WASHINGTION – The Senate, for the second year in a row in 2009, voted to offer an apology to Native Americans. Some in Indian country welcomed the gesture, but some said it has no real meaning.

With a measure of fanfare, the Native American Apology Resolution officially passed the Senate in October. If it were to become law, it would extend a formal apology from the United States to tribal governments and Native American people nationwide.

The bill admits to “ill-conceived policies” and acts of violence against Native Americans by U.S. citizens, while asking President Barack Obama to “acknowledge the wrongs of the United States against Indian tribes” in order to encourage healing.

For the resolution to become law, the House of Representatives would also have to approve similar legislation, which has been introduced, and the president would then have to agree to sign off.

The House didn’t act on similar legislation in 2008. Obama hasn’t said if he would apologize. Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, has said a federal apology would be hollow until monetary reparations are addressed.

But others, like Tulalip tribal citizen John McCoy, a representative from Washington state, said the gesture has the ability to achieve reconciliation.

The Senate resolution was introduced by Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas and Democrat Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. Brownback had been pushing for the measure since 2004.

“It is difficult to know the history of the first Americans and the destructive policies our government has too often followed regarding them, and not be filled with both sadness and regret,” said Dorgan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, after the passage.

“It is appropriate that we, as a nation, express that sorrow and regret with this apology resolution.”

The state of Colorado in 2008 apologized for and remembered the deaths of millions of American Indians via legislation.

Australian and Canadian government officials have also apologized for some actions against their respective indigenous people.