Nixon’s White House policy aide John Ehrlichman remembered the president’s deep admiration of his coach. Nixon reminisced in his memoirs, “I think I learned more from him than any man I have ever known aside from my father.” Nixon was a perennial benchwarmer for the Whittier Poets team, but Coach Newman inspired the scrappy, 150-pound future president to never give up. What made Nixon-whose problematic legacy includes secret White House tapes peppered with racist and antisemitic remarks-care so deeply about Native Americans? The answer goes back to Whittier College, in the fall of 1930, where he met one of his most influential mentors: football coach Wallace Newman, a Luiseño Indian. Instead, he promoted self-determination: giving power back to Indians to govern themselves. Most importantly, Nixon pushed to end the government’s so-called “termination” policy, which had worked to dismantle tribal governments and eliminate reservations. His administration produced the largest education reform to help Native people. He appointed Louis Bruce, a Mohawk, as commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and more than doubled the agency’s budget. Nixon was the first president to return sacred lands to tribes, including the largest land return with a generous payment.
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