BRIMFIELD (25News now) – A local descendant of the Powhatan tribe calls awareness of an investigation against the federal government “healing.”

On Friday, a US president finally apologized for a federal policy that forcibly separated generations of Indigenous children from their families and sent them to federally supported boarding schools for 150 years.

“I formally apologize. This is a long, long, long time coming,” said Pres. Joe Biden at a news conference in front of Native Americans in Arizona. “Frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.”

An investigation identified more than 400 implicated institutions in 37 states. The identified at least 973 deaths Native American, Alaska Native and Indian Hawaiian children who attended the boarding schools. Many of them were subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Powhatan tribe descendant Waylon McCamy said the story was swept under the rug and ignored.

“People knew this was happening, and they didn’t stand up and say it was wrong,” McCamy said. “People who survived those (schools) told me stories of how the teacher overheard them speaking their language and were chained to the cooler. They had to eat only bread and water for days.”

Two boarding schools existed in Illinois – one in Des Plaines and the other at the old Jubilee College in Brimfield, which ceased operations in 1862.

The building was then named the Homewood Boarding School, and a reported 12 Native American children were forced to assimilate there.

“It’s good that a sitting president actually came and apologized,” McCamy said. “It’s kind of like an open wound that was never allowed to heal, and now at least it will. The scar will always be there, but at least the healing process has begun.”

McCamy is president of Seven Circles Heritage Center in Edwards. It is a place for the indigenous people to take place in ceremonies and powwows, and it serves as a church for various tribes.

McCamy said they also educate the public about issues people may not have heard about and make sure their tribes’ history is never forgotten.

“I hope people can understand that these kinds of things happen. We’ve come a long way from there, but we have to recognize that they happened.”

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