Return to the Clinton era

Talking to tribes:  Democratic hopeful courts Montana's Native voteClinton told the Pablo crowd that, as president, she would make Indian Country issues a priority by restoring the practices her husband, former President Bill Clinton, put into action when he was the nation's commander in chief in the 1990s.

Under Bill Clinton, more than 1,000 American Indian schoolteachers were recruited to teach in public schools, and more money went into Indian Health Services and to create economic opportunity in Indian Country, she said.

“We were moving forward--not fast enough, but with discernible progress, much of which has either stalled or gone backward (during the current administration),” Clinton said, adding: “We need a president next January who understands the obligation the United States government has to the tribes that represent the first peoples of the United States.”

To the crowd's thundering cheers, Clinton made several promises she said she would uphold as president.

“We must fund the Indian Health Services. We must create a position at a high level in the government for the administrator of the Indian Health Services at the assistant secretary of state level, so that person has the clout and visibility in Washington to work with me as president to make the changes that are necessary,” she said.

“We must return to what was the case in the Clinton White House in the 1990s--we will have a representative of Indian Country inside the White House working with the president every single day. That's what we did in the '90s. George Bush eliminated that; I will return it so those issues are the highest priority in the White House and in the president's office.”