hy Hasn't Obama Visited California's Tribes?

Jul 08, 20140

President Obama made headlines this past Friday with his “first” trip to an Indian reservation as president. Indian Country Today noted that his “trip to Standing Rock [was] the first visit to an Indian reservation by a President since Bill Clinton visited the Navajo Nation in 2000.” The Washington Post elaborated on this theme, noting that before Clinton, one had to go back to Franklin Roosevelt’s visit with the Eastern Cherokee in 1936 to find a President in Indian country. Such reportage represents a negative trend in the media, the academy, and, it unfortunately appears, in Indian Country today: overlooking California’s Native Nations.