White House announces 2022 Tribal Nations Summit

Indianz.Com > News > White House announces 2022 Tribal Nations Summit

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, right, introduces President Joe Biden at the White House Tribal Nations Summit on November 15, 2021. Photo by Adam Schultz / White House

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Indianz.Com

The White House has announced the dates for the 2022 Tribal Nations Summit.

The summit will take place November 30 and December 1. It will be hosted at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., according to an announcement disseminated on Wednesday morning, indicating a return to an in-person gathering following a virtual meeting last year.

“Building on the 2021 Summit and the progress made to strengthen our Nation-to-Nation relationships and invest record levels of resources in Tribal communities, we look forward to hosting a robust and meaningful engagement with Tribal leaders on important issues facing Tribal communities,” the White House website states. “The Summit will feature new Administration announcements and efforts to implement key policy initiatives supporting Tribal communities.”

“The Biden-Harris Administration is deeply committed to honoring its trust and treaty responsibilities to federally recognized Tribes, and this Summit provides an opportunity for Tribal leaders to engage directly with officials in the highest levels of the Administration,” the site reads.

Additional details will be provided by the White House. Tribal leaders and tribal representatives must register online by November 14.

“Due to limited capacity, we can only accommodate one governmental representative per Tribe,” the White House says.

Biden fulfilled a presidential campaign promise by reviving the Tribal Nations Summit last year. The first one of his administration took place November 15 and November 16, 2021, where he announced major initiatives addressing tribal homelands, treaty rights, tribal ecological knowledge, sacred sites and violence against Native people.

“That’s the foundation of our nation-to-nation partnership,” Biden said of his administration’s efforts. “That’s what this summit is all about.”

Over the two days, tribal leaders participated in the summit virtually, due to ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. Administration officials appeared in person at the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House.

“Our voices have been given a new platform and I am just one of those who have taken this historic opportunity to move past the days of inaction and apathy to take Native issues to the forefront of policy discussions and to ensure tribal consultation is the accepted way of doing business in Indian Country,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna who is the first Native person in a presidential cabinet, said on the opening day of the summit last year.