The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs marked its 175th anniversary recently by issuing an apology for the agency's awful treatment of Native Americans. It was a fitting show of contrition.
At one point, the bureau was part of the War Department office that saw North America's first inhabitants as enemies worthy of destruction. That outlook changed a long time ago. But it would have been wrong had the bureau acted as if it had no reason to be ashamed.
The anniversary was a good time to take stock. "In truth, this is no occasion for celebration," said the statement by Kevin Gover, the assistant interior secretary who heads the bureau. Rather, the anniversary was an occasion "for sorrowful truths to be spoken, a time for contrition."
He was right. The apology was a splendid way to acknowledge the bureau's complicity in the dislocation, dispossession and death of Indians.
Mr. Gover, himself a member of the Pawnee tribe, is too familiar with the Indians' ongoing pain to speak in a less than forthright manner. The richly detailed apology came across as deeply felt. It spoke of the forcible seizure of Indian land, the decimation of the mighty bison herds, the use of alcohol to destroy Indians' minds and bodies and the killing of women and children. In short, the statement saw an attempt by the U.S. government to destroy Indian cultures and languages, which implicated the bureau in "the ethnic cleansing that befell the Western tribes."
Mr. Gover's indictment of the bureau was sobering. He remarked that the suffering sustained by Indians "made for tragedy on a scale so ghastly that it cannot be dismissed as merely the inevitable consequence of the clash of competing ways of life."
To its credit, the bureau, which once looked on Native Americans as a problem, has since turned a new leaf. It has evolved into an agency charged with improving the lives of Indians. In some respects, its achievements have been impressive. Nobody would confuse the agency of today with its previous incarnation.
Still, the bureau's ability to look at its past and judge its legacy harshly may strike some as indulgent self-flagellation. Actually, the contrition is a mark of the bureau's maturity and courage.
The apology is only a first step. The federal government must seek to redress the lingering effects of its past actions. Poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence beset many Indians. Some live in the shadow of hopelessness and despair. A full act of atonement lies in the agency's readiness to provide more leadership and resources to help solve these problems.
The bureau has not been idle, but it has not made sufficient progress in helping Indians. Mr. Gover and his team must now move with a sense of mission that matches the need.