Democrat president Joe Biden is making a major move for Native Americans in the Olympics.
Biden said earlier this month that he supports a new team — and flag — competing at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, according to CNN.
Biden, speaking to the White House tribal Nationals Summit in Washington, said his administration supports a request from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, previously known as the Iroquois Confederacy, previously known as the Iroquois Confederacy, to compete internationally under their own flag in lacrosse in 2028.
“Their ancestors invented the game, they perfected it for millennia, their circumstances are unique, and they should be granted an exception to field their own team at the Olympics,” Biden said, according to CNN.
“A new era grounded in dignity and respect that recognizes your fundamental rights to govern and grow on your own terms,” Biden continued. “That’s what this summit is about.”
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, herself a Native American, backed her boss’s stance on the issue.
“If there’s one thing I hope tribal leaders walk away from this year’s summit with, it’s this – the progress we’ve made together is substantial, it’s history-making, and it’s thanks to President Biden working diligently with tribes across the country that we are finally building the future our people deserve,” Haaland said.
[CNN]
