NEWS

BIA Chief Apologizes

In an emotional speech marking the BIA's 175th anniversary, Kevin Grover, a Pawnee Indian and head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs apologized for the BIA's:

legacy of racism and inhumanity that included massacres, forced relocations of tribes and attempts to wipe out Indian languages and cultures.
Grover recited a litany of wrongs the BIA inflicted on Indians since its creation. Estimates vary widely, but it is believed that the agency is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Indians.

"This agency participated in the ethnic cleansing that befell the Western tribes. It must be acknowledged that the deliberate spread of disease, the decimation of the mighty bison herds, the use of the poison 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 merely the inevitable consequences of the clash of competing ways of life. Children were brutalized in BIA-run boarding schools, Indian languages and religious practices were banned and traditional tribal governments were eliminated. Poverty, ignorance and disease have been the product of this agency's work. Never again will we attack your religions, your languages, your rituals or any of your tribal ways. Never again will we seize your children, nor teach them to be ashamed of who they are. Never again."

September, 2000 (Matt Kelley, Associated Press)