INDIAN ISLAND, Maine — Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis was part of a small group of Native American tribal officials who met with President Barack Obama on Thursday to talk about the environment, labor and other matters of importance to Native Americans in Maine and beyond.
“I was honored to be there, to be one of 10 or 11 tribal leaders in the country that had an opportunity to do that,” Francis said Friday, shortly after returning to Maine.
“It’s an honor to represent the tribe at that level and to sit three or four feet from a sitting president and talk about these issues, try to find solutions, is really good stuff,” he said.
Francis said he was among those invited to meet with Obama “because of the tribal water rights and other things going on right now in Maine and the engagement of the federal government around these issues,” he said.
“As you know, the Penobscot Nation vs. [Janet T.] Mills case, the river case that’s in federal district court now, the United States has intervened in that case,” he said. “So it was an opportunity to continue to talk to him about that and the water quality standards, the overall [Maine Indian Land Claims] Settlement Act challenges and the jurisdictional challenges that tribes face.
“He’s aware of it, and he’s certainly aware of the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s] involvement,” he said.
Thursday evening’s roundtable talk with Obama came on the heels of the National Congress of American Indians’ Tribal Impact Days, which Francis described as a two-day tribal nations conference that addressed the environment, self-governance, education, energy, labor and other matters of importance to tribal people.
“We probably attended six political functions with members of Congress. We did about 30 meetings with [Capitol Hill] staffers and we do that regularly. It’s just part of an overall plan to make sure we’re engaged with each branch [of government] and that people know what they can do to help,” Francis said.
“I think that the tribes here are — certainly our tribe is — starting to make headway on the education front. We spend time not just with our own delegation but with members of Congress from all over [who] champion the issues in other states,” he said.
As far as U.S. presidents go, Francis noted that Obama has been more “engaged” than some before him.
For example, Obama holds a White House Tribal Nations Conference every year where one leader from each tribe is invited to sit down with him and members of his cabinet for two days.
“I think it speaks to this president’s engagement with Native Americans and with the issues,” Francis said. “He’s gotten passed a ton of great policy issues on native affairs, with the reauthorize the [Indian] Health Care Improvement Act, the Affordable Care Act, which also provide federal congressional insurance to tribes, tribal law and order, violence against women provisions and a whole host of disaster relief things.
“Its an interesting time. It’s been a time where the status of tribes in terms of governments has been elevated and he deserves a lot of credit for that,” Francis said of the president. “There’s still a lot of challenges, but as far as presidents go, he’s been extremely effective when it comes to dealing with Native America.”