Obama Calls BIA a "Backwater"

In an interview over the weekend with the Great Falls (Montana) Tribune, Sen. Barack Obama said that, if he’s elected president, he would try to give more attention to Native American issues.

The Illinois Democrat didn’t know enough about the long-running Indian trust case to comment on it, but he said he wants somebody in the White House “who has my ear, directly, to communicate the needs of native populations, and a commitment for me to meet, at least once a year, with tribal leaders and hear directly about their concerns.”

Obama told the paper, “The Bureau of Indian Affairs has become sort of a backwater. It doesn’t have a lot of clout in the administration. I want to put it front and center, along with other agencies, because on every indicator, Native
Americans are having a much tougher time than the population at large.”