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President Joe Biden on Monday declared a former Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania a national monument that memorializes the federal government’s history of separating Native American families.

The federal government attempted to integrate Native American children through Indian boarding schools from 1819 through the 1970s “by forcibly removing them from their families, communities, languages, religions and cultural beliefs,” according to the Department of the Interior. Some of the students at these schools were abused and even died.

The White House said the new monument will be called the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument, and will be located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site is where the federal government established its first off-reservation boarding school in 1879. The school was used for nearly 40 years, NBC News reported.

“Designating the former campus of the Carlisle School, with boundaries consistent with the National Historic Landmark, as a national monument will help ensure this shameful chapter of American history is never forgotten or repeated,” the White House said.

The monument comes after the president formally apologized to the Native American community for the boarding school system in October.

Biden is expected to announce the new designation on Monday afternoon, during the final White House Tribal Nations Summit of his administration. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, is attending the meeting, and is a descendant of survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system.

“No single action by the federal government can adequately reconcile the trauma and ongoing harms from the federal Indian boarding school era,” Haaland said in a statement. “But, taken together, the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to acknowledge and redress the legacy of the assimilation policy have made an enduring difference for Indian Country.” 

The new monument sits on 24.5 acres of what is now the U.S. Army’s Carlisle Barracks. The monument will be overseen by the National Parks Service and the Army.

“This addition to the national park system that recognizes the troubled history of U.S. and Tribal relations is among the giant steps taken in recent years to honor Tribal sovereignty and recognize the ongoing needs of Native communities, repair past damage and make progress toward healing,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said. 

“My mother, grandparents and countless more relatives experienced first-hand the impact of Indian Boarding Schools,” he continued. “I couldn’t be more humbled or proud for the National Park Service to be part of charting a new path forward together as we continue to share and recognize our full American history.”  

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.