US should face up to 'shameful past' with tribal nations: vice president

WASHINGTON, 13 October 2021, (TON): US Vice President Kamala Harris said that the European explorers who first landed on US shores had "ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations, perpetrating violence, stealing land and spreading disease."

She told the National Congress of American Indians, the largest US organisation for native peoples “we must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on native communities today.”

The Biden administration would renegotiate a memo of understanding about federal funding for job training on tribal lands with tribal nations, she said. It was renegotiated in 2018 between 12 federal agencies but without input from the tribal nations affected.

She spoke the day after Columbus Day, which marks the landing of explorer Christopher Columbus, and the newly recognised Indigenous Peoples' Day.

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