Hochul apologizes for NY’s past ‘atrocities’

Chris McKenna

New York State Team

USA TODAY NETWORK

Gov. Kathy Hochul visited Seneca Nation territory to deliver a formal apology for decades of cruel mistreatment of Native children at a state-run school where they were forced to assimilate.

She spoke Tuesday at the site of the former Thomas Indian School, now part of the Seneca Nation Administration Campus in far western New York. Over its century in existence, at least 2,500 children from multiple tribes were separated from their families and forced to attend school there, enduring physical and psychological abuse that Hochul referred to as 'atrocities.'

'Today, on behalf of the State of New York, I apologize to the Seneca Nation of Indians — and the survivors and descendants from all Nations — who attended the Thomas Indian School,' Hochul said in a statement. 'We cannot change the horrors of the past, but I recommit to the truth, justice, reconciliation, accountability, and healing that are so essential to move forward together.'

The school was opened by Presbyterian missionaries in 1855 and taken over in 1875 by the state, which operated the school until its closure in 1957, according to Hochul’s office. It was part of a system of government-run boarding schools that Native children were forced to attend in the U.S. and Canada in that era, to be stripped of their traditional languages and culture. Thousands are known to have died.

In a statement after the visit, Seneca Nation President J.C. Seneca called it 'an important reckoning with a very dark and tragic period in history.'

'It is a day that many people thought would never happen,' he said. 'Healing takes time, but it also requires accountability for the pain that people caused. We still feel the pain. Now, with Governor Hochul’s words of apology, our healing process can continue.'

During her visit, Hochul met with some surviving former students of Thomas Indian School and descendants of others who went there. She noted in her speech that she put funding in the recently enacted state budget to create lessons on the history, culture and contributions of Indigenous people to teach in New York’s schools.

'I cannot change the horrors of the past,' she said. 'I wish I could. I wish I could just wipe it all away. You deserve that. But first of all, by teaching our children today is the first step, making sure they understand what happened then.'

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.