WASHINGTON - Before the largest gathering of tribal leaders in U.S. history Thursday, President Barack Obama pledged $50 million in funding for tribal colleges and vowed his administration would work to address problems facing Native Americans, from health disparities to economic development.
At the Tribal Nations Conference, held at the Department of the Interior, the president also signed a memorandum calling on every cabinet agency to give him a detailed plan to improve the relationship between the government and tribal communities.
"You will not be forgotten as long as I'm in this White House," Obama said to a sustained ovation.
Tribal leaders and Native American scholars had expressed optimism about the outcome of Obama's tribal conference, but some remain skeptical that the administration can bring about substantive changes.
"Today is very historic," said Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Tribe in Washington State, speaking to Diverse during a noon break at the conference. "The president made a promise to us before the election and he kept his promise. We have had so many promises broke in the past."
Obama's invitation to the 564 federally recognized tribes drew representatives from 386 of them. This is the first meeting of its kind since former President Bill Clinton held one 15 years ago.
"I think it holds great promise for federally recognized tribes in this country to be heard by the president," said Dr. Jordan Kerber, director of Native American Studies at Colgate University. "It's quite a rare occurrence that voices of diverse Native American groups are represented at this level of government."
Before the conference, various tribal leaders said they wanted Obama to address key concerns such as access to health care and economic development, and he did.
"We know that as long as Native Americans die of illnesses like tuberculosis, alcoholism, diabetes, pneumonia and influenza at far higher rates than the rest of the population, then we're going to have to do more to address disparities in health care delivery," Obama said in his opening remarks.
