The issue of Indian tribal sovereignty topped the agenda for the more than 500 American Indian leaders, including some from the Coachella Valley, who gathered for a summit with President Barack Obama and top administration officials Thursday in Washington, D.C.

The central question: What does it really mean to be sovereign, and why is it so hard for some tribes to be recognized as such?

“This meeting hopefully will lead to setting a standard or a benchmark for sovereignty,” said Richard Milanovich, chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which is recognized as sovereign, but not to the satisfaction of Milanovich.

“Treaties under the current state of sovereignty can be abrogated at any time,” said Milanovich, who met with Obama as he campaigned for American Indian votes as a presidential candidate. “Even within the system, we seem to be the last culture included.”

The summit, held blocks from the White House at the Interior Department, was the first of its kind since President Bill Clinton invited American Indian leaders to Washington 15 years ago.

All 564 federally recognized tribes were invited to send a representative to this week's gathering.

But that number was part of the problem for Milanovich and others, as there are hundreds of tribes the federal government doesn't recognize as sovereign.

Under current law, federal tribal recognition establishes a government-to-government relationship between a tribe and the U.S. government. Once federally recognized, a tribe has access to federal benefits and programs.

Yet, the acknowledgement process “is broken and has been since it was established in 1978,” according to a statement from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is holding hearings this week on problems with sovereignty.

Tribes can wait decades without getting a decision on sovereignty. This can contribute to the numerous other problems American Indians suffer, including poor health, early death, alcoholism and lack of education.

Senate Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., has asked the Interior Department to lay out some reforms on how to improve and accelerate the sovereignty process.

“This is not a system that works,” he said in a statement this week. “When people get together and file a petition, they should not expect it to take three decades for their government to get back to them.”

Less bureaucracy

Obama reached out to tribal leaders on this and other issues at Thursday's summit.

He called for a government that “respects the inherent sovereignty of Indian nations.”

He told leaders, “We live with a legacy of injustice” and called Indians the “first Americans.”

But there are practical concerns as well that arose at Thursday's summit.

Robert Martin, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, said the tribe has run into bureaucratic walls as the federal government changed the environmental designation for some of its tribal lands, complicating plans to develop clean energy.

Renewable energy was a theme Obama touted as a new economic opportunity for American Indians.

“(Obama) seems to want this (government) process to work a lot easier,” Martin said. “And I'm encouraged by what I've heard today.”

Still, the list of decades-old grievances that Indian nations have lodged against the federal government is lengthy and a source of great acrimony. But at least some of the tribes that accuse Washington of failing to provide adequate resources for health, education and law enforcement, as promised in treaties, believe they finally have an ally in the new commander in chief.

Obama earned respect with American Indians by meeting with them several times during last year's campaign, as he did with Milanovich.

“This is encouraging,” Milanovich said Thursday. “But we need to see a lot more. This can't just be just another photo op.”

Reach John Yaukey at jyaukey@gannett.com