On Oct. 25, President Joe Biden officially apologized for the “sin of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents.” 
These sacrifices and the federal effort to “kill the Indian to save the man” had devastating impacts on children who experienced physical and sexual violence and destroyed the very core of social systems of tribal people.
As the seventh president of Haskell Indian Nations University, I am well aware of the deaths of children and the 101 children buried in the Haskell Cemetery in Lawrence, but there were many more who were sent by trains of death to carry children back to families who were forced to release their children or be jailed.
The scars of this generational trauma and grief had multiple layers of devastating impacts throughout Indian Country.
These sacrifice zones and the suffering experienced by tribes is but one instance of unresolved and horrendous treatment of the Indigenous people in the United States and Canada.
While I listened to the apology, the notable absence of any corrective actions or proposed changes to address the longstanding failures of the federal government was disturbing.
It took 50 years to apologize for the burden tribal people are expected to carry. How many decades will federal agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education that have failed to carry out their responsibilities for the trust responsibilities be allowed to operate; even the crickets were silenced?
The agency designated for ensuring the fulfillment of trust responsibilities, to provide high quality education in the K-16 system operates without accountability and without vision of what could be.
Since 2014, I have participated in ongoing discussions with current and former BIE directors, Haskell staff, faculty, alumni, students, the National Haskell Board of Regents and Congressional leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
These discussions focused on options for growth and autonomy, identifying solutions to change onerous federal rules and regulations that stymie Haskell, as well as major financial disparities in federal funding for Haskell and tribal colleges and universities.
These inequalities limit growth, degree programs, faculty numbers, students and services to meet the need for high numbers of first-generation college students.
I have consistently advocated on behalf of Haskell for funding for operations, construction and endowments comparable to what federally funded institutions such as Gallaudet University, Howard University and historically Black colleges and universities receive.
I believed and promoted the notion that “trust education should not be inferior education,” and supported legislation that gives Haskell the autonomy added and that is consistent with the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
Correcting the shocking disparity of funding for Haskell and tribal colleges as compared with federally funded colleges was a first priority but again, the crickets were silent.
Free Haskell from a federal bureaucracy that has failed generations of young people seeking more.
