2009 State of the Indian Nations

A Plea to Remember the Indian NationsIn his final State of the Indian Nations address, the president of the National Congress of American Indians pressed Tuesday for the group’s needs to receive parity in the Obama administration’s economic recovery package.

The president of the 250-tribe organization, Joe Garcia, laid out the group’s goals for economic recovery, health care, public safety and education in a speech to about 200 people at the National Museum of the American Indian.

At the top of his list, Mr. Garcia stressed the urgency of an economic plan directed at the tribes, which the Indian congress has estimated would cost $3.6 billion; he said this would provide 50,000 “shovel-ready” jobs on reservations, where unemployment is often far higher than elsewhere in the country. He also pleaded for Congress to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which expired 10 years ago.

“While the United States faces an economy in recession, great swaths of Indian country have been in an economic recession for decades,” Mr. Garcia said. “In every relevant program area for Indian issues—from education and public safety to the environment, infrastructure, and health care–federal funding lags behind the average for the rest of the United States.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see Buchanan:  Helping Indians = "Pigout" and The 2008 Presidential Campaign.