Summit Set for December 16, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

Albuquerque, New Mexico - The Obama Administration announced this week that President Barack Obama will host a second Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C. this December. The announcement, made by the White House’s Kimberly Teehee, Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs, was delivered at the National Congress of American Indians’ (NCAI) 67th Annual Convention, the nation’s largest gathering of tribal leaders, governments, and communities.

“With the announcement of the second Tribal Nations Summit today, the Obama Administration reaffirmed that tribal governments are equal members in the family of American governments,” said Jefferson Keel, President of NCAI, the oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the country. “The federal trust relationship between the U.S. government and tribal nations is a non-partisan relationship. Our meetings with the executive branch have a long term focus of creating healthier and stronger tribal nations, to strengthen the entire nation.”

Since President Obama’s first Tribal Nations Summit in November of 2009, the federal government has increased the number and scope of tribal consultations, passed the Tribal Law and Order Act with bipartisan support, and made permanent the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.

Scheduled for Thursday, December 16, 2010, President Obama will host the White House Tribal Nations Summit. The Summit will include leaders from the 565 federally recognized tribes and give them an opportunity to interact directly with the President and representatives from the highest levels of his Administration. Each federally recognized tribe will be invited to send one representative to the summit.