OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Governor Kathy Hochul issued an official apology on behalf of the State of New York on Tuesday morning at the William Seneca Building on Seneca Nation land for the “atrocities” committed at the Thomas Indian School.

IRVING — Saying sorry can never make up for the horrific acts committed against Native American children at boarding schools across our nation.

But an apology is a start.

Governor Kathy Hochul issued an official apology on behalf of the State of New York on Tuesday morning at the William Seneca Building on Seneca Nation land for the “atrocities” committed at the Thomas Indian School, along with other Native American boarding schools across the region.

“I cannot change the horrors of the past. I wish I could,” Hochul said. “I wish I could wipe it all away. You deserve that.”

Hochul spoke to a crowd of hundreds gathered for the monumental event, scheduled on the 183-year anniversary of the Third Treaty of Buffalo Creek, signed May 20, 1842, which restored native title to the Allegany, Cattaraugus and Oil Springs reservations.

The Thomas Indian School was owned and operated by the State of New York on the Cattaraugus Territory from 1875 until it closed in 1957. Thousands of children from various Native Nations were separated from their families and forced to attend the school, and other residential boarding schools across the United States and Canada. Schools such as the Thomas Indian School stripped Indigenous children of their traditional language and culture. They often suffered abuse, violence, hatred, at the hands of school officials. Many students even lost their lives.

“Teaching our children today is the first step, making sure they understand what happened,” Hochul said. “That’s one of the reasons why, in my budget, I’m insisting that we create new educational materials about the Indigenous nations – their histories, their cultures, their contributions – and I want that in our New York K-12 schools so there is a deeper understanding of the people whose land we are on and what they have gone through. That is a first step forward.”

This story will be updated.