Indian Affairs leader issues sweeping apology

In a moving speech before employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Friday, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover apologized for the agency's past actions that have devastated Indian communities.

The occasion was the agency's 175th anniversary celebration at Interior Department headquarters in Washington.

"Today, I stand before you as the leader of an institution that in the past has committed acts so terrible that they affect, diminish and destroy the lives of Indian people decades later-generations later," Gover said.

"In truth, this is no occasion for celebration," Gover said. "Rather, it is a time for reflection, for contemplation, a time for sorrowful truths to be spoken. A time for contrition."

Before BIA can look to the future with confidence, employees must first reconcile themselves to the fact that BIA's past actions have at various times profoundly harmed the community it was meant to serve, he said. From its very beginnings, the Office of Indian Affairs was an instrument by which the United States enforced its ambitions against the Indian nations and the Indian people who stood in its path.

"In these more enlightened times, it must be acknowledged that the deliberate spread of disease, the decimation of the mighty bison heard, the deliberate use of alcohol to destroy mind and body, and the cowardly killing of women and children made for tragedy on a scale so ghastly that it cannot be dismissed as the inevitable consequence of the clash of two ways of life," Gover said.

The agency created a situation of tribal dependence on the agency for services, and then "set out to destroy all things Indian," he said. "This agency forbade the speaking of Indian languages; prohibited the conduct of traditional religious activity; outlawed tribal provisional government; and made Indian people ashamed of who they were.

"Even in this era of self determination, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs is at long last serving as an advocate for Indian people, in an atmosphere of mutual respect, the legacy of these misdeeds haunt us. The trauma of shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to the next and manifest itself in the alcoholism, drug abuse and violence that plagues Indian country. Many of our people live lives of unrelenting tragedy," Gover said.

"How many of the maladies suffered today in Indian country result from the failures of this agency? Poverty, ignorance and disease are the product of this agency's work."

Gover then issued an apology for his agency's actions.

"I do not speak today for the United States," he said. "That is the providence of the nation's elected leaders and I would not presume to speak on their behalf. I am empowered, however, to speak on behalf of this agency, and I am quite sure that the words that follow reflect the hearts of its 10,000 employees.

"Let us begin by expressing our profound sorrow for what this agency has done in the past.

"On behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I extend a formal apology to Indian people for the historical conduct of this agency. For the BIA employees today who did not commit these wrongs, we acknowledge that the institution we serve did. We accept this inheritance. And by accepting this legacy, we also accept the moral responsibility of putting things right," Gover said.

He pledged to begin a new era at BIA. "Never again will this agency stand silent when hate and violence are committed against Indians. Never again will we allow policies to proceed from the assumption that Indians possess less human genius than the other races. Never again will we be complicit in the theft of Indian property. Never again will we appoint false leaders who serve purposes other than the tribes'. Never again will we allow unflattering stereotypical images of Indian people to deface the halls of government. Never again will we attack your religions, your languages, your rituals, of any of your tribal ways. Never again will we teach your children to be ashamed of who they are.

"We cannot yet ask for forgiveness. Not while the burden of this agency's history lays so heavily on tribal communities. What we do ask is that together, we allow the healing to begin," he said.