Top Highlights

• On December 19, 2012, Mark Charles, representing the Navajo Nation, hosted a public reading of the Apology to Native Peoples of the United States in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. "This apology was buried in H.R. 3326, the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act," wrote Charles on his Reflections from the Hogan blog. "It was signed...
• In 1993, the U.S. Congress devoted an entire resolution to apologizing to Native Hawaiians for overthrowing their kingdom in 1893. But a U.S. apology to Indigenous tribes took until 2009 and came stealthily tucked away in an unrelated spending bill.
• "The United States, acting through Congress," states Sec. 8113, "apologizes on behalf of the people of the United States to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by citizens of the United States;" and "expresses its regret for the ramifications of former wrongs and its commitmen...
• the apology also makes it clear that it in no way admits liability in any of the dozens of lawsuits still pending against the U.S. government by Indigenous peoples. "Nothing in this section ... authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States," declares the apology. The a...
• Along with its 1993 apology to Native Hawaiians, Congress had previously apologized to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to Black Americans for allowing slavery to exist in the United States prior to emancipation.

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