President Barack Obama announced an initiative to fight poverty in Native American communities and create opportunities for American Indian youth.

Through the Generation Indigenous initiative, the president will help Native American youth better prepare for higher education and a career, he said during the White House Tribal Nations Conference on Wednesday.

The initiative will also prep young American Indians for college and the job market by developing their leadership skills through the Department of Education and the Aspen Institute's Center for Native American Youth. The program will be funded by existing money along with nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, said an Obama administration spokeswoman.

"Nothing gets me angrier than when I get a sense that our young people early in life are already feeling like opportunities are foreclosed to them," Obama said, reports the Associated Press. "Because that's not who we are."

According to Bustle, Obama is only the third U.S. sitting president to enter the Indian Country since the 1930s.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, Vice President Joe Biden said that for Obama, helping Indian youth is "something that he came back from his June visit fired up about doing something about."

During his speech, Obama also reflected on that visit, recalling stories that children told him about facing depression and alcohol abuse on their reservation.

"We walked away shaken, because some of these kids were carrying burdens no young person should have to carry, and it was heartbreaking," Obama said.

Leaders from 566 federally recognized tribal nations, along with 36 hand-selected White House Youth Ambassadors from around the country were also at the conference.

"People who grow up in a poverty culture sometimes need guidance, need values, need a little bit of structure," said Chase Iron Eyes, an attorney and Native American rights activist from Standing Rock.

"Through some of the things the administration is doing, it looks like they're trying to do that," he said. "Youth ? they just need the right tools, and maybe they can empower themselves."