“Indian Country.” Said twice in a press conference on July 28, 2020 by the President of the United States. He used the phrase to explain that for the first time aid was going to Indigenous Peoples of America to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Twice.
What did he mean? To whom did he reference? Here in North Carolina we have the Lumbees, the Cherokees, and more Indigenous Americans. Did he mean that all of these citizens would receive aid to fight this pandemic?
Or was he envisioning another “Indian Country” like that of Teddy Roosevelt where the buffalo was stalked by hunters clad only in loin-clothes, riding on magnificent mounts. I wager that he was not seeing the hovels without running water or electricity, but only his vision of “Indian Country.”
