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since the founding of our nation. Many say their presence has been underrepresented and their voices have gone unheard. But recently, native americans were invited to the White House for a one on one conference with President Bill Clinton. It's the first time ever that the United States

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president has asked native american tribes to Capitol Hill Next on base sunday. Find out what happened at this historic meeting who attended and who was excluded from the presidential guest list. Plus a new attitude for mom's a makeover treat on Mother's Day. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah, it's

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Mhm. Good morning. Happy mother's day and welcome to base Sunday. I'm Barbara Rogers will have a special tribute to mothers later in the program. But first we focus attention on a group of Americans who are often ignored. Last week, representatives of more than 500 Native American

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tribes were invited to Washington. It was the first time a president had ever invited tribal leaders to the White House to here and acknowledge their concerns. But what does this historic meeting mean for America's indians? And have they really been heard? Here's a background report by

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Jill dougherty of CNN News. What we are. Oh I oh a command she honors song echoed over the White House lawn. Opening a historic meeting between the president and leaders of 547 american indian and native Alaskan tribes the first time all had been invited. It is

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in that spirit and with great humility. I say to the leaders of the first americans. The american indian and Alaska natives welcome to the White House. Welcome home. The president who had agreed to a request for the meeting said indian tribes will get their wish to

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be treated as sovereign governments, almost like the national governors conference, as one official put it, we need you to say yes yes indian country. This is your White House too. The president held an eagle feather as tribal leaders spoke emotionally of their concern over health care,

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education, religious freedom and use of natural resources. I ask you today, Mr. President to be a champion, A champion for the native indigenous peoples of this land. The president answered one key complaint that had harmed the relationship, that his proposed budget cuts will hurt the indian

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health service. But I believe the health needs of tribal communities and families and Children clearly require special attention. Therefore, I have amended next year's budget To restore more than $120 million Indian Health Service on Religious freedom. Mr. Clinton signed a presidential directive ordering federal agencies to

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cooperate in the collection of eagle feathers, which native americans consider sacred, a belief that has sometimes run afoul of laws protecting endangered species. Another order directed agencies to consult with tribes before taking action that affects them. The meeting concluded with a traditional healing ceremony of gift

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giving a final song beginning. Both sides hope a new path of self determination for native americans. Mr Clinton, who courted american indian votes during the electoral campaign, is trying to ease concerns among some that he won't follow through on his promises. This reassurance is just the

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first step. Next month, Interior Secretary Bruce babbitt holds a follow up meeting with tribal leaders. What the White House calls a listening conference, Jill dougherty in the White House, joining me today to discuss what the meeting with President Clinton may mean to the future of native

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americans are Kathy white Eagle, executive director of Eagle Vision, which is an educational resource providing accurate american indian history and philosophy to educators, special interest groups and the general public. And bobby Castillo, the executive director of descending eagle, an environmental organization that works with youth in

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land restoration projects. Thanks for being with me this morning. Well, are you excited about this meeting or does this sort of is this just all politics? What what's going on here? Um I think it's a little bit of all politics. It's been a very long time

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that american indian people have uh been in this country and have been trying to regain their sovereignty with something that they have already. We don't need to have the United States government to allow us to have that sovereignty. You already have a sort of nation within

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nation status, don't you? Uh within within the Indian lands. Is that correct? Within them? According to the United States Constitution, Article six, which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land? We do have that as sovereign nations, but every one of those treaties have

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been violated by the United States government. So is this meeting then with the president going to mean some changes then? New direction for relationships with native americans and the government here? Well, it it it appears that way. But uh, I think native americans have gotten a

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lot of lip service. Uh, there's that old saying, he who speaks with forked tongue. Uh, one of the things that the president says, this is going to be a new direction. And uh, the President of the National Congress of American indians followed right behind him, saying

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that every great man keeps his word. How did this come about? Have native americans been putting pressure on Washington to have a meeting like this since this had never happened before. This was unprecedented? Well, it actually has happened before, but it was 172 years ago with

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President. Uh President Monroe was the last one. Whoever invited native Americans, the leaders to sit down So that this has happened before. But uh, why did it happen this time? What's, what's the significance of now? Well, you know, I think that 1992 has really made a

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change and the momentum and uh the renewal of sovereign interest, uh we have made a very, very large push actually myself. I'm also the international spokesperson for Leonard Peltier and we have invited the President of the United States to meet with Orville looking horse, who is

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the keeper of the sacred pipe chasing horse, Leonard crow dog, Archie fire, lame deer. And so many, many of the respected traditional leaders, spiritual leaders and medicine men. And all of a sudden we heard this thing come up, but he did. This is sort of a

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counter because you were having this meeting you're inviting him to in june. This is sort of a jump ahead of you. Yes, it is. You know, and you know, I mean we're inviting him. He says that we just saw welcome home, we never left, we're still

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here. We're inviting him. This is our home. And we have always wanted a peaceful dialogue relationship where we can live together and The whole thing though, all in all because it has been a 172 years. It is hopeful. Maybe he means that we see the whole

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world change. Nelson. Mandela is now the president of South Africa and the Palestinians and the Jews are making peace. So maybe this is really something that can happen. What is it? Native Americans would ask of the president or ask of this country in other words, what

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are the kinds of things that are needed that are not being? What are the needs that are not being addressed? Well, there are a lot of issues. One is housing. Um many of the reservations are backlogged with housing and are only being addressed with housing from

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requests of the 1970s. So there is a large request in that area. Health care has always been a problem in the state of California, healthcare is sort of independent in the urban Indian centers and they must rely on grant funding to provide um indian health services.

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As far as education goes, american indian Children are on the lower end of the scale. Um There is a Title five program that was administered in the 19 sixties, along with many other different titles that services american indian Children, but it's very regulated and the american

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indian Children do not get full benefits, I believe, of their culture and their traditions, which I think is very, very important. Our nations have always been fractionalized from the very beginning, we had traditional people that maintain their sovereignty as they have always had for 60,000 years

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or more in how they dealt with the land and how they dealt with their Children. Let me bring up two issues that are probably sort of Devil's advocate type questions. And the questions that I've heard raises one is how is it that native americans say we

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want to have sovereignty, we want to have control, but then want the government of the United States to still provide for education, healthcare and all of this. And then then the second question that some people raises, aren't you really getting a pretty good deal? You've got

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the, you've got the land, you've got the reservations and these are the kinds of things that people bring up. I'd like to hear you address that because people do raise those issues well, I think that we would not like to rely on foreign aid from the

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United States government, because basically it's foreign aid. We consider ourselves sovereign nations. Uh, the United States Government puts too many blocks on our development within our own land. Like I say, gambling casinos. And then, and then you hear very, very bad publicity of gambling casinos, because

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the United States Government would actually like us to put a toxic waste dump or a landfill, uh, storage of nuclear spent rods. Uh, we don't want these kinds of things. We want to be able to have our own opportunities to develop without the government bureaucracy telling

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us what we can do and what we can't do. So you have sort of a double status, You have the sovereign nation status on one hand, but on the other hand, you're still controlled by the government. So you see if they're going to control us, then

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we need to be able to get some assistance as well. In terms of the kinds of things that we can do. And also, isn't there a problem in terms of the land, some of the land that you have is not land that is easily developable into

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anything? Well, you know, the the land that we do have is still being taken away from us. Uh, We look at some of our most sacred sites are still being desecrated. Uh, many of these sacred sites are no longer in indian land. And we're asking to

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take uh you know, to not to desecrate it, not to develop on it, not to move our bones. And these are very, very important things. Two weeks ago, I was in Chicago at a demonstration because they have found mounds and they know that, that these mounds

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and burial sites over 10,000 years and their sacred sites, their sacred sites and they want to build a, build a big golf course on top of this. And it's reminded me of the same as the Mohawk crisis. What's going to happen Graham for the Apache people,

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you know, which is my nation, its uh, most sacred site that we have and there's development up there. They're building telescopes up there and the United States government has to recognize what is not even just on the reservation. What, what's off off of the reservation because

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it's been land taken from us that we've had for thousands and thousands of years now. You said that some of the tribes were not included in the invitation from the president who wasn't included and why were they left out? Well, the invitation was made to federally

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recognized tribes and specifically here in California, there's a large number of nations that are not federally recognized. Um, one of the reasons they're not federally recognized is because they do not have a traditional land base. There are 18 treaties in the state of California that have

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never been ratified by the state or by the federal government for the acquisition of their land ever being taken away. One of the nation's that I work with mostly is the Maya do nation and they have their own culture, They have their own language, but they

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do not have a traditional land base. Is there anything that can be done about that? Is there for those treaties that have not been ratified? Is there any hope that they ever will be? Uh no. And one of the reasons for that is the United States

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government and also the state of California says that they have not made any treaties, you know, for 120 years, so therefore we are not going to address those treaties even though they are still there, but they just haven't been better. That's correct. Well, we're out of

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time, but yes. Yeah. Well, the federal government in 1990 to pass the law that they can terminate a tribe at any time, even if there's a standing treaty with them, so which will guarantee that they can take the land away from us at any time. They'd

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rather take the status away from us, then give us the status? Well, hopefully, maybe as a result of this meeting, you can work out some things that will give you more of a kind of concrete future than what you've had in the past. I hope so.

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Thank you very much for being with us this morning. If you would like more information on Eagle Vision, you can reach them at 9167917910 Or if you'd like to learn more about the american indian movement, please call 4155521992 and don't go away. We will be right

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back after these messages. Next Makeover Moms for Mother's Day. Mm.