Obama headed west this summer

by Justin Sink - 05/23/14 6:11 PM ET

President Obama will spend part of his summer out West, chowing down on barbecue and making a rare presidential visit to a Native American reservation.

Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will head to Dallas for a July 9 fundraiser benefitting House Democrats, according to an invitation obtained by the Associated Press.

{mosads}Tickets for the summer barbecue at the home of former National Jewish Democratic Council chairman Marc Stanley range between $10,000 and $32,400.

And next month, the president plans to visit a Native American reservation in North Dakota, the Washington Post reported.

During a speech at last year’s White House Tribal Nations Conference, Obama pledged that he would make his first visit to Indian Country sometime in 2014.

That visit comes as Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), have petitioned the National Football League to force the Washington Redskins to change their team name, which some Native Americans have described as racially offensive.

The president has said if he was the owner of the franchise, he would change the name.

The visit also comes after the president signed a series of bills designed to combat crime on reservations, including an expansion of the Violence Against Women Act that allowed tribes greater authority to prosecute domestic violence on native land.

At the tribal nations conference last year, Obama said Native American concerns were a priority for his administration.

“After I became president, I said that given the painful chapters and broken promises in our shared history, I’d make sure this country kept its promises to you,” Obama said. “I promised that tribal nations would have a stronger voice in Washington, that as long as I was in the White House, it would be your house too.”

Tags Barack Obama Fundraising Harry Reid Nancy Pelosi Native Americans in the United States