Obama to Native Americans: ‘You will not be forgotten’

“I get it. I’m on your side,’’ Obama told the largest gathering of tribal leaders in US history, representing 386 of the 564 federally recognized tribes.

The effort amounted to a campaign promise kept by Obama, who won significant support from Native Americans, and comes during a class-action lawsuit against the federal government, which they assert swindled them out of land royalties.

Obama said he did not blame tribal leaders for skepticism about another politician offering hopeful words. But he said he has no interest in going through the motions of just holding a summit with them. Obama signed a presidential memorandum calling on every Cabinet agency to give him a detailed plan to improve the relationship between the government and tribal communities and has followed through on his campaign pledge to appoint a Native American policy adviser to his senior White House staff.

The president seemed to connect best when he told his audience that he was like them: an “outsider’’ who grew up without a father, moved around a lot, and understood what it was like to struggle and be ignored. “You will not be forgotten as long as I’m in this White House,’’ Obama said to a sustained ovation.

He also mentioned that in May 2008, while campaigning for president, Obama was adopted by the Crow Nation under the name “One Who Helps People Throughout the Land’’ by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle.

“I know what they’re saying now: ‘Kids grow up so fast,’ ’’ Obama joked. “Only in America could the adoptive son of Crow Indians grow up to become president of the United States.’’

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The partisanship threatened to cast a pall over the bill - one of President Obama’s top priorities - as it makes its way to the Senate floor and as nations prepare to meet in Denmark next month to hammer out an international treaty to slow global warming.

Senator Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate environment committee, had delayed the crucial vote for days because of a Republican protest over whether the cost of the legislation had been fully examined. But the California Democrat said the Republican demand for more analysis was “duplicative and waste of taxpayer dollars.’’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has agreed to do a full analysis on the final version of the legislation.

“Advancing the bill is a necessary step on the road to garnering the 60 votes we need,’’ said Boxer, who introduced the bill along with Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts in late September.

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the committee, said in a statement that the Democrats’ action would signal “the death knell’’ for the Kerry-Boxer bill.

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The proposal by Louisiana Republican David Vitter was aimed at excluding noncitizens from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state.

“The current plan is to reapportion House seats using that overall number, citizens and noncitizens,’’ Vitter said. “I think that’s wrong. I think that’s contrary to the whole intent of the Constitution and the establishment of Congress as a democratic institution to represent citizens.’’

Critics said Vitter’s plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it has long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state, regardless of whether they are citizens.

Census Director Robert Groves opposes the proposal and recently told lawmakers that it would greatly delay the count. A separate survey already collects citizenship data.

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