President JOE BIDEN on Wednesday created his second new national monument, protecting 450,000 acres of ancestral Navajo land from future development. It was just one of the administration's moves demonstrating its commitment to indigenous people. It was announced during the opening of the Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, the first such in person gathering in six years. Acknowledging the U.S. government has not always lived up to its treaty commitments to Native Americans, Biden trumpeted his own efforts on its behalf and outlined several new economic, environmental and educational initiatives . "No one's ever done as much as this administration, period," he said. "I am committed." And as a sign of that commitment, he vowed that he would make an official visit to Indian Country while touting actions already taken to help tribal nations. But for all of the president's pronouncements and actions, there are still other priorities for Native Americans that he has not yet addressed. Most notably, Biden did not speak about the case of LEONARD PELTIER, the 78-year-old Native American rights activist who has been imprisoned some 46 years after being convicted – in a dubious trial – for murdering two FBI agents during a shootout on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. Just Wednesday, seven senators urged the president in a letter to grant Peltier clemency, citing "mounting evidence of clear misconduct" during his trial that, they wrote, "has warranted outcry from the very officials who put Mr. Peltier behind bars." "Mr. Peltier's continued imprisonment defies the promises of justice, and the power to exercise mercy in this case lies solely within your discretion," reads the letter from Democratic Sens. BRIAN SCHATZ (Hawaii), PATRICK LEAHY (Vt.), ELIZABETH WARREN (Mass.), ED MARKEY (Mass.), BERNIE SANDERS (Vt.), MAZIE HIRONO (Hawaii) and TINA SMITH (Minn.). KEVIN SHARP , Peltier's lawyer, called the case "a huge deal to the community" still trying to heal from a history of "broken treaties and the mistreatment of Native Americans by the government." "All that gets laid on top of the Peltier case," he said. "That's why it's so important the government, and in this case, the president, address it (and grant clemency) to recognize that this didn't happen in a vacuum." JENNIFER BENDERY , a Huffington Post political journalist who has closely reported on the case for the past year, said it's impossible to talk about the Native American tribes as a monolith. "But it's fair to say there's a sense among a faction of Native Americans and well beyond the community that Leonard Peltier's imprisonment … has become a symbol of something bigger." As Peltier continues to suffer from numerous health problems, it's possible he could die in prison. "That would be on Biden's watch and that's going to be forever tied to him," Bendery said. "And a lot of people will remember that about him in the Native community." A White House spokesperson did not provide a comment on the case other than to say it would go through the pardons and clemency process overseen by the Department of Justice. But outside of Peltier, Biden's record on Native American issues is historic. He appointed the nation's first Native American Cabinet member in Interior Secretary, DEB HAALAND. And as Haaland noted in her speech today, Indian country has received $45 billion in federal funding since Biden took office through the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. "For context, that's more than 15 years worth of Bureau of Indian Affairs budgets in less than two years," she said. "This funding is transformational." But other matters remain unaddressed. For one, the leader of the country's largest tribe, Principal Chief CHUCK HOSKIN of Cherokee Nation, has called on Congress to honor the unfulfilled 187-year old treaty obligation to seat the Cherokee Nation as a non-voting delegate, similar to representatives from Washington, D.C., Guam, Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands. "Think about the substance," Hoskin said during an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "A delegate in the United States House of Representatives has tremendous power. They have the power to introduce legislation, to debate at the Committee level, and to see it all the way to advocating for it on the House floor, stopping short of voting on it on final passage. "But that's a great deal of influence and opportunity to have a champion for all of Indian country." MESSAGE US — Are you ARIANNA MENZELOS, special assistant to the national climate adviser at White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy? We want to hear from you! And we'll keep you anonymous. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .
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