2014 Budget on Indian Affaires
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This year, on April 10th the U.S. Department of the Interior released a budget plan for the 2014 presidential fiscal year that endorses a specific package support the 566 federally recognized American Indian and Alaskan Native tribes. The release quotes Kevin K. Washburn, the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, who emphasizes that with this 2.6 billion dollars invested in this field, president Obama considers supporting tribal nations and protecting the Indian country as a mission.
The primary intention to this increasing support in Indian Affairs include an initiative to foster economic development of reservations, support sustainable stewardship on the land, safeguarding natural resources, ensuring public safety, work on law enforcement, facilitate tribal self-governance, and expand payments on water-rights on settlements. Furthermore, the budget plan also offers funding in post-secondary education and in elementary and primary schools.
These actions allow the U.S. Federal Government and federally recognized native tribes to uphold a financial contract and cooperate in order to solve problems Native Americans have to cope with in and outside of the reservation. Also, the money offered may help to maintain a connection between Indians and local U.S. citizens living around the reservation, trying to bridge issues that may be a result of cultural and historical differences.
Every year, similar state involvements are necessary to grant equal chances to Native Americans, to protect their rights and ensure their cultural independence. The Indian population is still decreasing, many reservation soils are infertile and difficult to cultivate, and the division of the land always leads to a certain degree of isolation that should not be overdone, because it can lead to bad consequences for at least one of the parties. With this release, the U.S. government declares again to take responsibility in providing constant contact between the state and the Indian Reservations in the spirit of co-existence on the common ground.
Seal of the DOI
President Obama is an avid supporter of tribal nations