Glenn Morris: President Obama 'lying' about indigenous rights

Friday, February 18, 2011  

"Much fanfare has been made of Barack Obama’s December 16, 2010, announcement at the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, D.C. Obama stated that the United States was finally “lending its support” to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—the U.S. being the last major country on the planet to do so.

I wish that there were a more diplomatic way to say this, but the plain fact is that Obama, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, lied to the Tribal Nations Summit Conference, and to the world, on December 16. I do not relish raining on the parade of those who took Obama at his word, or to dash Indian country’s optimism that finally someone in the White House is going to change the fundamentals of U.S. indigenous policy. It is necessary, however, to face a tough reality. The United States has not, does not now, and likely will never honestly support the Declaration in its current form.

This bold assertion reasonably requires some evidentiary support, which, unfortunately, is not difficult to produce. Significant, irrefutable evidence can be found in the thirty-year historical record of U.S. opposition to the international rights of indigenous peoples at the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations, at the Human Rights Commission/Council, at the International Labor Organization, and at the Organization of American States, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights."

Get the Story:
Glenn Morris: Still Lying After All These Years (Indian Country Today 2/16)