Indigenous leaders, residential school survivors react to Pope Francis apology

Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors in Canada had mixed reactions after Pope Francis on Monday begged forgiveness, calling their treatment a "deplorable evil".

Relief, gratitude, and a sense of frustration were among the many opinions expressed at a news conference in Maskwacis.

"It has been a very emotional day for me as a survivor. I had my ups and downs, my hurrahs, my disappointments. My wanting more and not getting it. I've waited 50 years for this apology and finally today I heard it. Unfortunately, a lot of my family members, friends, classmates and members of my community  that went to residential school were not able to hear it because they had passed on through suicide, alcohol addiction, suicide, sorry already said that, and substance abuse (and) whatnot because they could not endure or live with the trauma that they endured in these residential schools," Evelyn Korkmaz, Residential School Survivor

Jon Crier, Elder and Residential School Survivor, while answering why they gave the Pope a headdress said, "Giving him the headdress is honoring a man as an honorary chief and leader in a community. And so in doing that we have adopted him as one of our leaders in the community. And so it is an honoring of the man, it is an honoring of the work that he has done, and it is also recognizing from the community that here is a man that belongs into our tribe."

Chief Tony Alexis, Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation responded, "As soon as the apology started, people were triggered immediately, you could see it in the audience. You could see it and you could hear it from different messages we were getting as we were sitting there. It triggered an opening of a wound, again. This wound that has been opened again, we can't just leave it like that, we really have to take the steps to make sure that we heal and recover our people."

"For some this apology may be what they needed to get over their healing journey, for others this apology may feel empty. However you feel, it is valid. I just want to share something from my heart at this moment, as I have this platform allowed to bring this forward, I welcome this opportunity. If you want to help us on healing on our journey within this country or within this province, please stop telling us to get over it. We can't get over it when the last of our residential schools closed in the mid-90s. We can't get over it when our surivivors are still here, we can't get over it when that inter-generational trauma impacts every youth, every member who had a family who has a survivor of residential schools. Instead of getting over it I'm asking you to get with it, get with learning about our history, get with learning about our culture, our people, who we are," said Chief Desmond Bull, Louis Bull Tribe.