Meeting to Discuss Indian Leaders’ Concerns Postponed

President Clinton’s scheduled meeting Monday with Native American tribal leaders and Newport Beach resident Phil Stevens, who helped arrange the gathering, has been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date.

The White House said Clinton delayed the noon meeting to go to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where he will talk to troops. Barksdale has supplied aircraft to the NATO mission in Kosovo.

Tribal leaders had planned to brief the president, members of Congress and Cabinet secretaries about dire housing conditions and poor medical care on Indian reservations in the Northern Plains states.

Stevens, a special chief of the Great Sioux Nation, helped Indian leaders from North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana get the White House meeting after seven tribes declared states of emergency on their reservations.