President Joe Biden corrected a chief of the Cherokee Nation for using the word “tribes” on Wednesday during a video conference call at the White House.
The president asked Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin to speak about the funds included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill for American Indians.
“This bill overall has more than $11 billion in investment in Indian country. That is historic. Potentially transformational investment for tribes across this country,” Hoskin said.
“Indian nations! Indian nations,” Biden interrupted, correcting the chief.
“Indian nations across this country working as sovereigns to sovereigns in the United States,” Hoskin continued, correcting his use of the word tribe.
The word “tribe” is considered problematic by woke leftists, who have pressured corporations to stop using the word.
In July 2020, Yeti cycles issued a statement they would stop using the word “tribe” from events after a change.org petition complained it was cultural appropriation of Native Americans.
The petition read:
A company or group that simply proclaims themselves as a ‘tribe’ because they share a common interest dismisses the long and violent history of colonization that Indigenous people faced and continue to face in the United States.
The #NotYourTribe petition was signed by 1,936 people.
Later in the meeting, both Hoskin and Biden used the phrase “tribal nations” without correcting themselves.
Hoskin was elected the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 2019, the largest tribal government in the United States with more than 385,000 citizens.
He thanked Biden and White House negotiators for including funding for broadband internet in the deal.
“Cherokee families ought to be able to connect just like anybody else,” Hoskin said, noting it was “particularly difficult” to get high-speed internet in the rural areas of the country.