Today, for the first time in 15 years, leaders from the United States’ 564 federally recognized Indian tribes met with political leaders in DC to discuss the problems that blight their communities: lack of adequate health care, lack of adequate employment, lack of, well, a lot of things.
The day-long summit began with opening remarks from President Barack Obama, who promised to make good on some of his campaign commitments:
Without real communication and consultation, we’re stuck, year after
year, with policies that don’t work on issues specific to you and on
broader issues that affect all of us. And you deserve to have a voice
in both.I know that you may be skeptical that this time will be any
different. You have every right to be, and nobody would have blamed you
if you didn’t come today. But you did. And I know what an extraordinary
leap of faith that is on your part.
The President continued with a laundry list of policies and appointments he’s made to prove that, this time, the tumultuous relationship between the First Nations and the federal government will smooth out a little bit: Huge chunks of the federal stimulus package have gone to obtaining more jobs on reservations, improving educational opportunities and fighting domestic violence in Indian Country. In 90 days, Obama expects every Cabinet member to give him a detailed plan on how they’re going to implement President Bill Clinton’s 1994 executive order to establish regular communication between the tribal and federal governments.
Most definitely, the conference is a positive step in the right direction. But does it amount to anything more than a promise ring?
Tribal leaders have been careful not to get their expectations too high, as Obama himself noted, but some tribes are taking the opportunity to ask for even more of a commitment from the federal government. In a letter on behalf of the Timbisha Shoshone of the Western Shoshone Nation, Chairman Joe Kennedy urged Obama to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigineous Peoples:
Mr. President, we write this in recognition of what we believe is your
sincere commitment to uphold and strengthen the relationships with the
*US
government* and *American Indian Nations.* In keeping with your
invitation
to meet leaders of the *Nations and Pueblos of Indigenous Peoples of
North
America* which brings us to Washington DC, we offer our greetings to
you and extend our hands in the spirit of a renewed and re-visioned
expression of this relationship. A critical part of this relationship
is recognizing that the time has come to break the chains from
centuries of racism, colonization and ongoing oppression across North
America. This can begin to be accomplished by the US adopting the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Only time will tell how much of a commitment the government will
really make to tribes, Forrest Cuch, executive director of the
Utah Division of Indian Affairs and a member of the Ute Tribe, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
“It’s an outstanding
gesture and it certainly breaks the ice as far as demonstrating a
commitment to earnest relations with Indian tribes,” Cuch said. “[But] sometimes, government leaders will go a little bit
further with some initiatives but not really carry them out.”
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