Carina Dominguez
Indian Country Today
First lady Jill Biden touted her husband’s push to eradicate cancer and the Biden administration’s efforts to improve health care for Native people during a stop Tuesday at the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Her motorcade was met by two cultural runners and escorted onto the nation, an honor bestowed to distinguished guests.
The runners led the way to cleanse and purify the road traveled on to make the journey a success for everyone.
Biden met with tribal health officials and leaders of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, who discussed their joint efforts to improve cancer screening and treatment for Native Americans at the San Xavier Health Care Center in southern Arizona.
“You’re doing a great job because you’re getting out into the rural areas and you’re reaching people,” Biden said. “And that’s what we need. So really incredible. I mean, really, it’s inspiring.”
She was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to discuss the administration’s Cancer Moonshot initiative and the nation’s cancer program and services.
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She first met with Veronica Geronimo, CEO of Tohono O’odham Nation Health Care, who gave her a tour of the facility.
Then, she met with health care leaders from the nation and the university in the courtyard, which included Dr. Tara Chico-Jarillo, interim executive director of the nation’s Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Joann Sweasy, director of the university’s cancer center.
Later, Biden visited the San Xavier del bac Mission, founded by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692, where she was met by Tohono O’odham Nation Vice Chairwoman Wavalene Saunders.
“Oh, this is amazing. It’s beautiful,” Biden said as she entered the church.
Elders welcomed the first lady to tribal lands with a traditional blessing, and a group of women performed a dance that honors the tribe’s tradition of basket weaving.
Many tribal citizens and non-Natives lined up along the roadsides to get a glimpse of Biden, including students from the San Xavier Mission School who Biden met and posed for a group photo with.
Watch: Jill Biden leaves San Xavier
Biden commemorated Tuesday’s International Women’s Day in the backyard of Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, where the first lady said she was thinking of the women in Ukraine.
“So many of you know, it’s International Women’s Day and as we really recognize the incredible contributions of the women who have shaped our history, I’m thinking of the countless women whose names we really don’t know, the women in Ukraine fighting to keep their country free and those holding their children close as they flee to safety,” Biden said
Watch: Jill Biden’s remarks at Tucson mayor’s backyard
She also recognized women in Russia bravely protesting the war.
In a visit last year to Arizona, Jill Biden spent a day on the Navajo Nation listening to female tribal leaders. Biden invited Native educator Melissa Isaac, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, as an official guest of the First Lady to the president’s State of the Union Address. Jill Biden met Isaac in October to talk about youth mental health in Michigan.
Biden was in Phoenix on Monday, where she toured an Intel semiconductor factory and raised money for the Democratic National Committee.
The Biden administration has been fanning out across the country promoting the president’s domestic agenda.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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