On Monday, Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama visited Montana, making the Crow Tribe’s reservation his first stop. It was the first time a high-profile candidate ever visited any of the state’s seven reservations.
At a rally attended by a couple of thousand Native Americans, according to the Flathead Beacon, he promised he would honor long-ignored treaty obligations and revamp health care and education on reservations across the United States, programs and services that have suffered due to a lack of funding.
"Few have been ignored by Washington for as long as Native Americans, the first Americans," Obama said at the rally. "That will change when I am president of the United States."
At a private ceremony before the rally, Obama was adopted into the Black Eagle family. His new Indian name: Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish ("One Who Helps People Throughout the Land”).
