[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 84 (Friday, May 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1085-E1086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         HONORING LORETTA AVENT

                                 ______


                          HON. BILL RICHARDSON

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 18, 1995
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, there has always been a special 
relationship between our Federal Government and the more than 500 
recognized Indian tribes in our Nation. Each of the tribes is a 
sovereign nation and each has the right to conduct business directly 
with the Federal Government bypassing State and local governments. 
While Indian people have this right in theory it is sometimes difficult 
for each of the tribes to have a substantive relationship with the 
executive branch.
  But thanks to an extraordinary public servant in the Clinton White 
House, Indian people for the first time are comfortable with and 
understand they have a direct link with the administration. Loretta 
Avent serves as Deputy Assistant to the President. Although African-
American, Mrs. Avent has a unique and close relationship with Indian 
country. She has opened the door for Indians and is rightly adored by 
tribes.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring Mrs. Avent for her 
service to this country and for her outstanding service to our native 
Americans. The following article which appeared in the February 5, 1995 
edition of the Arizona Republic is a great tribute to Mrs. Avent.
               [From the Arizona Republic, Feb. 5, 1995]

                  Clinton Liaison is Adored by Tribes

                            (By Jeff Barker)

       Washington.--They give her dolls, rings, shawls, baskets 
     and necklaces. They pray she won't leave them.
       To Native Americans, Loretta Avent is a godsend. She takes 
     them places they have never been.
       Avent, 52, is a deputy assistant to President Clinton. In 
     her two years at the White House, the Phoenix native has 
     forged an extraordinary relationship with Indian Country.
       Tribal leaders say the effervescent former lobbyist has 
     become, quite simply, the most important federal contact they 
     have ever had.
       They say she is helping renew their faith in government, 
     which has been so long a source of frustration and broken 
     promises.
       ``I'm almost 73 years old, and I will tell you that never 
     in my lifetime have we in Indian Country experienced a person 
     so dedicated to tribal rights,'' said Sue Shaffer, chairwoman 
     of the Cow Creek Bank of Umpqua Indians in Roseburg, Ore.
       ``She's been a guide, mentor, catalyst, grandmother,'' said 
     Paul Ojibway, an Ojibwa tribal member who is the Los Angeles 
     archbishop's Native American liaison. ``Being people who hold 
     people and symbols dear, she gives us the feeling that we are 
     included and don't have to come hat in hand to get noticed.''
       An African-American born in rural Virginia, Avent 
     acknowledges that her relationship with tribes ``is beyond 
     what's the norm for me.''
       ``They feel that I'm chosen. They give me heirlooms. They 
     give me what I call `heart' gifts,''' she said.
       She tells visitors that her office was occupied 23 years 
     ago by John Dean, former President Nixon's counsel during the 
     Watergate scandal.
       ``He was a man who had a chance to help this nation, and he 
     didn't,'' Avent said.


                        Opened door for Indians

       She hopes her legacy will be that she opened the doors of 
     1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to a group that has never quite felt 
     welcome, even though its members are descendants of the first 
     Americans.
       Avent's contributions are both symbolic and substantive. 
     She organized a historic meeting in April with Clinton and 
     several hundred tribal leaders. She also invited urban 
     Indians and tribes not federally recognized--two groups that 
     often feel particularly overlooked by the government--to 
     their own White House events.
       ``Never before has there been this type of accessibility,'' 
     and Albert Hale, president of the Navajo Nation.
       When tribal leaders believed they were being ignored by the 
     Census Bureau in August, they wrote to Avent. They also 
     contacted her when Arizona was resisting Indian gaming and 
     when they wanted Clinton to grant executive clemency for 
     Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement member 
     convicted of killing two FBI agents 20 years ago.
       ``There's nothing that they do--nothing--that doesn't come 
     to me, Avent said. ``The president said he wanted an 
     administration that reflected the country. Until we bring 
     them (Indians) to the table, then it's not the right 
     reflection of America, because America looked like them 
     first.''
       Avent emphasizes that she does not perform the Indians' 
     work by herself. She merely puts them in touch with people 
     who can help.
       ``She doesn't do things for us,'' said Ivan Makil, 
     president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. 
     ``She sets up the meeting, and after that, we're on our own. 
     She makes sure we get an opportunity to get to the table.''
       In Peltier's case, Avent referred inquiries about clemency 
     to the Justice Department. [[Page E1086]] 
       From prison, Peltier heard about Avent and wrote her a note 
     on the inside cover of a book about Native Americans' legacy.
       ``All my sources indicated to me that you are the most 
     powerful influence in the White House speaking for Native 
     American issues,'' Peltier wrote.
       He said he appreciated that someone of her ``stature'' 
     would read about his case.
       Much of Avent's outreach is personal. She fields as many as 
     60 calls a day from Indians and continues dispensing advice 
     long after the workday has ended.
       ``Tribes have gotten so used to being ignored for so long 
     that they could not believe someone is so king to them;'' 
     said Bunty Anquoe, a Washington-based reporter for Indian 
     Country Today newspaper.
       Avent invites tribal leaders to White House dinners and 
     receptions and, when she can, to the president's box at the 
     Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
       ``Thank you a million times over for taking me as your 
     guest to the White House last night,'' began a recent letter 
     to Avent from Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Washington-
     based Morning Star Institute, which promotes Indian cultural 
     rights.
       ``My parents will be so thrilled that I was able to tell 
     the president and first lady how very much they are admired 
     and what they hope to offer for those of us Indian people who 
     are the poor and mostly forgotten and left-out folks that the 
     Democrats stand for.''


                       credits dad for her values

       Avent credits her work values to her father, who reared her 
     alone after a divorce. He is a former elevator operator in 
     one of the U.S. House office buildings.
       A longtime resident of the nation's capital, Avent lobbied 
     for the National Association of Counties, U.S. Conference of 
     Mayors and other groups. She also ran a political consulting 
     firm whose clients included the Clinton-Gore campaign.
       She moved to Phoenix in 1988, mostly at the insistence of 
     her husband, who said the laid-back lifestyle and weather 
     would add years to their lives.
       Avent's husband, Jacques Avent, a Phoenix deputy city 
     manager, said his wife has been reaching out to ``underdogs'' 
     most of her life.
       ``She does the underdog causes; those are the one that turn 
     her on,'' he said.
       In Phoenix, she helped coordinate the Harmony Alliance, 
     which works at bringing disparate groups together.
       Avent and her husband have known the Clintons for 20 years.
       As a deputy assistant to the president for 
     intergovernmental affairs, she is a liaison to Indians and 
     local elected officials around the nation.
       She admits being torn between her commitment to Indians and 
     her sadness at being away from her husband.
       ``I can't be just a holiday spouse, nor do I want to be. I 
     was only going to do this a year,'' she said.
       But her job has become part of her.
       Returning recently to her birthplace in South Hill, VA., 
     Avent found herself thinking of her Indian friends.
       ``I was looking at where I grew up,'' she said. `'I was 
     born in the same house my father was. It made me understand 
     what Indian people mean when they talk about Mother Earth.''
     

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