President Obama’s adopted Crow Nation father has died [View all]

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. . . at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, Dec. 2


Hartford Black Eagle, 78, died at home in his sleep at Lodge Grass, Mont., the Sun Herald reports.

In May 2008, Obama became the first American presidential candidate to visit the reservation of the Crow Nation. During his trip he was adopted by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle as a member of the nation. Hartford chose the name “Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuxshish,” or ”One Who Helps People Throughout This Land.”

After the ceremony, Obama described his adoptive parents as ”the nicest parents you could ever want to know.” He added, “I like my new name. Barack Black Eagle. That is a good name!”

The couple traveled to Washington for Obama’s first inauguration, among four generations of Black Eagles who came to witness their new relative’s achievement. The compact links the first family with five generations of First Americans.

read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/11/28/barack-obama-loses-adoptive-native-american-father/?print=1





As the family prepared to make funeral arrangements Tuesday afternoon, Cedric Black Eagle said his mother was expecting a telephone call from the president later in the day. He said his father was proud to count the president among his sons, though he never made a big deal about it.

“He didn’t really brag about it,” Cedric Black Eagle said.

It marked the second death in the Black Eagle family this month. On Nov. 16, Marilyn Black Eagle, Obama’s 55-year-old adopted sister, died in a two-car traffic accident. An obituary published in The Billings Gazette listed the president and first lady Michelle Obama among the survivors.

Obama visited the reservation shortly before Montana’s 2008 presidential primary, as he wrestled then-Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was the first presidential candidate ever to visit the reservation.

According to published reports at the time, Hartford Black Eagle christened Obama with his new name and waved smoke from burning cedar needles over him with a fan of bald eagle feathers. The future president told a cheering crowd that he liked his new name and called the Black Eagles “the nicest parents you could ever want to know.”


read: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/11/27/4326186/barack-black-eagle-obama-loses.html