Biden finally visited Indian Country, where he apologized for 150 years of residential school policies.

AVALANCHE VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden is apologizing for the “sin” on America’s soul for the trauma inflicted on Native Americans in federal residential schools.

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AVALANCHE VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden is using his long-promised first presidential visit to India to formally apologize to Native Americans on Friday for a government-run residential school system that for decades forcibly separated Native American children from their parents.

Democrats hope Biden’s visit to the lands of the Gila River Indian Community on the outskirts of metro Phoenix, Arizona, will also spur Vice President Kamala Harris turnout effort in key battleground state.

Biden, whose presidency is coming to an end, promised tribal leaders nearly two years ago that he would visit Indian Country.

The president, speaking to reporters Thursday before leaving for Arizona, said an apology for the U.S. government’s role in the abuse and neglect of Indigenous children was “something that should have been done a long time ago.” For decades, federal boarding schools According to the White House, they were used to assimilate children into white society.

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The moment will also give Biden an opportunity to tout his and Harris’ support for tribal nations, a group that has historically favored Democrats, in a state he won by just 10,000 votes in 2020.

Race between Harris and former President Donald Trump they are expected to be equally close, and both campaigns are doing their best to boost turnout among core supporters.

“There’s a turnout grab in the race right now,” said Mike O’Neill, a nonpartisan pollster in Arizona. “Trend lines throughout have been remarkably consistent. The question is which candidate can carry voters in a race that looks set to be decided by a narrow margin.”

Harris and other Democrats have rarely used Biden on the campaign trail since he ended his re-election campaign in July.

But analysts say Biden could help Harris in her appeal to Native American voters, a group that lags behind others in turnout.

In 2020 took place spike in voter turnout on some tribal land in Arizona as Biden defeated Trump to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.

Biden is visiting in his official capacity, and a formal apology – long sought by the tribes – seems certain to attract the attention of Native Americans across the country.

At least 973 Native American children died as a result of US government operations. brutal boarding school system over a 150-year period ending in 1969, according to an Interior Department investigation that demanded an apology from the U.S. government.

At least 18,000 children, some as young as four years old, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools that sought to assimilate them.

“President Biden deserves credit for finally turning his attention to this issue and other issues affecting the community,” said Ramona Charette Klein, 77, a residential school survivor and enlisted member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “I really think this will reflect well on Vice President Harris, and I hope that momentum continues.”

She added that whoever becomes the next president must take concrete action and begin to repair the harm done to tribes by residential schools.

Democrats have stepped up their outreach to Native American communities.

Both Harris and her running mate, the governor of Minnesota. Tim Walzmet with tribal leaders in Arizona and Nevada this month. And Clinton, who replaced Harris, met last week in North Carolina with the chairman of the Lumbee tribe.

The Democratic National Committee recently launched a six-figure advertising campaign targeting Native American voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska through digital, print and radio advertising.

Democratic-Republican Ruben Gallegowho is locked in a competitive race with Republicans Kari Lake candidate for an open Arizona Senate seat, has visited all 22 federally recognized Arizona tribes.

Harris began a recent campaign rally in Chandler, near where the Gila River Reservation is located, by addressing a tribal leader.

She also reminded the crowd that she was the first vice president to visit the reservation. She and her husband, Doug Emhoff, visited the community last year.

“I firmly believe that the relationship between tribal nations and the United States is sacred … and that we must respect tribal sovereignty, trust treaty obligations and guarantee tribal self-determination,” Harris said.

The White House says Biden and Harris have accumulated significant experience working with Native Americans over the past four years.

He designated the sacred Avi Kwa Ame, desert mountain in Nevada and Baaj Nwaawjo Ita Kukweni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon in Arizona as national monuments and restored boundaries Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

In addition, the administration has directed nearly $46 billion in federal spending to tribal nations. The money helped bring electricity to a reservation that had never had electricity, expand access to high-speed Internet, improve drainage, build roads and much more.

Biden chose the former New Mexico representative. Deb Haaland to become his Secretary of the Interior, the first Native American appointed to a Cabinet position. Haaland is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.

She in turn ordered a comprehensive review in June 2021 of the problematic legacy of the federal government’s residential school policies, prompting Biden to issue a formal apology.

“He made commitments to Indian country and fulfilled every one of those commitments,” Haaland said.

Tom Reilly, co-director of the Center for Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, said the Harris and Trump campaigns and their allies have made significant microtargeting efforts in Arizona.

Harris, Reilly noted, is also focused on erasing Trump’s advantage among Mormon voters in the state, a group that has historically favored Republicans. Trump, meanwhile, is focusing on young men as the campaign tries to narrow Democrats’ lead with younger voters.

“They’re doing everything they can to see if they can get a few more votes here and there,” Reilly said. “The Indian community is one of the groups that Harris hopes will go beyond expectations and help make a difference.”

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Associated Press writer Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, contributed to this report.