Obama to Native Americans: ‘No Lip Service….I’m on Your Side’
EmailABC's Yunji de Nies and Sunlen Miller report:
Convening a conference with 386 federally recognized tribal nations, President Obama today assured the Native American community that "you will not be forgotten as long as I'm in this White House.”
"I get it. I'm on your side. I understand what it means to be an outsider,"The president said recalling that he grew up in Hawaii raised by his grandparents and didn't have a lot of money, "so even though our experiences are different, I understand what it means to be on the outside looking in.”
The President admitted that many in the Native American community would be skeptical about this outreach yet promised that his administration would be different.
"I know you've heard this song from Washington before. I know you've often heard grand promises that sound good but rarely materialize. And each time you're told, ‘This time will be different,'"Mr. Obama said. "I want to be clear about this: Today's summit is not lip service. 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.”
Mr. Obama's remarks came at the opening session of the day-long conference at the Department of the Interior. Senior administration members will sit down in breakout sessions with tribes throughout the day to hear their concerns. The President will make closing remarks at the end of the day today.
The statistics on Indian reservations are staggering: 80% unemployment rates in some areas, ¼ of all native Americans living in poverty, 14% of all reservations homes don't have electricity, and 12% don't have access to safe water supply.
"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,"the President said.
Part of the strategy, the President said, to bring help to reservations will be through health care, noting that more than half of all Native Americans and Alaska Natives, especially those in remote areas with limited access to care, rely on the Indian Health Service for their most basic needs.
"That's why we invested $500 million in the Recovery Act in strengthening and modernizing the IHS. And that's why my budget proposes an increase of 13 percent in IHS funding. We're also closer than ever to passing health insurance reform that will finally make quality insurance affordable to all Americans who don't have coverage, and finally offer stability and security to Americans who do, and that includes our first Americans.”
The President also touted the $170 million for Indian education and the $277 million for Indian school construction within the Recovery Act.
Last summer while campaigning throughout Montana then-Senator Obama visited the Crow reservation. While there he was adopted into the Crow Nation by Mary and Sunny Black Eagle, both of whom were at the summit today.
Mr. Obama joked today, "I know what they're saying now: Kids grow up so fast. Only in America could the adopted son of Crow Indians grow up to be the president of the United States.”
And already the president showed he's thinking about the road ahead. During the question and answer session with the leaders, Mr. Obama said he would be helping them for the next eight years, well make that three years and one month instead.
"For the next eight years — next four years at least — let me now jump the gun. For the next three years and one month that I'm assured of this current position, we are going to make sure that we put the infrastructure and the framework in place so that a new dynamic, a new set of relationships have been established.”
-Yunji de Nies and Sunlen Miller
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“That’s why we invested $500 million in the Recovery Act in strengthening and modernizing the IHS
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Yesterday he was touting the education contest money that was in the Recovery Act. Today he’s touting the money for IHS.
That really was a slush fund creation act, wasn’t it?
Posted by: MayBee | November 5, 2009, 11:32 am 11:32 am
Warning to Native Americans…
Ask the LGBT how all of Obama’s fierce advocacy has worked out for them.
Obama is a gas bag.
He’ll get around to you one day maybe.
Right now he’s got “a lot on his plate”
Golf, fundraisers, campaigning for 2012, salsa dancing.
Posted by: ollie | November 5, 2009, 11:42 am 11:42 am
Speaking of the LGBT community
Obama actually got a win in Maine.
Maine voted against gay marriage.
Obama is against gay marriage.
Some “fierce advocate”.
I would think our bold, hip, progressive young president could find the guts to support gay marriage.
What’s he afraid of–losing evangelicals? Or maybe he wants it all.
String along the gays, get their money and votes but not support full equality.
Posted by: millie | November 5, 2009, 11:53 am 11:53 am
Be careful of the traveling snakeoil salesman.
He’s all talk.
Posted by: kyle | November 5, 2009, 11:54 am 11:54 am
Native Americans are the most abused minority in the US. Yet no one ever wants to discuss them, any more than they do the poor of Appalachia.
It is good that Obama is meeting with Native American leaders, but, we need to ask Obama to do more than meet.
If other activities of the past several months, are any real indication, we cannot rely on this meeting to produce any concrete results for the improvement of conditions in Native America.
However, perhaps the publicity of this “photo op”, will at least cause the media to make more of the population of the US aware, of the real conditions of Native American life, especially the conditions on Native American Reservations, which have amounted to, in many ways, nothing more than refugee camps, for the past 200 yrs.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | November 5, 2009, 11:55 am 11:55 am
Sorry Obama. You’ve lost credibility with me. Your track-record with GLBT issues shows that your support for minority is just lip service.
Posted by: Kiran | November 5, 2009, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
Time for the President to stop flapping his gums and walk the talk. Talk is cheap and it’s past time for Obama to deliver on his promises. At this point, Obama doesn’t seem to be much better than the Republicans except for this charming rhetoric.
Posted by: Doppelganger | November 5, 2009, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
At least he got one thing right he will only be around for the next three years!
Posted by: james | November 5, 2009, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
That really was a slush fund creation act, wasn’t it?
MayBee | Nov 5, 2009 11:32:23 AM
Paying to fix the roof and replace the car you use to commute to work would probably qualify as a slush fund to most Republicans. Heck, if Obama spent $20 to cure cancer Republicans would wail about it as pork spending (like the internet was created by wasteful pork spending with no possible economic return).
Posted by: jhw539 | November 5, 2009, 12:47 pm 12:47 pm
So sayeth the Big White Father in Washington.
Posted by: mesquito | November 5, 2009, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
Paying to fix the roof and replace the car you use to commute to work would probably qualify as a slush fund to most Republicans.
=============
Oh, I don’t know about that.
But this particular stimulus really was a slush fund creation act.
Posted by: MayBee | November 5, 2009, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
Chief Sitting Bull speaks with forked tongue.
In other words–he’s full of it.
Posted by: hank | November 5, 2009, 1:13 pm 1:13 pm
Another pretty speech about his life story.
Didn’t Obama get enough watching himself on HBO?
Posted by: tyler | November 5, 2009, 1:18 pm 1:18 pm
Somehow his “I grew up in Hawaii” speech didn’t give me that poor mixed race childhood idea. I wouldn’t have minded growing up in Hawaii poor, I did it in CA and we were very poor.
Posted by: lfrichar | November 5, 2009, 1:21 pm 1:21 pm
The native Americans abuse themselves. Govt assistance, welfare and their permanent protected class victim status has left them apathetic, unmotivated and lazy. They aren’t the only ones either; the native Hawaiians are much the same. There are some other perpetual victim classes out there sitting on the sidelines complaining that the Govt screwed them and they deserve everything to be given to them. Listen, if 30 million illegal aliens can waltz over the border and get jobs these lazy bums can get off their a$$es too. Refusal to integrate into modern American society is nobody’s fault but their own. Don’t be fooled there are jobs out there for everyone who is willing to work.
Posted by: joeyjojo456789 | November 5, 2009, 1:22 pm 1:22 pm
Indians are tough and fiercly independent.
Obama’s big government takeover is certain to keep the poor enslaved but I can’t see the Indians wanting that.
Don’t fall for it!
Posted by: larry | November 5, 2009, 1:24 pm 1:24 pm
“No lip service …” My god, Obama’s starting to sound like Bush I: “Message: I care”, or “Read my lips”. If he’s not going to govern, can he at least live up to his hype as a communicator?
Posted by: Charles | November 5, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
So where will Obama stand now that Mexican drug gangs have been moving onto Indian lands? If the tribe protects their illegal crops, where will he stand then? Indian reservations and the separateness they have created should not be a source of pride. Integration and the expectation of assimilation will be the only way to cure the vast deep social ills the Native American community has brought on itself.
Posted by: bct | November 5, 2009, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm
Promises from Obama are getting cheaper by the day. He’s still only voting “present”. Can anyone tell me even one promise that the Slickster-in-Chief has kept?
Posted by: SickOfSlick | November 5, 2009, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
“Heck, if Obama spent $20 to cure cancer Republicans would wail about it as pork spending (like the internet was created by wasteful pork spending with no possible economic return).”
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Agreed. The one child sitting at the table constantly whining.
Posted by: tierra | November 5, 2009, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
If Obama gets his way we’ll all be living in Venezuela.
His time is running out, his power is peaking–Obama has 12 months to grab as much power as he can.
To “fundamentally change America”.
Vote them out–starting in 2010.
Posted by: luke | November 5, 2009, 2:05 pm 2:05 pm
Can this guy ever stop with the campaigning, the race baiting, the blame game, the Blame Bush mantra?
Is there any substance to this man at all?
Obama has made a living creating racial friction and it needs to stop. The campaign is over Mr. President. As someone who voted for you in hopes the troops would be brought home, and only for that reason, you are a complete disapointment.
Stop with the political opportunism and the politics of division and racial identity.
Posted by: Stop Already | November 5, 2009, 2:09 pm 2:09 pm
Obama was raised by upper middle class grandparents, went to a private school–and he compares himself to dirt poor Native Americans.
He should be ashamed of the lies and playing on people’s emotions.
Obama’s pathetic attempt to be “everyman” is laughable.
Posted by: Kyle | November 5, 2009, 2:11 pm 2:11 pm
WASHINGTON — Making good on a campaign promise to hold a yearly summit with American Indians, President Barack Obama told tribal leaders Thursday gathered in Washington that he is determined to reverse the federal government’s history of marginalizing Indian nations.
Posted by: tierra | November 5, 2009, 2:28 pm 2:28 pm
It is really refreshing to have a President pay attention to the Native Americans who have been horribly neglected. I know most administrations have avoided bringing their interests to the forefront because it is rather embarrassing since this country was stolen from them. They do deserve to have some amends made to them and a hand stretched out for more integration. Personally I think it is shameful the way the Native Americans are treated with such nonchalance and indifference.
Posted by: Marth | November 5, 2009, 2:50 pm 2:50 pm
kyle:
“Obama was raised by upper middle class grandparents, went to a private school–and he compares himself to dirt poor Native Americans.
He should be ashamed of the lies and playing on people’s emotions.
Obama’s pathetic attempt to be “everyman” is laughable.”
It is incredibly cynical of him to continue to present himself as some kind of disadvantaged “victim” of America and trying to associate himself with the history of American Indians.
This man attended some of the most exlusive and expensive schools in the world, schools no average white kid could get into with middling grades.
This man defines the term “insider” and “elite” and has nothing in common with the people he is speaking to so patronizingly in a transparent attempt to further the racial politics and government dependence theme that is so consistent with this administration.
I want my vote back.
Posted by: Stop Already | November 5, 2009, 2:51 pm 2:51 pm
I agree with Rick McDaniel & those of you who have a negative view of Native America would do well to read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” – based on documented facts from the library of congress. Sheds a lot of light on the white-washed version of what we were taught about Native Americans in history class. Let us learn from history so that the “sins of the fathers” do not repeat themselves onto us.
Posted by: Brenda | November 5, 2009, 2:52 pm 2:52 pm
Barack Obama is a champion of the oppressed: oppressed Americans who have been denied healthcare by bigshot insurance companies only wanting to make sure their money is guaranteed for treatment and you could die for all they care if your are unemployed and have no courage. And now the Native Indians. Thank you Mr. Obama. I like this man.
Posted by: Sam | November 5, 2009, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm
I was on the train and everyone’s head was turned in a certain direction so I had to turn around and look – There stood a native American young man with hair long and in native attire. It’s so wrong for these people to be looked at as freaks – They are rarely seen. It is so wrong for them not to be more in and enjoy benefits of this country.
Posted by: Jean | November 5, 2009, 3:00 pm 3:00 pm
Good, I see Buffy & Yoshi have been in here doing damage control.
Good thing I kept those kids around…
Posted by: Axe | November 5, 2009, 3:07 pm 3:07 pm
Interesting how the right wing whiners on here ignore the real issue at hand, and instead use the opportunity to take more cheap shots at the President . .. all too predictable and juvenile. No interest in the issues, only trying to make political gain.
Posted by: tierra | November 5, 2009, 3:12 pm 3:12 pm
Interesting how the right wing whiners on here ignore the real issue at hand, and instead use the opportunity to take more cheap shots at the President . .. all too predictable and juvenile. No interest in the issues, only trying to make political gain.
tierra;
Kid, you need to step up the game a little. Anyone with an IQ north of 72 is going to point out the hypocrisy of your post. We aren’t paying for this low quality type of diversion kid.
I’m sending alyson over.
Pick it up a notch.
Posted by: Axe | November 5, 2009, 3:42 pm 3:42 pm
did sick of slick actually say ASSIMILATION is a cure? wow. How different is that than what the Taliban is doing? Perspective my friends.. perspective.
Posted by: oothatgirl | November 5, 2009, 3:55 pm 3:55 pm
“Kid, you need to step up the game a little. Anyone with an IQ north of 72 is going to point out the hypocrisy of your post. We aren’t paying for this low quality type of diversion kid.”
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You’re still ignoring the real issue of the news article and reverting to political gamesmanship . . .
Same thing, day in and day out for the right wing whiners . . .
Posted by: tierra | November 5, 2009, 4:02 pm 4:02 pm
ob will say anything to get your vote. then toss you out when done.
Posted by: JAX | November 5, 2009, 4:17 pm 4:17 pm
This man is so cynical and hypocritical.
He has made his entire life about racial divisions and seeing race in every molecule.
This country has given the Obama’s so much. Why are they so bitter?
Posted by: Janet | November 5, 2009, 4:34 pm 4:34 pm
ob will say anything to get your vote. then toss you out when done.
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Try not to tell such obvious lies Jax. . . show some credibility . ..
WASHINGTON — Making good on a campaign promise to hold a yearly summit with American Indians, President Barack Obama told tribal leaders Thursday gathered in Washington that he is determined to reverse the federal government’s history of marginalizing Indian nations.
“That’s why we invested $500 million in the Recovery Act in strengthening and modernizing the IHS. And that’s why my budget proposes an increase of 13 percent in IHS funding.”
The President also pointed to the $170 million for Indian education and the $277 million for Indian school construction within the Recovery Act.
Posted by: tierra | November 5, 2009, 4:36 pm 4:36 pm
Thank You Mr. President for having the courage to stand up for what you believe in. Remember to brush the haters off.
Posted by: fayeruizsky | November 5, 2009, 11:56 pm 11:56 pm