US church apologises for 'trauma' inflicted in Native American schools

US Catholic bishops have formally apologised for contributing to the "history of trauma" experienced by Native Americans at church-run Indian boarding schools.

"The Church recognises that it has played a part in traumas experienced by Native children," the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which shapes church policy in the United States, said in a statement on Friday.

The results of a Washington Post investigation published last month found that at least 122 priests, sisters and brothers who were assigned to 22 Catholic-run boarding schools since the 1890s were later accused of sexually abusing Native American children under their care.

Most of the documented abuse happened in the 1950s and 1960s, and involved more than 1,000 children, mostly in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska, the paper reported.

"We apologise for the failure to nurture, strengthen, honour, recognise, and appreciate those entrusted to our pastoral care," the conference said in a document, which was approved by a vote.

It added: "We all must do our part to increase awareness and break the culture of silence that surrounds all types of afflictions and past mistreatment and neglect."

Discrimination

For decades, US authorities removed Native American children from their biological parents and placed them in hundreds of boarding schools or with non-Native American families across the country.

Such forced assimilation policies ended in 1978 with the adoption by Congress of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

"Healing and reconciliation can only take place when the Church acknowledges the wounds perpetrated on her Indigenous children and humbly listens as they voice their experiences," the bishops said.