Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday paid a visit to the Thomas Indian School, where she issued an apology to Native Americans on behalf of New Yorkers for the state's "sanctioned ethnic cleansing" and long legacy of broken promises at the former boarding school in Western New York’s Cattaraugus Territory.

What You Need To Know

  • Gov. Hochul apologized to members of the Seneca Nation for the atrocities of forced assimilation, abuse and fear at the Thomas Indian School.
  • Those atrocities occurred for more than 100 years, for more than 80 of which the institution was owned by the state of New York.
  • Hochul announced the newly enacted state budget includes funding for education focused on Indigenous culture.

In the first known trip by a sitting governor to Seneca Nation Territory, Hochul recounted New York's "sordid history" at the school, which was founded by missionaries in 1855 and once called the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children.

“But instead of being a haven for orphan children, it became a place of nightmares, a place some would call a torture chamber, a site of sanctioned ethnic cleansing," Hochul said.

Hochul formally apologized to Seneca President J. Conrad Seneca and others for atrocities committed at the site, which the state owned and operated from 1875 to 1957. About 2,500 students attended the school. Hochul said children were forcibly removed from their families; stripped of their identity, languages and traditions; and sometimes subject to horrific emotional, physical and sexual assaults.

"These atrocities occurred for more than 100 years," Hochul said. "They were known by the state of New York."

The governor also recognized what she said was the generational trauma the school and others like across the U.S. and Canada caused Indigenous populations. She said that while she could not change the past, she wanted her words to provide victims and their descendants a fresh start in reclaiming their identity.

Hochul presented President Seneca, whose father attended Thomas Indian School, a framed proclamation. Conrad, who had spoken about the hardships and mistreatment that occurred at the school, told Hochul that he really appreciated her words.

“My great grandmother attended the Thomas Indian School, and to know that there's an apology now about it kind of makes you feel more connected to her,” said Amirya Warrior, a student at Silver Creek Central School.

"Everyone [needs] to know what happened to us and our family," said Hailie Rybij, another student at Silver Creek Central School. "It shouldn't go unnoticed. And I think it's great that they're bringing it into the school curriculum."

The U.S. operated or supported 408 national Native American boarding schools across 37 states between 1819 and 1969, according to a 2022 U.S. Interior Department report, which detailed rampant physical, sexual and emotional abuse and hundreds of deaths at the schools.

The school system discouraged American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian languages, religions and cultural practices and used corporal punishment to enforce rules, according to the more than 100-page report, which included information on marked and unmarked burial sites at or near school facilities, the identification of children and investigating abuses.

Hochul said her visit will fulfill a pledge she made to Seneca in Albany earlier this year.