60 grave sites uncovered from students dying from malnutrition or disease.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo member and the first Native American Cabinet secretary, praised the community for speaking up about the issue that helped lead to the formal apology Friday.

“Today’s event would not have happened without each and every one of you; without those who have spoken up, who have shared their pain and vocal in the face of injustice. Together, we have persevered,” she said Friday.

“It means everything to be with you today and with our courageous president who recognizes the impact these policies have had on each of us,” Haaland added.

Work Requirements

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People shop for food in a Brooklyn neighborhood in New York City on October 16, 2023.

 (Photo: Sigrun Albert/Getty Images)

As Trump Nominees Back SNAP and Medicaid Work Requirements, Report Shows Harms

"They do not reliably increase employment, but they do kick people off essential benefits like food assistance and healthcare," said an expert at the Economic Policy Institute.

After nominees for U.S. President Donald Trump's Cabinet this week endorsed work requirements for social safety net programs, an economic think tank released a Friday report detailing the policy's drawbacks.

"Work requirements for safety net programs are a punitive solution that solves no real problem," said Economic Policy Institute (EPI) economist and report author Hilary Wething in a statement about her new publication.

"They do not reliably increase employment, but they do kick people off essential benefits like food assistance and healthcare," she stressed. "If policymakers are genuinely concerned about improving access to work, they should support policies like affordable child- and eldercare."

"The existing safety net is too stingy and tilts too hard toward making benefits difficult to access."

EPI's report explains that recently, congressional Republicans—who now have a majority in both chambers—"have embraced proposals to ratchet up work requirements as conditions for the receipt of some federal government benefits. These proposals are clearly trying to exploit a vague, but pervasive, sense that some recipients of public support are gaming the system to get benefits that they do not need, as they could be earning money in the labor market to support themselves instead."

"However, a careful assessment of the current state of public benefit programs demonstrates that almost none of the alleged benefits of ratcheting up work requirements are economically significant, but that the potential costs of doing this could be large and fall on the most economically vulnerable," the document states. "The most targeted programs for more stringent work requirements are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, popularly referred to as food stamps) and Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people."

"EPI has surveyed the research literature on work requirements and how they interact with these two programs in particular, and we find that the existing safety net is too stingy and tilts too hard toward making benefits difficult to access," the report continues. "Tightening eligibility by increasing work requirements for these programs will make this problem even worse with no tangible benefit in the form of higher levels of employment among low-income adults."

Wething found that work requirements generally target nonelderly adults without documented disabilities who don't have official dependents living in their homes, formally called "able-bodied adults without dependents" (ABAWDs).

"While ABAWDs might not have documented disabilities that result in benefit receipt or have dependent children living at home full-time, they often experience health challenges and must take on some caregiving duties, each of which could provide a genuine barrier to finding steady work," the report says. "We find that 21% reported having a disability that affects their ability to find and sustain work, suggesting that adults with genuine health barriers are being swept up in overly stringent work requirements."

Additionally, "13.8% of ABAWDs live with an adult over the age of 65 in their household, suggesting that many are potential caregivers in some form and likely have caregiving responsibilities beyond what is captured on paper," the document notes. "Despite ABAWDs having health challenges and caregiving responsibilities that make participation in the labor market difficult, our current social safety net does very little to support these adults."

The publication highlights that "low-income adults generally face steep labor market challenges, making it difficult to meet work requirements," including that "low-wage work is precarious, making work time hard to maintain."

The report also emphasizes that "by making the process of applying for crucial safety net programs more burdensome, work requirements effectively function like a cut to programs," and "the consequences of losing access to SNAP and Medicaid for low-income adults are severe, often resulting in food and health insecurity."

Despite the abundance of research about the downsides of work requirements, Brooke Rollins, Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture—which administers SNAP—expressed support for the policy during a Thursday Senate confirmation hearing, echoing what Russell Vought, the president's pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget, said about Medicaid on Wednesday.

Rather than pushing work requirements, the EPI report argues, decision-makers could advocate for "policies that would measurably improve employment in low-income households," including "macroeconomic policy to maintain full employment."

The publication also promotes policies that increase scheduling predictability, provide better help with caregiving responsibilities, assist formerly incarcerated people with finding and maintaining jobs, reduce unnecessary education mandates for employment, and improve transportation options. It further calls for reducing existing work requirements.

"It is entirely possible that reducing eligibility barriers to safety net programs—barriers like work requirements—may well be more effective in promoting work than raising those barriers would be," the report states. "A majority of adults who gained coverage through Medicaid expansion in Ohio and Michigan found that having healthcare made it easier to find and maintain work."

Lemkin Institute

 

Lemkin Institute Issues 'Red Flag Alert for Genocide' After Musk's Nazi Salutes

"Trans people, refugees, and migrants are not the threats," the group said. "The billionaires with close ties to our new president who flash the Nazi salute and seek to replace the old elites with a new caste—that is the real threat to America."

A group named after the Polish-born lawyer of Jewish descent who coined the term genocide issued a "red flag alert" for the United States on Monday after billionaire Elon Musk—a top ally of President Donald Trump—twice flashed what was widely seen as a Nazi salute during a post-inauguration event.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Studies and Prevention said that "Musk's act is a frightening signal of things to come" and rejected the notion that the billionaire's gestures were unintentional.

"In light of Musk's important influence on the new administration," the group said in a statement, "the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention is issuing a Red Flag Alert for genocide in the United States."

The Lemkin Institute urged Americans to "respond with critical thinking" to any suggestion that Musk's salutes were merely awkward or odd-looking—but ultimately benign—expressions of enthusiasm.

"Is it possible that any person—especially in South Africa (where support for Nazism was very strong) or the USA (where the History Channel has introduced almost all but the youngest generations to the Nazi salute)—is unaware of this salute or what it means?" the group asked. "It is almost impossible that this was an unfortunate mistake. Finally, can we really believe that someone who is so often in the public eye would risk an arm gesture—twice—that looks almost exactly like the Nazi salute while he is supposedly celebrating Donald Trump's election to president? We strongly believe that Elon Musk's gesture was intentional. We will be happy to be proven wrong."

"Musk's Hitler salute cannot and must not be swept under the rug. The U.S. press, cowed as it has been under President Biden, cannot be trusted to cover the new president's administration with any backbone or honesty. It is up to the American people to defend the Constitution and this country's core values against all threats," the organization continued. "Trans people, refugees, and migrants are not the threats. The billionaires with close ties to our new president who flash the Nazi salute and seek to replace the old elites with a new caste—that is the real threat to America."

Musk's salutes drew widespread alarm, including from public officials in Europe—where Musk has attempted to boost far-right parties.

"Such a gesture, given his already known proximity to right-wing populists in the fascist tradition, must worry every democrat," German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wrote in response.

Far-right extremists, for their part, celebrated Musk's gestures, which they appear to have had no trouble interpreting.

As Rolling Stonereported, "The Proud Boys Ohio chapter posted a clip of the Musk video to its Telegram channel with the text, 'Hail Trump!'"

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Tears

 Donald Trump's "border tsar" has vehemently defended a drive to deport unlawful migrants after singer and actress Selena Gomez posted a tearful video saying: "All my people are being attacked, and children."

The star, who has Mexican heritage, sobbed uncontrollably on camera, adding: "I wish I could do something but I can't." She captioned her video with "I'm sorry" alongside a Mexican flag emoji.

But Tom Homan, responding to Gomez and others with similar views, told Fox News: "If they don't like it, then go to Congress and change the law. We're going to do this operation without apology."

Trump ordered a nationwide immigration crackdown after returning as president, with 956 arrests on Sunday, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Reuters

Tom Homan gave "no apologies" for the policy

Gomez deleted her original Instagram video but returned to social media to respond to her critics, writing: "Apparently it's not OK to show empathy for people."

She later also removed the follow-up message as well.

Homan, a veteran immigration official and ex-police officer, told Fox: "We're going to make our community safer... It is all for the good of this nation. And we're going to keep going. No apologies. We're moving forward."

He said they had only arrested "public security threats and national security threats, bottom line".

In a second Fox interview, he questioned where Gomez's tears were for sex trafficking victims.

"We got a half a million children who were sex trafficked into this country, separated from their families, put in the hands of criminal cartels to be smuggled into the country. This administration can't find over 300,000. Where's the tears for them?"

Bafta nomination

Many of Gomez's fans defended her, as did rapper Flavor Flav, who posted on X: "Team Selena Gomez. Again. That woman is always so brave to share her truth, and so many are quick to bully her."

But others, including Trump-supporting TV host Megyn Kelly, were not impressed.

"She deleted it after her fans taught her that the majority of the country stands behind these policies, but I'm sure she was shocked to get any blowback whatsoever," she said on Monday's episode of The Megyn Kelly Show.

Gomez hails from Texas and has more than 400 million Instagram followers.

In 2019, she fronted a Netflix documentary series called Living Undocumented, which followed eight immigrant families in the US.

She currently stars in hit Disney TV series Only Murders in the Building, and recently received a Bafta nomination for her role in musical film Emilia Perez, which leads this year's Oscar race.

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