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CONTENTS

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9

Martin, Phillip, Chief, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Philadel-
phia, MS

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Additional material submitted for the record-Continued

Traditional American Indian Leadership: A Comparison with U.S. Gov-
ernance, a report by Tracy Becker

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Unmet Physical Infrastructure Needs on Indian Reservations Nationwide,
a report

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1998

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS,

St. Paul, MN

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 1 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas, O'Shaughnessy Educational Center, Cleveland Avenue, St. Paul, MN, Hon. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (chairman of the committee) presiding.

Present: Senators Campbell and Wellstone.

STATEMENT OF HON. BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO, CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

The CHAIRMAN. Good afternoon. The Committee on Indian Affairs hearing will be in session. Welcome to this gathering today. As tribal leaders and Indian people well know, there are many obstacles to building stronger reservation economies; poor infrastructure, isolation, an unskilled work force, lack of financing and many other problems have held Indian tribes back.

This committee has focused on issues related to tribal economic development for literally decades long before Senator Wellstone or I came on the scene. Many of the same issues have been around since the 1970's.

Now, as you know, most Indians have been in poor health and living in substandard housing in areas in which unemployment often exceeds 50 percent. We think that now is the time to get away from strategies that simply have not worked on many reservations to implement those that have worked. I have to say that generally those that have worked are because of very firm, aggressive and creative tribal leadership in the face of sometimes obstinate Federal agencies or Federal restrictions.

I'm also concerned about the impact of welfare reform on the Native American communities. The focus of welfare reform is on jobs and more jobs. If there are inadequate jobs available, then we fail to achieve the objectives of the act in Indian country.

For hundreds of years, the Federal Government's intervention of tribal economic business affairs resulted in stagnant economies and lack of opportunities for Indian people. With the self-determination age came new hope and progress for some tribes in the Nation, as well as tribal control and tribal decisionmaking. With minimal support from the United States, it has begun to help tribes make a

transition from Government dominated economies to economies that are healthy and attractive to the private sector.

The tribes are engaging local governments, with the private sector, with more and more joint ventures, cooperative agreements and other value-added activities are taking place for the benefit of both Indians and non-Indians. Using gaming revenues as an example, some tribes are now diversifying their tribes to include agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and hospitality efforts as well as exporting tribal-made goods and arts and crafts.

This movement, although overwhelmingly positive from my perspective, has not been without its critics.

We have just concluded several hearings dealing primarily with tribal sovereignty. And we know that the critics have talked about infrastructure, the local tax base, trust land problems and a number of other things that we know that, although we believe it is overwhelmingly good, there are some people who, in fact, criticize tribal economies for becoming successful.

Today we will hear from tribes that are successful in creating jobs and working with State and local governments and the private sector. We hope to receive from them a road map or model that we can also share with other tribes. We will also hear from witnesses from the private sector on their experience with working collaboratively with Indian tribes. And perhaps most importantly we'll hear from witnesses regarding the tools that are necessary for tribal economic success and what tribes can do to create businessfriendly environments to attract and retain capital investment and job opportunities.

Before we start, I would like to express my thanks to the University of St. Thomas for graciously hosting this event. And I would also like to tell you before we commence with the first panel that John Poupart of the American Indian Research Policy Institute has offered his leadership and we certainly appreciate that in organizing this event.

With that then, you can make your statement to your hometown, Senator Wellstone, if you have an opening statement.

STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL WELLSTONE, U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA

Senator WELLSTONE. Thank you. I think we are all lucky to have Senator Campbell here. It's a nice day, he could be on the motorcycle and he's here with us instead. Let me also thank St. Thomas University. Let me just say to you, Mr. Chairman, I'm pleased that you're here in Minnesota. I had a chance to meet with some leaders in Indian country earlier, and we count on your leadership. You are, I think, probably the most important senator. It's not an exaggeration. I think it's true in part because of who you are. It is because of what you stand for in the U.S. Senate especially when it comes to these fights and these struggles. We still have many of them.

We talk about sovereignty. Earlier today, I found it interesting when Chairman Whitefeather said to me that this is more important than any other particular issue. I mean, this is really the most important thing, but we still have some battles ahead of us. And we really appreciate your leadership. I won't go on.

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