2:02 pm ET
Dec 22, 2009


U.S. Offers An Official Apology to Native Americans

    • Wow, how meaningful. And won't cost a cent....


    • This apology to Native Americans is long overdue. It can't make up for the past but maybe, just maybe it wil make a difference for Native Americans as well as all other Americans.
      Ruth Beazer

    • Like the ill-conceived but oh so politically correct 1993 Apology to "Native" Hawaiians, this will lead to further costs and acrimony.
      The Akaka Bill seeks to do the same for so-called "Native Hawaiians" even though the kingdom that was overthrown was a fully integrated multi-cultural government with no special rights for groups with the magic blood(the 1993 Apology Resolution lied about this).
      This is a sad day for all Americans.



    • Sad to see there is so much racism out there still, Ha you should be ashamed it was the europeans that started this entire mess. They brought disease,slavery etc over. Learn your history you are showing your ignorance. A apoligy is the least that this govm't can do. It's nice to see that we finally have a President with morals and compassion for this country.

    • If you only knew the strugles of most indian tribes in this nation, the Juaneno Indian tribe in so Ca has been fighting disease and poverty for many years. They had there land and rights stripped from them, then forced into slavery. The Juaneno's built missions for the spaniard's then told to go intergrate into mainstream with little or nothing but the clothes on there back. Now they strugle for federal recognition, wich would give them back there soveriegn rights. There not asking for anything extra they just want back what was taken.

    • Who is this apology directed at? Dead people?

      Wrongs were done years ago, but the modern rationale for an apology has always been civil opportunism for modern people who claim abused ancestry. I'm sure I could find an ancestor who was wronged if I looked - where's my retribution?

      Bottom line is, Obama just loves to apologize to people. Nothing new here. I'm only wondering when he will apologize to America for his policies.



    • In response to ha -
      >" Now, I wonder when the American Indians will apologize to the white man for stealing their
      > women & children, & killing & torturing soldiers & civilians."












      If you doubt me, look at the research literature on the secondary trauma experienced by the children of holocaust survivors. Now imagine what that would be like if the NaziI's hadn't been defeated and the surviving Jews went into hiding to survive, and that might approximate what many native people have experienced.

    • To Jd: Where's your retribution? I'm sure we could find something to give down in North Carolina. Ignorant people like you are the reason that Native People were officially allowed to be murdered, raped, lied to, stolen from, black mailed etc. Every act that was considered to be anti Christian were perpetraited against the Native People by the so called Christian white man. You are right, there's no direct corelation to what happened 500, 300, 200, 100 or even 10 years ago to the people living today. Classic narcissitic thinking that you and your ancestors could be the only ones ever wronged!


    • i ve heard lots of people say lots of things that sounded good and great....if its true then its good, but going on the past history of things, its all most likely just more of the same: smokescreen and lies. if they really mean it, let us see something, let us have some proof....step 1: FREE LEONARD PELTIER !!! then we can talk about step 2. you are still on indian land !


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    • I am a middle-aged white female, although I am a "mutt"...just as our President has admitted and am majoring in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. My elementary or high school curriculum never taught the truth and it's taken me decades to finally learn what really happened during the infancy of this country. Unless you are Native, I fail to understand how anyone could possibly attempt to understand or judge the depth of pain and suffering Native peoples have endured for centuries. I am thrilled that for however meaningful, this apology has finally been spoken. If my children had been forcefully taken away to boarding schools, my beliefs/ceremonies and food sources stripped, or my culture attacked with genocide attempts, I'm not sure how I could have survived.

    • Wow. This is a big step for the government.

    • After reading some of the other comments, I wish I hadn't commented earlier. Nothing will ever be good enough, and that's how some people want it. I have a relative like that.


      I also think its time to teach our children the truth about what we did to the indigenous people of this country. TRUTH isn't this one of the great principal's our government is based upon, we always tell our children to speak the TRUTH!!!

    • The assault on the Crow Creek Rez is proof of just how genuine the apology is. The people wanted to build a wind farm on the 7000+ acres but the feds don't want them to get ahead. People died there this winter because they couldn't pay the outrageous costs of electricity to heat their homes. More atrocities. The whole issue of the tribe owing taxes is disgusting. It seems the land was valued at about 4 1/2 million, the tax bill was supposed to be 3 1/2 million and the land was auctioned for 2 1/2 million. The tribe not only looses the land but apparently still owes a million to the feds. The average income is about $400 a month so just how does this work. This buried apology is meaningless. It could only have value if it were made a public statement and all perceived "debts" owed by Natives forgiven. And how about changing ALL school books to teach the truth. That could be a more positive step toward healing, especially for future generations, than some obscure apology

    • I think the comment from Obama was fine---but what the white man failed to do the so called indian tribes are doing to their own---check out the pechanga tribe in temecula california for disenrolling members--hey if the white man knew you just had to disenroll this would of been over along time ago. And many of these so called tribal members of pechanga are really adoptees from who knows where---are they even indian of any kind???

    • Are we really even apologizing to them? It really seems like just a waste of time and effort. While there is absolutely no doubt that what we did to the Natives was horrid, WE HAVE ALREADY APOLOGIZED. Native Americans are afforded rights that no other cultures we wronged get. For example, they are able to have their own tribal government and create their own laws, whether or not they comply with that particular state's laws, but you don't see any Hawaiians with that or even their own reservations. And, let's face it- why are we apologizing anyway? Every acre of land out there was once owned by somebody else, but was fought for and won by another party. You don't see the British apologizing to the real Indians for the years of discrimination and land plunder. Only America does that. It really is awful, but what was fought was a war. They fought just as hard as us, a fact often overlooked, but we had superior technoogy and won. They lost and thats the truth of the matter.

    • I was pleasently surprised by this apology from the US Govt. Some people don't like it...some do. Some say it's not enough others say it goes to far...I say it's a start. At least it recognizes atrocities never mentioned "officially" before. All of these flag wavers think they know something . Native Americans loved this country before it was a country. If we adopted their attitude of how to treat the earth, maybe global warming could be adressed. I salute Sen. Brownback and Dorgan


    • apology to native peoples of the united states
      "Does this mean working with unrecognized tribes as well.

      (b) Disclaimer- Nothing in this section--

      I am a Chinese, and I don't hate Mongolian. But if I am a Amerindian, I think I still hate European.

    • This is just like the United States, to bury an apology in a bill that will never be read buy the public, this is a shamefull act for shamefull deeds. I'm reminded of what the Prime Minister of Australia did when he issued an apology to the Native Austrailians, a least he did it in front of the entire parliament and public in Australia, wouldn't it be nice if our president had the same respect for the Native Americans in this country, instead of this shamefull responce.




      Mark Charles

    • I just heard of this apology today, 6 January 2013. I didn't know that the United States even had the courage to offer this, a half-hearted apology. I agree with others that the president of the United States needs to go before Congress and the American People and first and foremost before scores of Native Peoples assembled, to make a humble apology for the 500 plus years of occupation, and desolation laid on the true owners of this land. I'm sure that the good ol' US of A meant "well" with this, but it falls way short. Why doesn't this apology include a statement that says "You are free, totally." Let Hawaii go. Let the Lakota Republic go. Let the Dine go. Let ALL Native Nations leave the States and be true sovereign Nations of the world. The United States doesn't "share" this land with the Native People. The colonies and then the United States and Canada stole every square inch of land from them. Don't talk about sharing. What a shameful country we live in. How can anyone love or respect the United States and its' diabolical ways?

    • I support the apology. It's a step. However, the commenter crying for the US to "let go" the first nations seems to have forgotten..many of the biggest Native American nations are land thieves themselves. War and conquest were not invented by Europe, to make an appearance only with the advent of Columbus. Slavery is native. This is nothing but self-serving hypocrisy.

    • Yeah, let's just commit genocide and then apologize. That'll make it all better. Maybe if I go rob a bank and murder everyone inside then apologize to the judge he'll be like oh it's all good bro no worries. This is a small step. What the US did was 10 times what Hitler did. It will take time and a lot more to ever make this better. If it's even possible at all.

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