National Congress of American Indians Holds Winter Meeting
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 – Chief James Sappier of Maine Penobscot Tribe ate buffalo meat on toothpicks and gourmet nachos at a “gala reception” the National Congress of American Indians hosted at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian on Monday.
Hundreds of Native Americans from all over Indian Country milled around under the colossal dome that the museum’s galleries wrap around, socializing with themselves and with congressional staffs and members of Congress from Capitol Hill, only a few blocks away.
Sappier said he came down to Washington to make sure that the interests of the Penobscot people and Indians in the Northeast in general were as well represented at the congress’s winter executive session as those of the tribes in such western states as Oklahoma and Arizona.
Representatives of the Micmacs also were here, but they said they were not authorized to talk to the news media. No Passamaquoddy or Maliseet representatives came down to Washington. All four of the Wabanaki Tribes that are still live cultures in Maine–the Maliseet, Micmacs, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot–were here for a meeting of the United South and Eastern Tribes at the beginning of February. The tribes at that convention all met with the Maine congressional delegation to discuss Indian affairs.
The Washington-based National Congress of American Indians, started in 1944, is one of the oldest Indian advocacy groups in the country. Sappier said that when the Penobscots were looking for formal federal recognition, the congress passed resolutions and wrote letters in support of the tribe. The chief said the congress was the only organization where all the tribes come together; he called it an effective way of projecting a unified Indian voice to the federal government.
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz. addressed the congress, along with several Cabinet secretaries, including Mike Johanns of Agriculture and R. James Nicholson of Veterans Affairs. Many House members also made appearances, including Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), who represents the most Indians of anyone in the House, and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a member of the Chickasaw Tribe and the only tribal member among the 533 current members of Congress.
While Sappier lingered in the Museum’s gift store and debated over what gift to buy his staff for a future raffle, he described what he hoped to accomplish in Washington: “To influence the decisions of Indian tribes and look out for the Northeast tribes’ welfare in federal legislation, in policy making, in regulatory decisions with regards to health services for the tribes and their relationship with the U.S. government.”
In the working meetings of the Indian congress, Sappier said he and his colleagues from around the country discussed every major issue Indians face today, including tribal court systems, law enforcement, energy, natural resources and health care.
As a group of traditional performers sang to the party below, Sappier said the Penobscots needed more economic development and an improved infrastructure to succeed. Another theme many who attended the conference voiced was the need for more education to break the cycle of poverty that is plaguing the vast majority of Indian Country, and a need for more health care spending.
“The issue is the level of health care in Indian Country; on a per capita basis, federal prisoners receive twice the health care the Indians receive,” Sappier said. “Tribes receive $1,900 per capita, federal prisoners receive $3,800 per capita, and the average nationwide is $5,600 per capita.”
“Every year we come to these same meetings and ask for the same crumbs,” said Jefferson Keel, the congress’s first vice president. “We don’t even get a slice, we get crumbs, and that is insulting.”
Some Indian supporters expressed concern that the current Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, which in part involves his representation of Indian tribes, might lead some to think that Indian tribes spent enormous amounts of money in Washington and received enormous dividends in return. But Rep. Cole told the convention that all 500 tribes across the nation contributed some 0.3 percent of all the money spent in the 2004 elections. Sen. Kerry, for his part, said the tribes were innocent in the scandal; he put the blame on corrupt Republicans.
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