Coeur D'Alene Tribe reacts to President Biden's apology to Native Americans on behalf of the nation

COEUR D'ALENE — On Friday, President Biden addressed the nation apologizing on behalf of the nation to Native Americans for decades of abuse and neglect in federal boarding schools until 1969. 

Coeur D'Alene Tribal Chairman, Chief Allan, watched the address on Friday and told KREM 2 that the apology was a beautiful step in the right direction towards healing.

According to the U.S. Department of Interior, there were 17 boarding schools in Washington, seven schools in Idaho and 19 schools in Montana. If we look closer at those numbers, there were about five schools in eastern Washington: Fort Spokane, St. Francis Regis Mission, Colville Mission School, St. Mary's Mission and Tonasket Boarding School.

In Northern Idaho, there were four schools: Mary Immaculate Sacred Heart Mission, Nez Perce Boarding School, Fort Lapwai Training School and St. Joseph's Mission.

Chairman Allan says that his relatives including his yayat, or grandmother, were taken to Mary Immaculate Sacred Heart Mission where they were beaten with sticks, forced to cut their hair and had their mouth washed out with soap if they spoke their own language instead of English.

"We were not humans, we were animals... they thought if they rounded us all together and put us in school that they could do away with our culture" Chairman Allan said.

He says that while it's not a topic that everyone wants to have a conversation about, he is grateful for the President making the effort to acknowledge this piece of history.

"It memorializes what happened and says 'Yes, this happened to Indigenous people, and we are sorry for that, and let's make sure it doesn't happen again,'" Allan said.

This story was originally published by our news partners at KREM2 News.