State Gov. Kathy Hochul

Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca and New York state Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans for Hochul to visit Seneca Nation Territory to apologize for New York state’s role in the Thomas Indian School atrocities.

“The severity of the wounds inflicted on our children warrants the historical significance of our Nation welcoming Governor Hochul to the Cattaraugus Territory,” Seneca said. “The atrocities that our children suffered at the Thomas Indian School have remained hidden in the shadows for far too long. At long last, our people will hear, directly from the Governor, the words we have waited lifetimes for the State of New York to say – ‘We’re sorry.'”

The Seneca Nation is set to welcome Hochul to its Cattaraugus Territory on Tuesday when Hochul will issue a long-awaited official apology to the Seneca people, as well as all former students and their descendants from various Indigenous Nations, for the State of New York’s role in the operation of the Thomas Indian School. Hochul’s visit is believed to be the first time a sitting governor has officially visited Seneca Nation Territory.

“No words or actions will ever be able to undue the pain and suffering of the Seneca people and other Indigenous peoples across the state, but by visiting the Seneca Nation and the site of the Thomas Indian School we will mark a new day in our relations,” Hochul said. “As we prepare to officially recognize the horrifying shortcomings of our past, I thank President Seneca for his advocacy on behalf of the Seneca people and his invitation to the Cattaraugus Territory, and I look forward to further strengthening the relationship between the Seneca people and the State of New York.”

Originally established by Presbyterian missionaries on the Cattaraugus Territory in 1855, Thomas Indian School was owned and operated by the State of New York from 1875 until it closed in 1957. Thomas Indian School, and other residential boarding schools across the United States and Canada, operated under the government’s policy of forced assimilation of Native children. Thousands of children from various Indigenous Nations were separated from their families and forced to attend the school. They were stripped of the traditional language and culture, and suffered abuse, violence, hatred, and sometimes death, at the hands of school officials. Thousands of children are known to have died at the residential boarding schools. It is believed that the deaths of hundreds – if not thousands – more were never documented.