Font ResizeWashington » During the presidential campaign, Montana's Black Crow Indian tribe ceremoniously adopted Barack Obama, dubbing him Barack Black Eagle, a name meaning "one who helps all people of this land."
Black Eagle on Thursday, tried to uphold his namesake, vowing to American Indians nationwide that within 90 days officials of his administration would report back to him on ways to improve dialogue between the federal government and the nation's "First Americans."
In the first meeting between a president and American Indian tribes of this size in 15 years, Obama said he would bring the 564 tribes and Alaskan bands to the table for policy discussions with a nod to their own sovereignty.
Obama said he wanted to be clear about one point.
"Today's summit is not lip service," he said. "We're not going to go through the motions and pay tribute to one another, and then furl up the flags and go our separate ways. Today's sessions are part of a lasting conversation that's crucial to our shared future."
More than 400 representatives of America's first inhabitants packed into an auditorium at the Interior Department for the White House conference on Indian affairs. Most wore business suits, but a sprinkling of headdresses and cowboy hats sprouted from the audience.
Jeanine Borchardt, chairwoman of the Paiute Indian Tribe in southern Utah, praised the conference and says she truly hopes the promises
She said she hand delivered a letter previously to Larry Echo Hawk, a Utahn and assistant Interior secretary for Indian Affairs, asking for his help. And she hopes this conference sparks it.
"I think it's a good start," Borchardt said. "I hope it does continue."
Several Cabinet secretaries held question-and-answer sessions with the American Indian leaders, who generally asked for help in improving living conditions, economic development and even about Superfund sites and outer-continental shelf oil drilling.
Obama raised the difficult situation faced by many American Indians: some reservations have unemployment rates as high as 80 percent; more than 14 percent of reservation homes don't have electricity; roughly a quarter of American Indians live in poverty.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the job of the Obama administration would be to help tribes fulfill their own visions for their people but also to help their cultures flourish.
"A somber legacy still haunts what we do," Salazar said, recalling treaties broken and anti-Native American actions of the past. "We can neither escape it nor erase it. Rather, our memory must fuel our commitment to finally do right by the sacred compacts between our nations."
Ben Shelly, vice president of the Navajo Nation, which includes parts of Utah, asked Obama earlier in the day if there was a way he could force Congress to work with Indian nations so that when Obama's term is up, the effort continues.
Obama said the executive branch couldn't mandate that Congress take any action, but that, "to the extent that we can partner with Congress to lock some of those good habits in and end some of the bad habits that we've seen in the past, that's something that we'll be very interested in doing."
