On October 16, 2024, the First Americans Museum and the Richard Nixon Foundation hosted Tribal Self-Determination Revisited: President Nixon’s Lasting Impact on American Indian Life at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This historic event brought 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.
Covering over a century of history, the landmark policy conference explored how Richard Nixon’s formative experiences in Southern California in the 1920s led to the Nixon administration’s transformative policies for American Indians in the 1970s while carrying the discussion to the present by evaluating the continuing effects of those policies.
Jim Byron, President and CEO, Richard Nixon Foundation and Dr. Kelli Mosteller, Executive Director, First Americans Museum provided opening remarks followed by two panels and a keynote that added to the historical record the enduring impact of the Nixon administration’s self-determination policies.
Panel 1: Nixon’s Initiatives: Reversing Decades of Discrimination
Panelists:
Bobbie Greene Kilberg, White House Fellow and Staff Assistant to President Nixon on the Domestic Council tasked with American Indian Affairs
Reid Peyton 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
Frank Gannon, moderator, Special Assistant to President Nixon
The first panel consisted of three members of the Nixon administration who were directly involved in enacting the policy of self-determination. In describing how the landmark policy came to be, the panelists underscored how President Nixon’s actions were shaped by sincere, deeply-held beliefs that took shape in his youth because of his football coach at Whittier College, American Indian Wallace Newman.
Keynote speaker Fred Mendoza, founder and chairman of the Oklahoma Hispanic Institute and member of the Nixon administration, described how the direct impact of self-determination is seen throughout Oklahoma. While giving personal reflections, Mr. Mendoza shared how President Nixon worked for a more just society for all Americans.
Panel 2: A New Sovereignty: The Effects of Self-Determination
Panelists:
Chief Chuck Hoskin, Cherokee Nation
Chief David Hill, Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, Osage Nation
Governor Bill Anoatubby, Chickasaw Nation
Lt. Governor Herschel Gorham, Cheyenne/Arapaho Tribes
The second panel brought together five tribal leaders to discuss the enduring impact of self-determination on healthcare, education and economic opportunities in Oklahoma today. The panelists noted how the tribes had an ally in President Nixon and how his Special Message to Congress on Indian Affairs on July 8, 1970 made the historic shift from termination to self-determination that brought about lasting change in Indian policy.
Watch here: