Redding Rancheria's Potter meets President

Photo courtesy of Jack Potter

Seatmates - Redding Rancheria's tribal Vice Chair Jack Potter, left, poses for an informal portrait with a seatmate after the President's address during the closing session at the Third Tribal Conference Dec. 2 in Washington D.C.

For the third year in a row, President Barack Obama hosted representatives from more than 500 of the nation’s 565 federally recognized tribes during the 2011 Tribal Nations Conference.

Attending the Friday, Dec. 2, conference at the Department of Interior in Washington, D.C., was Redding Rancheria’s tribal Vice Chairman Jack Potter, Jr., 40, a resident of Round Mountain in Shasta County.

Having attended the first Tribal Nations Conference in 2009, it was Potter’s second time to be an official delegate and the third year that Redding Rancheria has had someone at the Tribal Nations Conference.

Last year, tribal Chairman Jason Hart went to the nation’s capital.

“I asked Jason if he was going again this year and he told me, ‘Why don’t you go back this year’ because he had other meetings to attend in Southern California,” Potter said with an obvious grin.

Sporting his distinctive facial tattoos, native California-style beadwork and jewelry and topped off with a traditional woodpecker flicker headdress, Potter chose to wear a fresh pair of Levi blue jeans and a dress shirt for his personal introduction to the President.

“My grandpa, Willard Rhodes, the last spiritual leader of the Pit River Tribe, always said that everyone will see you as a Native American, but warned me to never dress like a BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) Indian in a suit with turquoise and silver jewelry,” Potter said, this time breaking into a gentle laugh.

“When I was introduced, the President told me, ‘Good job. Keep up the good work. Thank you very much,’” Potter said, quickly turning his iPad around to show a visitor a video of the very scene he had just described.

“Before we shook his hand, the Secret Service guys made us pull our hands out of our pants pockets to show that we didn’t have anything like a Joy Buzzer that would harm the President,” Potter recalled.

President Obama, who had skipped the conference’s morning session, delivered a closing message to the assembled delegates.

Clued via email on his iPad, Potter knew to stay within the secured area during the lunch break so that he wouldn’t need to go through the security checkpoint for a second time to re-enter the main hall.

“I was the fifth person in line for the afternoon session so I was able to save several seats in the front row for other California delegates,” Potter said Wednesday, Dec. 7, upon his return home.

Speaking at the close of the conference, President Obama discussed the work his administration has accomplished to improve communications between tribal nations and the federal government, states a press release on the White House website.

“While our work together is far from over, today we can see what change looks like,” the President said, reading his speech from one of several video prompters ringing the podium.

“It’s the Native American-owned small business that’s opening its doors or a worker helping renovate a school. It’s new roads and houses. It’s wind turbines going up on tribal lands and crime going down in tribal communities. That’s what change looks like,” President Obama told the crowd.

The President also announced that earlier in the day he had signed an executive order to expand educational opportunities for First American students aimed at helping to preserve Native languages, cultures and histories. The order also ensures that these same young people are prepared for colleges and careers, the White House press release states.

“I believe that one day we’re going to be able to look back on these years and say that was the turning point … the moment when we stopped repeating the mistakes of the past and started building a better future,” Obama said.

Those statements in particular resonated with Potter, a strong advocate for teaching native culture and tribal history in Redding Rancheria’s Head Start classes.

“We started our Head Start program in 1995. Two years ago, students who were in our first Head Start class were graduating from high school. Now, they are going on to college,” Potter noted.

“Even for older Native Americans, the education reforms will benefit college and university students in terms of the ability to obtain student loans and scholarships,” Potter noted.

The President also spoke about streamlining the process for federally-recognized Tribal Nations such as Redding Rancheria to place additional land into trust, Potter said.

Rancheria officials have applied to get a large parcel of land fronting Interstate 5 just south of South Bonnyview Road into federal trust on behalf of the tribe, Potter said.

“Obama recently signed an order giving authority (to transfer land into trust) back to the Secretary of Interior” following a 2009 Supreme Court decision limiting the interior secretary’s authority, he said.

Under eight years of the George W. Bush administration, just 27,000 acres were transferred into trust across the entire nation, noted Potter.

“During President Obama’s first three years in office, already 157,000 acres have been protected,” he stated.

Redding Rancheria supports politicians on both sides of the political spectrum because it is neither Republican or Democrat, he said.

“We have been pretty successful about getting our people registered to vote on Election Day,” Potter said, noting Redding Rancheria and Win River Casino typically give employees an hour of paid time off to go to the polls.