WASHINGTON 

President Joe Biden formally apologized to Native Americans on Friday for the government's role in Indian boarding schools that forcibly removed Native children from their families and subjected them to severe abuses.

"After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program. But the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened until today," Biden said address to the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.

"I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did. I formally apologize. That's long overdue," said the president.

Biden added that it was "one of the most consequential things I've ever had an opportunity to do in my whole career as president United States."

The apology came in the wake of a years-long investigation commissioned by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead the agency.

Children who were forced into the schools "endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse," according to the White House. A report from the Interior Department in 2022 found that 973 children died in the schools, which were erected to force the assimilation of Native Americans into American society.

The schools sought to destroy Native culture and language "through harsh militaristic and assimilationist methods," said the White House.