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Jourdan Bennett-Begaye
ICT
WASHINGTON — Ribbon skirts, colorful ribbon shirts, or traditional jewelry peeking through the business suits of Indigenous leaders. Some wore moccasins on the front, gray (and frankly dull) steps of the Department of Interior and laughed or greeted one another in 36-degree weather.
My rideshare driver asked, “Whoa. I’ve never seen this many people here. What’s going on?” I replied, “The White House Tribal Nations Summit.”
Two students, who attend tribal colleges, stand out from the sea of Indigenous leaders at this year’s summit.
Sareya Taylor, White Mountain Apache and Navajo, attended the White House Tribal Youth Forum at the beginning of November and now the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit. She currently serves as “Miss” American Indian Higher Education Consortium for 2023 and 2024 and attends the Institute for American Indian Arts in New Mexico.
She said they’re both very similar. But the summit offers more insight to what is happening.
“I think when we’re back at home, we don’t really consider what other people are doing like Natives who work in the government or like what the government’s doing in general,” she said.
Student Joseph Sure Chief, Blackfeet and who attends Blackfeet Community College in Montana, also felt similar.
“It is mind boggling of all that happens here. I did not have an idea of what goes on behind the scenes as to the political circles,” Sure Chief said. “I am overwhelmed with all the people who’s here and all the aspects of all of every angle that things happen for Indian Country. I have a good understanding, though, of how it works.”
The summit highlight for Sure Chief so far has been President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, he said.
His peer Taylor has been enjoying hearing from different tribal leaders more than the government officials. “In some ways, I feel like the government workers all have kind of the same thing to say, over and over,” she said. “But from our tribal leaders, it’s so interesting to hear about what’s going on and the impacts they can actually see back at home, and how much it means to them.”
From what she is hearing, tribal leaders are always looking to the future. One tribal leader she heard from mentioned a project his nation is working on and how he’s doing it for his grandchildren because “he wants healing for his grandchildren.”
A striking realization for her during the summit was the juxtaposition of the president and vice president of the United States versus the Indigenous leaders. She didn’t expect the difference in how the red carpet was put down for them, of these similar positions.
“Yesterday morning, I came in. There are so many police cars and so much going on. And I was like, ‘Dang all this for our tribal leaders.’ And then I remembered, ah, Joe and Kamala are over here, and nevermind,” she said, referring to Wednesday. “And this morning coming in and not having to go through security or having anything checked. That was just a reminder that sometimes, unfortunately, our nation’s aren’t always respected in the way that they should be.”
When the president and vice president stepped on stage Day One, all the Indigenous leaders stood up, clapped or took photos.
“I thought it was kind of interesting how all of our tribal leaders were here standing for Joe Biden, in a sense, but I wonder if Joe Biden would do the same for them, and give them that same respect?” Taylor said. “Our tribal leaders are very important. And I know we make jokes back at home like ‘God chairman’s just like this’ or whatever. But you know, at the end of the day, they’re still a chairman. They’re still our dignitary people, and they’re the ones that represent our nations, our sovereign nations.”
Other student representation that has existed in this summit includes five culinary art students from the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico. They helped five Indigenous chefs prepare food for a reception at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and lunches at the tribal nations summit.
“I think having students here is a good representation of what is going to happen in the future,” Sure Chief said. “There’s all this knowledge and wisdom sitting in one room that all the youth can learn from.”
You can find the recorded live streams of the summit on the Interior Department’s YouTube.
Read up on the White House’s 2023 Progress Report for Tribal Nations here, prepared by the White House Domestic Policy Council.
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