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Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by
the Honorable Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior
Before The National Congress of American Indians
Sacramento, California
October 2, 2006

Nearly four months have passed since I spoke to you at your mid-year conference by satellite. During that time, I have had a chance to get my feet on the ground at the Interior Department – literally, in fact. The broken foot that kept me from attending your mid-year conference in person has healed.

The Honor Song you gave me in June moved my heart. I felt the spirit of Indian Country in the song, and through it --a sense of connection with you.  Thank you for giving me such a benediction.

Since becoming Secretary, I have reached out to Indian Country.  I visited Tribes from the Northernmost part of Alaska to the Badlands of South Dakota and the Easternmost part of Maine. 

I have worked to put into my soul what I have heard with my ears or seen with my eyes.  In Alaska, North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta took me to his subsistence camp on the shores of Lake Teshekpuk.  There, we went down into the permafrost to see his food locker or ice cavern.  Until that moment, I don’t think I completely understood what subsistence meant. 
I learned from Mayor Itta that subsistence isn’t just about food, it is about culture and spirituality and it is what holds a family together.

In South Dakota, I heard that what may make sense in Washington may not make sense to Tribes facing 85 percent unemployment.

And in the beautiful Penobscot lands, I learned that Tribal leaders are not just parochial.  The leaders there had concerns about the national relationship between the Department and all Tribal governments.  They worry about budgets in the BIA and grants that help all Tribal economic development.

These lessons will help shape the decisions I make as Secretary of the Interior.

Listening to Indian Country is what I did as Governor of Idaho. Working with Tribes, we made history.

After listening to Indian Tribes, I signed proclamations committing the State of Idaho to maintaining government-to-government relations with Tribes proud to call Idaho their home. Affirming that government-to-government status helped us reach agreement with the Nez Perce Tribe to resolve the largest Tribal water dispute in the history of Idaho.

The settlement agreement among the United States, the state, and the Tribe, resolved 1,200 Indian water rights claims. The tribe also received $200 million as part of the agreement.

History was made.  When we began discussions, few thought we would reach agreement.  When we reached agreement, everyone was grateful the discussions began.

We disproved the old western adage that “water is for fighting.” We proved the good that can be created when we meet with respect and with a determination to find solutions.

It is easy to talk about the need for Tribal economic development.  Frankly, as Governor, I wanted to see action and to-do lists and then I wanted to check to make sure the to-do lists got done.

We helped the Coeur d’Alene purchase the Rayonier Mill and an interest in a strawboard manufacturing company. We helped the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe access capital markets to develop a truck stop and motel project. To those who now have jobs, these projects are huge.

By listening to Tribal elders, I learned to respect their expertise toward wildlife.  I signed agreements with six Idaho tribes to preserve native wildlife and endangered species in Idaho.  The state and Tribes now work as one to improve water quality, fish and wildlife management, and habitat conservation and restoration throughout the Columbia River Basin.

The Nez Perce Tribe is the state’s full partner on the monitoring and management of gray wolves. 

As Secretary, I will continue to listen and to act in the best interests of Indian Country.  My goal is to bring the spirit of partnership we had in Idaho to the national level.

I have only been in office for four months, but I believe we are already making good progress on key issues that affect Indian Country.

When I became Secretary, I encouraged the President to continue the tradition of nominating an Indian to be Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs.

I am delighted to be here with that nominee Carl Artman. Carl is an enrolled member of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin who has been serving as Interior’s Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs. Prior to this, he was chief counsel of the Oneida Tribe.

We have also made progress in resolving the Cobell case. I want to again publicly express my appreciation to Jim Cason, our Associate Deputy Secretary, who has been serving in the capacity as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs for 18 months.

Jim has worked tirelessly on a host of issues ranging from implementing the No-Child–Left-Behind Act in BIA-funded schools to promoting economic development in Indian Country to providing assistance to victims of last year’s hurricanes.

Currently, Jim is helping me as I work with the U.S. Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget and key congressional leaders, such as Senators McCain and Dorgan, to find a mutually acceptable resolution to Cobell litigation that will be fair, full, and final.

I hope that we will soon have a final settlement. We are eager to move forward to the promise of the future instead of looking back at the problems of the past. 

During the past couple of months, other Cabinet secretaries and I have held a series of two dozen “listening sessions” in communities around the country like:

We want to listen to Americans about how we can do a better job of empowering cooperative conservation in their communities.

There are two underlying premises to these sessions.  First, people who live and work on the land have tremendous insight into how to take care of the land. Second, the federal government can accomplish far more for conservation working with the people who live and work on the land than it can by itself.

We can do more to conserve land and wildlife together than we can separately.

 

I turn now to the most important issue before us.  It is an issue with a human face -- the face of our children.   For too many children, what should be smiling happy faces are faces clouded by sadness and sorrow.   It's hard for children to smile when poverty, addiction, violence and despair fill their lives.   Drugs, alcohol, and gangs are stealing their joy and their youth. 

 

Indian country knows these sorrows all too well.

 

They are sorrows described movingly last spring by Kathleen Wesley-Kitcheyen, the chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, before Sen. McCain and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

 

Kathleen told the committee about a 9-year old meth user who was taken to the San Carlos Hospital with hallucinations and violent behavior. She spoke of a young mother on meth, who stabbed her baby to death because she thought he was possessed by the devil. She told how 65 babies had been born in 2004 addicted to meth and how that number climbed even higher last year. She spoke of how both tribal law enforcement and health care have been overwhelmed by the epidemic.

 

At the end, Kathleen told the committee: “We have the great spirit of our ancestors alive in us, but I am afraid that the spirit of our ancestors will die if we continue to let meth prevail.”

 

 

I personally have seen the devastation wrought by meth when I was governor.  I have met with meth users to hear of their painful addiction.  I have met in prisons with meth dealers who regret pushing their poison.

I accompanied state police on a drug bust at a private home. I have never seen such squalor and filth. There was garbage everywhere and in the backyard, an open septic tank leaked raw sewage.

As if that weren’t bad enough, I learned that the children of those arrested were about to arrive home from school. These children ate, breathed, and slept in rooms containing toxic chemicals. When they came home and saw mom cooking on the stove, it wasn’t dinner. It was another batch of meth.

 

You all know that meth is moving into Indian Country.

 

I am in the process of developing a Secretarial Initiative to combat the meth epidemic in Indian Country. The initiative will focus both on law enforcement to crack down on the gangs and other criminals who are preying on our children and treatment for those who have been ensnared in meth’s deadly web.

As we work through the budget process, I am hopeful we can obtain additional funds to bolster law enforcement on tribal lands, particularly in problem areas. We are considering the idea of helping tribes establish drug courts to handle the flood of meth cases and to construct new jail space that is badly needed if we are going to be effective in combating this scourge. I am eager to hear your ideas as we develop this initiative.

 

It is not enough, however, to protect our children from the scourge of an evil drug. We must also prepare them for a brighter future by improving our schools and providing better educational opportunities.

When I spoke to you in June, I affirmed that President Bush and I consider Interior’s responsibility to help tribes educate their children one of our most critical missions. Every Indian child deserves the opportunity to soar as high as ability and hard work can take them. Every Indian mother and father deserves the opportunity to dream, like generations of Americans, that their child will aspire to a healthier, more prosperous life.

I am pleased to report that under the leadership of Tom Dowd, we have completed the transition of the Office of Indian Education Programs to a full-fledged bureau within the Department of Interior.

As part of this transition, we are improving our management performance as the first step to improving student performance. We are hiring seven senior managers. We are also hiring 19 Education Line Officers.  Out of our 184 schools, very few are meeting the progress standards under the No-Child-Left-Behind Act.  These new managers will be trained to ask the right questions and will have the technical expertise to suggest solutions at these schools.

Finally, we opened the new National Indian Programs Training Center in Albuquerque last April. The center trains both Interior and tribal employees in a variety of trust areas, including education. It is equipped with modern classrooms and employs state-of-the-art computers and other technology. The center will be a vital resource in improving the quality and professionalism of Indian schools.

Following good education, Indian children need good jobs. 

We must reverse the chronic economic depression endemic in Indian Country. 

 

The challenge is not easy. Many tribal lands are remote and isolated, far from markets for products. Indian people also have had difficulty obtaining loans or raising investment capital. America’s small businesses hire half of all private sector employees. Yet, Native Americans own the fewest number of small businesses of all minority groups in the United States. Furthermore, chronic unemployment saps the belief of people that they can ever see prosperity and that, in turn, becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

 

We can meet the challenge. We are gaining a clearer understanding of how reservation economies are different from non-Indian economies and how to approach strengthening these economies.  We are making changes at Interior to meet the unique needs of Indian Country.

For example, we recently finalized the realignment of our Indian economic development programs into the new Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development. The office is organized and sharply focused on the goals of new jobs, new businesses, and new capital on tribal lands.

I have charged this office – and its Director Bob Middleton – with the task of developing innovative, collaborative and more modern approaches to improving economic opportunities for the tribes.

 Many of you have worked with Bob and know that he is tireless in promoting economic and workplace development in Indian Country and helping tribes gain access to capital through guaranteed loan programs.

We are working with individual tribes to identify and nurture economic development opportunities that best fit their resources, workforce, markets, and culture.

As I mentioned to you in June, energy and mineral development are two areas that hold enormous economic opportunity for tribes.  Tribal lands hold the potential to produce nearly five and a half billion barrels of oil, nearly 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 53 billion tons of coal.

 

To date, most conventional oil and gas exploration and development on tribal lands has taken place at shallow to medium depths. Using advanced technology, we can potentially reach huge reserves of oil and gas at deeper levels. We will work with you to explore and develop this potential.

We are also confident that tribes can tap into the fast-growing demand for alternative energy such as wind, biomass, and other renewables. Tribal lands, for example, encompass some of the most promising areas for wind energy in the country, with the potential to produce 535 billion kilowatt-hours per year. To put it in perspective, that is the equivalent of one-sixth of the electricity currently produced in the United States.

 

Besides energy development, Indian lands also contain an abundance of sand and gravel. America is fast running out of construction grade aggregate and crushed rock, which is used for construction of roads, buildings, highways and bridges. Virtually every Indian reservation possesses sand and gravel. The opportunity is particularly promising here in California where the state is running into a severe shortage of the sand and gravel that is abundant on tribal lands.

We will work with you to gain access to financing and capital markets so you can tap into these and other opportunities in a way that reflects the values and heritage of your tribes and its culture.

In closing, the challenge is before us. The future of our children is in our hands. We must defend them. We must empower them. We must provide a path for them that leads to prosperity.

As the great novelist Pearl Buck said:  “If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.”

We cannot fail our children. Working together, we will not fail our children.

I believe Indian people have a bright future. Your heritage, your culture, and your spirit strengthens you.  A new day will soon dawn. Walking together, we will reach the full light of that new day.

 

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U.S. Department of the Interior