Indianz.Com > News > Forgotten no more?: Trump team puts Native people last on ‘important’ call
‘Forgotten no more!’: Trump team puts Native people last on important call
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Indianz.Com
Just days after their boss bashed Indigenous Peoples Day and got his supporters to boo the idea, members of the Donald Trump administration tried their best to portray the president as someone who cares about the interests of America’s “first” inhabitants.
During a conference call on Tuesday afternoon, several Trump political appointees announced the Putting America’s First Peoples plan. The three-page document marks the first time since the president took office almost four years ago that he has laid out any sort of Indian Country policy.
“President Trump is committed to honoring the heritage of America’s first inhabitants and partnering with Native Americans to build a brighter future,” reads the short plan, whose subtitle is an emphatic “Forgotten No More!”
Coming just two weeks before the November 3 election, the release of the plan bears all the marks of a campaign announcement. The document includes a list of promises, including one to host a national gathering of tribal leaders, a practice that Trump stopped after he became president in January 2017. Up until now, in fact, the president has failed hold such an event despite repeated requests from Indian Country. But in the era of Trump, nothing is as it seems. The 5pm Eastern conference call was pitched by the White House as as an “important” Indian Country announcement in an invitation email sent to tribal leaders earlier in the day. As a result, few in Indian Country had any idea what they signed up for. “It probably will be just another waste of all of our time,” said one tribal official, who was lured into a similar 5pm call by the White House on the Friday before Memorial Day, only to find out little of substance was delivered. And with no one from the president’s re-election campaign involved, the call had an inadvertent yet telling effect. The announcement ended up putting the “first peoples” dead last.Just two weeks before the election, Donald Trump released his "Putting America's People First Plan" outlining his Indian Country policy for the first time since taking office more than three years ago. #NativeVote #NativeVote20 #NativeVote2020https://t.co/r1VetMVSR0
— indianz.com (@indianz) October 20, 2020


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