American Indian leaders have grown used to eyeing promises of change from the federal government with skepticism. They’ve seen attempts to reform tribal health care and resolve legal battles over land trusts disappear in the U.S. Department of Interior’s vast bureaucracy.

The federal government’s dealings with American Indians are largely channeled through the Department of Interior and its Bureau of Indian Affairs, but with health and energy development issues on reservations and other native lands growing, interactions sprawl across various agencies. In anticipation of a wide overhaul of the far-flung bureaucracy, American Indian groups have organized meticulous presidential transition plans and experts cite a long laundry list of pressing issues for Indian Country, ranging from legal settlement of Indian trust accounts to alternative-energy development.

President-elect Barack Obama gave Indian Country unprecedented attention during his campaign and has gone farther than any other national politician in acknowledging American Indians. This alone is hope enough, and the practical starting point for real change under the new administration, several American Indian leaders said.

Many cite his inclusion of “Native American” in his election night victory speech as a hopeful first example. For Jacqueline Johnson Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians and a member of the Tlingit tribe, a mere mention from president-elect Barack Obama at a crucial moment was enough to offer a glimmer of hope.”

“We wait and wait and wait for a president that actually mentions those words, and for Indian Country, it was like a marker, that there’s an opportunity,” said Jacqueline Johnson Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, and a member of the Tlingit tribe.

“Some people will say that so small, but for us, the door is open,” she said. “We’re a small population, but a significant population of this country and really the historical foundation of this country and we’re finally being recognized as governments.”

Indian Country – a conceptual term that refers to the approximately 300 tribes and their 945,000 members on 55.7 million acres of land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs - is massive and complicated, with communities scattered across the country that include many different tribes each with their own unique culture and needs.

While some tribes have developed casinos and other lucrative revenue sources, many reservations lack functioning health and education systems and struggle with crippling poverty, substance abuse and rising crime.

But Indian Country also comprises key demographics in several hotly contested states during the general election. American Indian leaders and tribal experts said that with the newfound political power and some tribes finding new prosperity, the election of a new president with a multicultural heritage of his own presents an unprecedented opportunity for their people.

Six American Indians have been appointed advisors to Obama’s presidential transition, and the transition committee has been meeting with various groups from Indian Country. It’s not the first time American Indians have been involved with a transition, but there is a sense that this time is different.
Obama spent more time than any other presidential candidate ever campaigning in Indian Country, and during a visit to the Crow Nation’s reservation in Montana was adopted into the tribe (becoming Barack Black Eagle, he was given the honorary name, “One Who Helps People Throughout the Land”).

Recognition.
Recognition of Indian Country and respect for tribal sovereignty is the first step in any meaningful change, Johnson Pata and several other American Indian leaders and experts said.

Tribes need to be dealt with on the government-to-government level and not simply handled as any other issue group vying for attention and federal dollars, said Jack F. Trope, director of the Association on American Indian Affairs, an advocacy group that focuses on education, health and cultural preservation issues.

“You can’t just view the Native American tribes as another interest group,” he said. “They have this unique sovereign relationship that is something over and above what I'll call other interest groups have. You can't just lump tribes together.”

Sensitivity to this helps patch past wrongs and prevent future ones, Trope said. The historical backdrop of government policies designed to “acculturate them, destroy their language and their religion” remains important context, he said. Policies designed to assimilate tribes

Sensitivity to sovereignty is “historically important, and it’s morally correct,” Trope said. “Those official policies have ceased, but the effects of those haven’t ceased and indirectly some of those things are still going on – indirectly all of these land use systems and educational systems can continue to have the effect of negatively affecting the Indian culture and communities, if you let them.”

Johnson Pata said American Indians have “struggled with eras of federal government that lack a basic understanding of tribal nations as sovereign governments.” Without awareness of the rights of tribes as sovereign nations, none of the other issues of Indian Country can be solved, she said.

“That’s inherent from before we had other folks coming to this land, so that’s always at the crux of our highest priorities,” she said.

Including American Indian advisors on the transition team isn’t a first, but their participation is significant, several American Indians said. Jack Soto, director of a Washington, D.C., internship program for native students and a member of the Navajo tribe, said he’s met with Obama’s transition advisors and has been impressed. Bringing people into the transition who are so familiar with Indian affairs is a good sign, Soto said.

“Just that influence is going to have a huge carry over into how they approach everything they’re going into,” he said. “That’s a huge step incorporating (American Indians) at such an early stage, instead of getting in and saying, ‘Oh yeah, the Indians, what do we need to do with them?’”

At least initially, it appears that the efforts to include American Indian voices in the transition process are being noted approvingly on the reservations and in the tribal communities outside of Washington, D.C.

“There has been a reaction in the Indian-directed press,” said Gregory Gagnon, an associate professor in the department of Indian Studies at the University of North Dakota and a member of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.

“They’re noticing and they’re talking in their columns and editorials and saying, ‘At least we’ve got someone who’s listening,’ which they didn’t always feel was the case in the past.”

Unique moment.
Like other racial minorities in the United States, American Indians hope Obama’s own minority identity will mean his administration will have a greater sensitivity to their issues, several Indian Americans said. But, they added, the sense that this transition might usher in a new era at the Department of Interior goes beyond skin color or cultural experience.

American Indians have always leaned strongly to the left, Gagnon said, estimating that at least back to the 1960s, they have historically voted Democratic 80 to 90 percent of the time. What’s different this time, Gagnon and others said, is how seriously candidates courted the Indian vote signaling a new political clout.

Johnson Pata said efforts to get out the vote in Indian Country started in 2004 but blossomed this year. The National Congress of American Indians, Johnson Pata’s group, sponsored Native Vote, one of several American Indian-oriented efforts to rally Indian voters.

“What we did with Native Vote was that we made sure that folks understood we make key differences in key states,” she said, pointing to New Mexico, where Indians make up almost 10 percent of the population.

Gagnon said, as some tribes have grown wealthy off of casino revenues, they’ve become something of a lobbying force in Washington, D.C.

“There is a number of much more effective lobbying organizations,” he said. “It used to just be the (National Congress of American Indians). Now that you have some tribes that are wealthy, they’re supporting a lot of efforts to defend and expand sovereignty, and they’ve got the money to do it.”

If American Indians feel this is a special moment – with an incoming president who has recognized them, sought-after political clout and the muscle to push their policy interests on Capitol Hill – they are also circumspect about what will really pan out, Gagnon said.

“We’re optimistic skeptics, but of course there’s skepticism,” he said. “You know what the joke here is? What’s the most dangerous thing in Indian Country? Someone who comes from the Bureau of Indian affairs and says, ‘I’m here to help you.’”