Galbraith and Gillette: Obama hosts tribes at White House

This meeting provided tribal leaders an opportunity to directly engage with the President on a leader-to-leader, government-to-government basis and to discuss key issues facing Indian Country at the highest level of Government. During the meeting, tribal leaders in attendance raised a wide range of important issues they are facing related to job creation, including expanding opportunity for renewable energy on tribal lands, increasing access to capital and foreign direct investment opportunities in Indian Country, the successes of tribal self-determination, improving educational outcomes, and jurisdictional challenges.

The twelve tribal leaders that participated in the meeting were:

Bill Anoatubby, Governor, Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma
Melanie Benjamin, Chief Executive, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe of Minnesota
Leonard Forsman, Chairman, Suquamish Tribe of Washington
Joe Garcia, Governor, Ohkay Owingeh of New Mexico
Ray Halibritter, Nation Representative and CEO, Oneida Indian Nations of New York
Carole Lankford, Vice Chairwoman, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana
Rex Lee Jim, Vice President, Navajo Nation of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah
Chris McNeil, CEO, Sealaska of Alaska
Rosemary Morillo, Chairwoman, Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians of California
Terri Parton, President, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes of Oklahoma
Terry Rambler, Chairman, San Carlos Apache Tribe of Arizona
Robert Shepherd, Chairman, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota