Remarks of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
Conference Call with Reporters to Preview Tribal Nations Summit
November 3, 2009
We wanted to spend a few minutes today talking about the White House Tribal Nations Conference, which President Barrack Obama is hosting on Thursday here at the Department of the Interior.
In his campaign for the presidency, President Obama promised that his Administration would uphold not just a government-to-government relationship with tribes, but a nation-to-nation relationship.President Obama believes that consultation with tribal nations must be meaningful; it cannot just be lip service. Consultation is about engagement and discussion. It is also about finding solutions that can help build safer, stronger, healthier, and more prosperous Indian communities.
Thursday’s tribal nations will be the first meeting of its kind for a very long time with federally recognized tribes. There has not been such a meeting now for over 15 years.
All 564 federally recognized tribes will have the opportunity to interact directly with President Obama and with representatives from the highest levels of his Administration.
Each federally recognized tribe has been invited to send one representative to the conference.
We are waiting for the final tally. But it appears we will have over 400 of the tribes represented here at the conference.
The President of the United States will deliver the opening and closing remarks and he will participate in an interactive discussion with tribal leaders.
There will also be, throughout the day, other interactive discussions in the areas of economic development and natural resources; public safety and housing; education, health and labor, and all these discussions will be led by representatives of the highest levels of the Administration including numerous members of the President’s cabinet.
Among the Administration leaders that will be participating in the meeting on Thursday we will have of course Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk and Kim, and Jodi who are on this call.
In addition, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Secretary Gary Locke, Secretary Hilda Solis, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary Steven Chu, Secretary Arne Duncan, Administrator Lisa Jackson, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, and HUD Deputy Secretary Ronald Sims, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Jane Lute, Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, and Indian Health Service Director Dr. Yvette Robideaux.
So it will be an opportunity for Indian nations through their leadership to interact with the President of the United States and the key members of his cabinet whose responsibilities touch on the lives of Indian country every day throughout the United States of America.