Five Oklahoma Tribal Leaders to Gather Together & Reflect on, Assess Impact of Nixon Policies on American Indian Life
Oklahoma City, OK – On Wednesday, October 16, 2024, the First Americans Museum and the Richard Nixon Foundation will host a landmark policy conference, Tribal Self-Determination Revisited: President Nixon’s Lasting Impact on American Indian Life.
The event will bring together five prominent Oklahoma tribal leaders, along with policy makers and members of the Nixon administration, to discuss, reflect on and assess the ongoing effects —more than 50 years later— of the Nixon administration’s transformational federal policies on American Indian life and tribal sovereignty.
Speakers will include representatives from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Osage Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Cherokee Nation (invited), and Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes.
This conference will explore the seismic shift in federal Indian policy that began with and under President Richard Nixon, ultimately resulting in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. These many new laws and policies reversed decades of forced assimilation and discrimination and instead restored tribal sovereignty and fueled the cultural, economic, and social resurgence of American Indian communities across the United States.
Local media are invited to cover this important conference.
Conference Highlights:
What: Tribal Self-Determination Revisited: President Nixon’s Lasting Impact on American Indian Life
When: Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Where: First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City, OK
Key Panel Discussions:
Nixon’s Initiatives: Reversing Decades of Discrimination
A New Sovereignty: The Effects of Self-Determination
Featured Panelists:
- Chief David Hill, Muscogee (Creek) Nation
- Governor Bill Anoatubby, Chickasaw Nation
- Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation
- Governor Herschel Gorham, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes
- Assistant Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, Osage Nation
- Bobbie Greene Kilberg, White House Fellow and Staff Assistant to President Nixon on the Domestic Council tasked with American Indian Affairs
- Reid Payton Chambers, Associate Solicitor General for Indian Affairs under President Nixon
- Greg Slavonic, former Acting Under Secretary of the Navy (2020 to 2021), 18th Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and former Chief of Staff to Senator James Lankford
- Gilbert Suazo, Taos Pueblo Tribal Member and former Taos Pueblo Governor who was with President Nixon in 1970 at the signing of the Blue Lake Bill Taos Pueblo American Indian Land Deed.
Conference Schedule:
8:30 a.m. – Event Check-in and Coffee Reception
9:30 a.m. – Opening Remarks by Jim Byron, President and CEO, Richard Nixon Foundation and Dr. Kelli Mosteller, Executive Director, First Americans Museum
10:00 a.m. – Panel 1: Nixon’s Initiatives: Reversing Decades of Discrimination
11:00 a.m. – Panel 2: A New Sovereignty: The Effects of Self-Determination
12:00 p.m. – Luncheon and Keynote Remarks by Fred Mendoza
1:00 p.m. – Event Conclusion
Livestream the event: