Justin Trudeau fights back tears as he apologizes to the indigenous people of Canada for their horrendous treatment they suffered at the hands of the government.

Justin Trudeau fought back tears as he apologized for Canada's role in mistreatment of Indigenous children in residential schools. pic.twitter.com/zEjGH2AOQP

� BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) November 24, 2017

I was really touched by this video as it brings up our shame as Alaskans for how we treated our own indigenous people.

The white man's government, often using religion as a bludgeon, tore families apart and demanded that native children only call each other by the Biblical names given to them by Christian missionaries/educators and were punished for speaking their own language, or for being slow to adapt to western culture.

The destruction of the native people's sense of identity and connection to their culture was horrific, and is often cited as one of the main causes for suicide and alcoholism even among today's population. 

This shame that Prime Minister Trudeau speaks of is shame that should be shared among the people of Alaska, as well as the people living in the Lower 48.

Our ancestors all participated in the destruction of the history and culture of the people that were here when we arrived, and we have yet to really make amends for what we did.