New Mexico tribe honors President Nixon
Ed Nixon shakes hands with Taos Pueblo Governor Ernesto Luhan at a powwow in Taos Pueblo, N.M. on July 12.
COURTESY OF THE RICHARD NIXON FOUNDATION
Among President Richard Nixon's many accolades is friend of the Taos Pueblo Indian Tribe.
A drum and plaque gifted to the Richard Nixon Foundation is now in the hands of the National Archives and Records Administration at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum following a powwow in Taos Pueblo, N.M.
Ed Nixon, the former president's younger brother, and a delegation from the foundation attended the July 12 ceremony where Nixon was praised as a supporter of the tribe's rights to their sacred land.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the annexation of Blue Lake, a sacred area for the tribe, into Carson National Forest. The tribe fought for years to reclaim control over it because they say visitors left trash and polluted the local watershed.
Gilbert Suazo, a tribal councilman for the Taos Pueblo, spoke about his experience going with the tribe's delegation to meet Nixon.
"I felt the sincerity of President Nixon's words as he expressed his personal feelings of American Indian people and how they have been treated over the years and his personal intentions to do whatever he could, whenever he could, to make up for that treatment," Suazo said on a YouTube video.
Paul Apodaca, associate professor of American Studies at Chapman University, said Nixon was the only American president who returned sacred land to an American Indian tribe on religious grounds. Apodaca has visited and studied the Taos Pueblo and said Nixon's response to their cause was unprecedented.
"His deep faith as a Quaker put him in contact with a favorable view of Indians from his childhood," Apodaca said. "His faith was much stronger and much more important than people talk about."
The foundation's plan is that the plaque and drum will one day be added to a permanent exhibit on American Indian affairs.