Last week tribal representatives from across the U.S. traveled to Washington D.C. for President Obama’s eighth and final White House Tribal Nations Conference. The representatives met with President Obama and members of his cabinet. They discussed issues facing tribes and solutions ahead. The next day, about 100 Alaska Native and Native American youths attended the White House Tribal Youth Gathering to talk about these issues. One of those youths, Charitie Ropati, represented the Native Village of Kongiganak. Ropati is a tenth grader at Service High School in Anchorage. I talked to her on the last day of the conference while she was still in D.C.