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Robert Porter, the president of the Seneca nation in Western New York, said in an interview with the Caucus that Mr. Obama had failed to purse a legislative agenda that would help empower the American Indian nations and improve the economic situation for residents.
“The administration is very easily co-opting us with lofty promises of supporting the nation-to-nation relationship but then not following through,” Mr. Porter said. “We need to have support for meaningful tribal economic empowerment.”
Mr. Porter’s tribe has clashed with the administration over legislation passed last year that banned the direct sales of cigarettes through the mail. The Seneca nation had been an aggressive seller of cigarettes by mail and denounced the legislation as a means of crippling economic activity on American Indian reservations.
A news release in March from the Seneca nation accused Mr. Obama of “deliberately betraying” American Indians by signing the legislation into law.
Other American Indian leaders in town for the meeting say the president and the administration have done well, though they acknowledge that there are still problems to be worked out.
Ray Halbritter of the Oneida Nation, also in New York, said the president “deserves credit” for listening about issues on tribal lands.
“There certainly are issues that are not resolved. And there are disagreements,” Mr. Halbritter said. “But that’s not uncommon among nations. Without dialogue, usually you end up in conflict.”
Mr. Halbritter called the meeting in Washington with Mr. Obama and other government officials “important. He said the gathering will be an “opportunity to reaffirm the relationship that native Indian governments have with the United States.”
But both American Indian leaders said they remain concerned about the conflicts that often emerge between state governments and the tribal nations, often about economic efforts that states seek to regulate. The federal government is in the best position to intervene in those conflicts, they said.
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