Hosting tribal leaders from across the country for a two-day summit in Washington, President Joe Biden on Wednesday lauded his efforts to build a “new and better chapter in American history” for Native Americans while announcing new steps to strengthen Washington’s support for tribal nations. 

“We’re ushering in a new era of a relationship between our government and nation-to-nation relationships,” Biden said during remarks on the summit’s opening day. “We’ve made progress but we know indigenous communities still live in the shadows of the failed policies of the past.”

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to announce new steps to strengthen the federal government’s relationship and support for Native Americans 
  • Tribal leaders are gathering in Washington for the administration’s third annual White House Tribal Nation Summit and Biden will deliver remarks on Wednesday
  • The executive order seeks to  improve how tribal nations access and navigate federal funding and support
  • The president will also throw his support behind behind the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s ability to compete under its own flag in lacrosse in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles

As part of his effort to change that, Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order seeking to reshape how tribal nations find, access and navigate federal funding and endorsed a bid for a confederacy to play under its own flag in the 2028 Olympic Games. 

“It's hard work to heal the wrongs of the past and change course and move forward,” Biden said, “but the actions we are taking today are key steps into that new era of tribal sovereignty and self-determination.”

As part of the executive order, the administration will establish a “one-stop-shop” for tribes and native businesses to better find support from the federal government. The White House Council on Native American Affairs, the Office and Management and Budget, and the White House Domestic Policy Council will also be required to identify areas in which the government can provide additional funding. Agencies will have to report on such progress annually. 

“Tribal nations still face unacceptable barriers to fully exercising their inherent sovereignty, and really too often that occurs because of the way we are administering federal funding programs,” White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden told reporters on a call. 

The president also threw his support behind the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s ability to compete under its own flag in lacrosse in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles — with Biden noting his daughter and niece played the sport and he attended Syracuse, “long the home of a powerhouse lacrosse program.”

The White House added the president understands the Confederacy’s unique role in inventing lacrosse, which will be included in the 2028 summer games for the first time in more than a century.

“Having President Biden and the U.S. government’s support, I think is really significant and I’m really grateful that they voluntarily did this,” Leo Nolan, the executive director of the Haudenosaunee National Lacrosse Team said in an interview with Spectrum News. 

Nolan added the administration approached them on the issue and, according to the White House, conversations then began between Haudenosaunee leaders and White House officials in July 2023. 

“We didn’t go to them, they came to us,” Nolan said. 

“My initial reaction was one of surprise to some degree because obviously we have a lot of things going on in the world but for them to pick up on this and realize this is a real opportunity to basically symbolically say to the world, we support the Haudenosaunee and their efforts to continue to spread the game of lacrosse,” he added. 

The confederacy is made up of six different nations: the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscarora Nation, and the Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse Organization is among the best in the world.

Allowing them to play in 2028 would require the International Olympic Committee to make an exception to a rule permitting only teams playing as part of an official national Olympic committee to compete under its own flag in the Games. Nolan said nothing is finalized and the IOC is the “ultimate deciding factor.” The Haudenosaunee have competed as their own team at a number of international events since 1990.

“We have some of the best lacrosse athletes, both men and women, and to not have that opportunity to see those players play, I think would be a real downturn for lacrosse,” he said. 

On Wednesday, the Biden administration also announced more than 190 agreements that allow tribes to manage federal lands, waters and natural resources and a new study to help better interpret and tell the history of Native Americans, particularly during periods of federal reform.

The Department of the Interior meanwhile is working on final revisions to a rule overhauling how human remains, funerary objects and sacred objects are repatriated. The new rules streamline the requirements for museums and federal agencies to identify possible items for repatriation.

Officials also announced that the White House Council on Native American Affairs, which is co-chaired by Haaland and Tanden, has published a guide outlining best practices and procedures for the management, treatment and protection of sacred sites. The document was recently finalized after taking into account feedback from tribal leaders.

This week’s summit marks the third such event of Biden’s presidency, with the first taking place virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The summit is a unique and important opportunity to discuss ways in which the federal government invests in and strengthens nation-to-nation relationships,” Interior Secretary Deb Haalanda, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, told reporters. “Native American history is American history.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report