The actor's speech did little to quiet the protesters. Finally, the moderators abandoned any hope of proceeding with the planned discussion. Instead, they invited members of the audience to come forward. There can be no national dialogue on race without dealing with the first peoples of this hemisphere. What Indian people insist on is a nation to nation government that respects who we are as peoples, respects our nationhood, respects our sovereignty, and begins finally to listen to who we are.
Community leaders react.
Sitting around here complaining isn't going to change a thing. We haven't changed one thing today in this time we ve been up here for these several hours because we haven t been able to look beyond our own self. No one on this stage questions the pain and suffering of the nations that we have caused as Americans to others. That's not the question. The question is the healing question, and we haven't gotten to that yet.