ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a quantitative analysis of presidential rhetoric across the self-determination era. Presidential statements from 1969 to 2020 that reference Native American, American Indians, or self-determination were evaluated and categorized to compare each president’s relative level of attention, targeted audience, and rhetorical frame. The analysis shows that, overall, presidential attention is relatively low, although Clinton and Obama had the most references to Native issues and people in their statements. Nixon was the only president to primarily direct his statements on Native issues toward Congress; the rest tended to have the most statements directed at the public. Other than Nixon, contemporary presidents have not used self-determination as the predominant frame for their references, with a range of patterns across different presidents.
