CVMT Attends White House Tribal Nations Conference Week in Washington, D.C.

The California Valley Miwok Tribe (located at 10601 N. Escondido PL, Stockton, CA, as listed in the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ BIA/DOI Spring 2011 Tribal Leaders Directory), a federally recognized tribe eligible to receive and distribute services from the federal government – during the week of Tuesday, November 29th, 2011, through Friday, December 2nd, 2011 – attended a week-long agenda of scheduled events, culminating with the White House Tribal Nations Conference, which was held on December 2nd and was by invitation from the White House to only those recognized as tribal leaders or their substituted alternates from the 565 currently federally recognized tribes.

The California Valley Miwok Tribe sent its Chairperson, Silvia Burley, along with Council Member Anjelica Paulk and Financial Manager Colleen Pringle, to participate and represent the Tribe in the activities. Agendas were advanced during this week on many topics regarding issues of concern to the indigenous peoples of this nation and CVMT tribal representatives were proud participants. Accompanying this story are photos of various venues also visited while in Washington, D.C., and a pdf document of the week’s scheduled events. This is a two-part story and the second part of this story will address the actual conference that took place on Friday, December 2nd, 2011, which included an address by the President of the United States, Barack H. Obama, to the tribal representatives in attendance.

At this time, we would also like to extend our thanks to the National Congress of American Indians for all of their support and labors in the week of events, to the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and especially to the President of the United States, Barack H. Obama and his administration for instituting an event such as this; personally displaying a new-found respect and concern for our nation’s native peoples during his presidency.