FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
All Media Inquiries: Sherry Parfait/[email protected]
October, 25, 2025
HOUMA, La. – Today, United Houma Nation Principal Chief Lora Ann Chaisson was on the front row to witness President Joe Biden issue a historic formal apology to Native Americans for the forced assimilation and trauma put upon their ancestors at Federal Indian boarding schools more than a century ago.
Chief Chaisson traveled to the Gila River Indian Community located near Phoenix, Arizona to attend the historic event on behalf of the United Houma Nation. The event also marked President Biden’s first visit to a tribal community during his presidency. There, he issued an apology on behalf of the United States government and presented a plan for helping tribal communities heal from the traumas that have impacted them for generations.
According to an investigative report issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior in July 2024, in the late 1800s, the federal government, by law, stole native children from their families and moved them to Federal Indian boarding schools across the country, where many were severely beaten and abused. Many children died at the boarding schools without ever returning home.
“This apology was a long-time coming, but it helps to close a long, painful chapter on the mistreatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government,” said Chief Chaisson. “My hope is that it will allow our brothers and sisters in Indian Country, and our own people who lived through these experiences, to heal, and it will also forge a new path of respect for Indigenous cultures and tribal nations.”
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), whose family members attended Indian boarding schools, stated on social media today, “For much of this country, boarding schools are places where affluent families send their children for an exclusive education. For Indigenous people, they served as places of trauma and terror for more than 100 years.
“U.S. Department of the Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative set out to shed light on this horrific era of our nation’s history – a federal agenda to assimilate and eradicate Native peoples. Our investigative report’s #1 recommendation was an apology from the federal government. That the President took this step today is truly historic. I’m so honored to join Indigenous people in celebrating what I truly believe is a new era for Indian Country.”
To read the U.S. Department of the Interior’s final report on the Federal Indian boarding school system, visit:
ABOUT THE UNITED HOUMA NATION
Headquartered in Houma, Louisiana, the United Houma Nation (UHN) is the largest Indigenous Tribe in the State of Louisiana, with the majority of our 19,000 tribal citizens residing along the coastal bayous of Southeast Louisiana. The UHN’s six-parish service area encompasses Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson, St. Mary, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes. Our mission is to preserve our tribal heritage and to educate the community about our history and our culture. For more information on the United Houma Nation, call (985) 223-3093 or visit www.unitedhoumanation.org.
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