Native Americans embrace Barack Obama

By CAROL E. LEE | 11/6/09 5:01 AM EST



President Barack Obama got a warm reception from Native Americans at Thursday’s White House Tribal Nations Conference, where he signed a memorandum ordering his Cabinet secretaries to give him a plan for improving the quality of life on reservations.

Calling the conference “a unique and historic event,” Obama recalled his visit to the Crow Nation in Montana, where he said he was adopted by a lovely couple.

“I know what they’re saying now, ‘Kids grow up so fast,’” he joked. “Only in America could the adopted son of Crow Indians grow up to be president of the United States.”

Turning serious, Obama pointed out the high unemployment and poverty rates on Native American reservations and pledged to work toward turning those numbers around.

“I know you may be skeptical that this time won’t be different. You have every right to be,” Obama said, pledging that he is “absolutely committed” to “getting this relationship right.”

“That begins by fulfilling my promises to you,” Obama said, noting that he had “promised you a voice on my senior staff at the White House” and had appointed Kimberly K. Teehee, a member of the Cherokee Nation, as senior policy adviser for Native American affairs.

Connecting with his audience on a personal note, Obama told the assembled leaders: “I understand what it means to be an outsider.”

“I was born to a teenage mother. ... We didn’t have much. We moved around a lot,” he said. “I know what it means to feel ignored and forgotten, what it means to struggle. So you will not be forgotten as long as I’m in this White House.”

On that note, when the head of the Navajo Nation asked how Obama could ensure his policies toward Native Americans would continue beyond the end of his term, Obama began, “For the next eight years ...” — drawing some cheers before correcting himself: “The next four years at least. Let me not jump the gun.”
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