President Joe Biden told Native American leaders gathered at the White House on Wednesday for a summit that his administration is working to heal the wrongs of the past.
He offered as an example his executive order making it easier for Indigenous peoples to access federal funding, and have greater autonomy over how to spend it.
Biden also threw his support behind asking the International Olympic Committee to allow a confederation of 6 tribes in the Northeast to compete in lacrosse, a sport they invented, at the 2028 Olympics under its own flag
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, know in colonial times as the Iroquois League and later the Six Nations, is made up of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes.
. Biden said the actions at the summit were “key steps” that would help usher in a new era of tribal sovereignty, “grounded in dignity and respect that recognizes your fundamental rights to govern and grow on your own terms.”
Biden added that “It’s hard work to heal the wrongs of the past and change the course, and move forward,” but that he is working to ‘heal the wrongs of the past’ and ‘move forward’