In Confluence Park in Denver, two rivers merge.

The park is down the street, toward the mountains, from the Pepsi Center where the Democratic National Convention is in progress.

At this point, it is possible to see Cherry Creek flow into the relatively calm waters of the South Platte, causing the waters to churn where they meet.

The United States and American Indian relations are like Confluence Park. UnitedTribes Technical College President David Gipp explained these relations in an address Tuesday afternoon at the convention.

"Every step you take across this great nation, every vista you admire, every city you call by its tribal name, was once Indian Country," he said in his speech. "We paid for our place in advance, with land and blood."

The South Platte continues flowing through the Platte Valley, accepting the water from Cherry Creek. But what water has done so easily, people have not.

Gipp urged people to remember the special status of American Indians in the country and all that it entails.

"Our rights as tribal nations to determine our destiny within our great United States should be protected and honored by our government." he said in the speech. "Our treaties with the U.S. are the 'supreme law of the land.' We are not just another special interest group trying to claim a share of the American pie."

Gipp is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. He has served as president of United Tribes since 1977. He spoke after Rep. Mike Honda of California and before Rep. Linda Sanchez of California in the afternoon. He reminded people that more support is needed for education, healthcare and law enforcement. In its existing state, it is substandard, he said.

"Our health care is a disaster," he said in his speech. "Our public schools need repair. Our law enforcement officers lack the resources to guarantee safety. People in the Green Zone in Bagdad may indeed be safer than citizens in Indian Country."

Recent Tribune stories illustrate some of these problems.

On reservations, it can be difficult to recruit qualified applicants to fill health care positions. Some Indian Health Services units started internship programs to recruit potential applicants. On Standing Rock, for instance, there are three psychology interns who started in August. They will help the two psychologists already covering the reservation.

Partnerships with reservations, tribal colleges and other educational institutions are providing more opportunities for American Indians to earn advanced degrees to take on administrative roles in public schools and provide graduates for hard-to-fill positions, like special education. These programs offer stipends and other financial aid through a federal grant program.

On or off reservation, communities are concerned about the academic progress of American Indian students on standards-based tests, which are used for the federal No Child Left Behind Law. In some communities in the country, American Indian students perform below average on these tests.

At Fort Yates Public Schools, for example, about a third of students are proficient in reading and slightly more than a quarter of students are proficient in math. In Bismarck, about two-thirds of the American Indian students are proficient in reading and slightly more than half of American Indian students are proficient in math.

There's a promise of more law enforcement officers on the Standing Rock Reservation as part of Operation Dakota Peacekeeper, which stepped up law enforcement four months ago. It is a federal program run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Gipp is a proponent of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Act, which provides federal funding for the tribal colleges. This law recently changed to include United Tribes and Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, N.M.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)