Victor Merina of Reznet reports:

While stopping short of any timetable, Obama indicated that the tribal summit was just a start.

In his talk, Obama said he understood such skepticism and that few people have been more marginalized and ignored by Washington as Native Americans.

"We know the history that we share," he said. "It's a history marked by violence and disease and deprivation. Treaties were violated. Promises were broken. You were told your lands, your religion, your cultures, your languages were not yours to keep. And that's a history that we've got to acknowledge if we are to move forward."

Ivan Posey of Wyoming's Wind River Reservation told Reznet, "People were fearful this would be a one-shot deal. I've seen it happen before, but I think this is different."

For now, however, native groups are being asked, as always, to be patient as Washington tries to hammer out a plan for meeting the needs of abandoned communities. The administration has set a 90-day timeline to set up a strategy for implementing a dormant Clinton-era executive order, which mandates "regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration."

Key issues on the agenda include revamping Indian Health Services, fostering renewable energy development on native lands, and school funding. Participants also highlighted challenges relating to climate change, land rights, high suicide rates, and crumbling infrastructures in native communities.

Following the speech, the exchange between the President and the audience was a microcosm of the ongoing dialogue that activists must maintain in the coming months. In response to Obama's eloquent words, Vice President of the Navajo Nation sounded a note of caution:

...the thing I'm worried about is the end of the term and what happens with all the plans that we're going to be putting together with your administration -- our administration. I supported you, and Navajo Nation did. What happens to all of that?

I really don't want to stand here and complain about we've been lied to again. Through the histories of all Indian Tribe -- the treaty that were made between the United States and Indian Tribe, it's been broken a lot. How can we make it so solid that it stays there, no matter who, what administration comes in? I think we need to work on that, sir.

Native leaders know all too well that individual leaders are mere footnotes in a history of racism, violence and disenfranchisement. Conflicts between colonizers and natives predate the founding of this country and will most certainly extend beyond the end of Obama's presidency. Indigenous communities are right not to stake too much on this initial exchange, but they now have a chance to set the tone for a conversation that could last generations.

Image: Barack Obama in Crow Agency, MT last May, via flickr