Dozens Of Tribes To Attend Regional Meeting National Congress On Indian Issues Will Start Today At Spokane Hotel
More than 400 Indians from dozens of tribes are expected to attend the National Congress of American Indians in Spokane this week.
Indian gaming, environmental protection, natural resources, education, welfare reform and housing are among the issues slated for discussion.
“It’s kind of an update on the issues taking place in Indian country,” said Georgette Horse, director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based group. The conference starts today and continues through Thursday at the Sheraton-Spokane Hotel.
The National Congress of American Indians serves as an information clearinghouse and congressional lobby for 180 tribes across the U.S. It was formed in 1944.
“That’s where we get our political force,” said Bruce Wynne, a vice president of the group and a former chairman of the Spokane Tribe. “The tribes are too small on their own to have a lot of impact.”
Wynne said tribes feel their status as sovereign nations is under assault in the U.S. Congress.
“There are some people that do not want the tribes to maintain the relationship we have with the U.S. government,” he said. “They’re just anti-Indian.”
Also, he said, tribes fear that Congressional efforts to amend federal environmental laws could hurt Indians by stripping away their jurisdiction over regulation and cleanup.
Tribes also fear they’ll be hurt by the move to replace federal aid with state-run block grants.
“Historically, tribes have never fared well having to go the states for anything,” said Leland McGee, a legislative staff member with the National Congress of American Indians.
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe hopes to emerge from the conference with a group resolution supporting the tribe’s embattled National Indian Lottery. The interstate lottery, which could bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the Coeur d’Alenes, is being opposed widely in other states.
The meeting comes two weeks after a Spokane meeting of the 46-tribe Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. Members there voted to lobby the Bureau of Indian Affairs to support - and fund - tribal gaming efforts. The tribes called gaming “the most significant economic development activity of modern times” for Indians.
, DataTimes