An apology is an acknowledgment of wrongdoing, but it is not any form of redress. An apology is just the beginning of a necessary truth-telling. An apology is a nice start, but it is not a true reckoning, nor is it a sufficient remedy for the long history of colonial violence.

Merely using the euphemism of “school” to describe these institutions is a nefarious tactic, a way to make people think anything good came from them. They were places where our children were forced to go, where they suffered abuse and dehumanization, from which an untold number never returned.

What outsiders have done since the time they overran our lands under the banner of the Doctrine of Discovery, what they did at boarding schools, and what they are still doing to this day through various colonial institutions is seeking to internalize within individuals a spiritual, intellectual, psychological, emotional, and mental degradation.

The legacy of colonialism is a successful transfer of genocidal intent — including what happened at these “schools” — into the American and Native psyches, so that now the American Indian experience is one in which a person like me must imagine himself consistent with the precepts, biases, and complexes that descend from a lens that is not our own. And yet, we are still here, and we are still fighting to reclaim what is ours.

The President’s apology calls for a deeper examination. I ask him to work with those knowledge holders within Indigenous communities to tell the entire, historical truth and look at proper redress. We need real action on a path toward reconciliation following this apology.

Ask yourself why, on any Indian reservation, the Church still holds some of the prime real estate. Ask yourself if the federal government has a true stake in the flourishing of Indigenous nations without a return of land, investment in the revitalization of languages and world views, and acknowledgment that Indigenous cultures and knowledge systems — which predate any English-speaking, colonial presence on these shores — might actually provide a blueprint for how to best live here.

We, therefore, invite a further discussion in Lakota Country on these topics with President Biden, and with whomever might occupy the White House during the coming term. It is late in the game, but it is never too late to work together, share knowledge, and find real solutions for our — and all — people.