Source: Indianz.com
The White House Tribal Nations Conference began this morning at the Interior Department in Washington, D.C.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell kicked off the session after an introduction by Jodi Gillette, the Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs at the White House. This is Jewell’s first Tribal Nations Conference since joining the Obama administration earlier this year.
Tribal leaders also heard from five more Cabinet secretaries. They were: Secretary Eric Shinseki, Department of Veterans Affairs; Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Department of Health and Human Services; Secretary Anthony Foxx, Department of Transportation; Secretary Ernest Moniz, Department of Energy; and Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Justice, who was introduced by David Gipp, the president of the United Tribes Technical College in North Dakota.
After the morning remarks, tribal leaders went into breakout sessions on a variety of topics. The sessions were not open to press.
The afternoon session will resume at 2pm with remarks from three more Cabinet secretaries, to be followed by a listening session of the new White House Council on Native American Affairs. President Barack Obama created the council by executive order in June.
Obama is expected to deliver final remarks at the conference around 3:30pm. The afternoon session will be webcast at www.doi.gov/news/video/live.cfm.
Video from the morning session can be viewed here
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