Native American leaders head to an Albuquerque, N.M., summit
this week bolstered by a meeting with President Clinton, and
empowered with his order acknowledging their sovereign status.
"In every relationship between our people, our first
principle must be to respect your right to remain who you are and
to live the way you wish to live," Clinton told more than 300
leaders at a White House meeting Friday.
Tribes will test this clout Thursday and Friday, during
talks with Attorney General Janet Reno, Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbit and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros in Albuquerque. On the
agenda:
* Sovereignty vs. state efforts to extend jurisdiction onto
reservations.
* Law enforcement on reservations, where crime in the first
quarter of 1994 is already more than half of all 1993. A 1990
study of 75 tribes found Indian youth crimes more than triple the
national average.
* Family issues.
* Gaming conflicts.
* Religious freedom.
Friday's unprecedented gathering - the first time every
tribal leader was invited to meet with a president - melded an
unusual blend of ceremony with modern lobbying.
Leaders in headdresses sang ancient songs. Others in suits
and ties or dresses, implored Clinton to pay attention to this
poorest and unhealthiest citizenry of 2 million.
Clinton signed two executive orders: One orders federal
agencies to treat tribes as independent governments and consult
with them before decisions affecting tribal resources are made.
The other reinforces Indians' use of eagle feathers in religious
ceremonies, even though the birds are endangered.
He also agreed to restore $125 million to the Indian Health
Service budget. But he made no mention of the remaining $125
million being slashed in 1995 from the agency that provides the
bulk of doctors, nurses and health clinics to tribes.
"It was an act of faith for us to even come here, after all
the broken promises," Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller said.
"I was impressed."
Most leaders were cautious.
Says Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah: "Where we go from
here is up to us. We've go to be diligent."
-Joe Quickle
Two Crows