State. And they ought to respect us because we've been able to come in and contribute to the economy.

Senator WELLSTONE. I want to finish because I want to make sure I understand this. Of the 6,000 jobs, you're saying that all of them include health care?

Mr. PHILLIP MARTIN. Fringe benefits we call it.

Senator WELLSTONE. That includes health care coverage, all 6,000 jobs?

Mr. PHILLIP MARTIN. Yes.

Senator WELLSTONE. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Chief Martin. I know you have to run for the airplane so you are excused if you have to go. I certainly agree with you that young people in the future have increased tolerance, therein lies with the education of our young people. Thank you for appearing. And we will continue on with Marge Anderson.

STATEMENT OF MARGE ANDERSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MILLE LACS BAND OF OJIBWE INDIANS, ONAMIA, MN Ms. ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman and Senator Wellstone, thank you for holding this field hearing here in Minnesota and in bringing Washington to Indian country. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Prior to 1991, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe suffered an unemployment rate of 60 percent. One economic development opportunity which existed was for band members within tribal government. Even then salaries were barely above the Federal poverty level. Our reservation was broken down and dying. Life at Mille Lacs was about hardship and despair. Today it is about hope and opportunity. You would never recognize our community as being the same reservation as it was 7 years ago. Indeed, we're not the same. Today the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is about rebirth and rejuvenation. I'm oftentimes asked why we have succeeded where other tribes have not. The answer is not a simple one. My written statement provides a detailed look at the development of our reservation economy.

I would just like to briefly touch on six fundamentals for building a successful tribal economy. First, all economic development must begin and end with Indian culture. Throughout our history, our traditions and our religions have helped to navigate us through the roughest of waters. We always try to keep our values at the forefront of our decisions we make. Our culture teaches us that the protection of our children, our elders, our natural resources, language, traditions, religion and sovereignty are what matters most with our own personal goal to ensure that history never repeats itself again, that the children of Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe must never ever want for any basic need again.

Second, a tribal government's structure must support its business and service infrastructure. Seventeen years ago, the Mille Lacs Band was one of the first tribes nationwide to throw out the governmental structure imposed upon us by the Indian Reorganization Act and adopt a "separation of powers" form of government. Today we have three separate branches. This system of checks

and accountability. We retain our Band's traditions within our statutes.

Another governmental reform initiative was the creation of a separate and independent corporate commission. We learned the hard way that politics and business should not mix. For a corporate commission has unique features which makes it accountable to the tribal government. It is also autonomous enough to have its own board of directors and authority to run the day-to-day operations of our enterprises.

The third key to our success has been commitment, our commitment to enter into tribal/private sector partnerships. Last Friday, April 3, our 7-year management agreement with Grand Casino, Inc. ended.

As of today, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe has been officially self-managing Mille Lacs for 6 days. We are the first tribe, which we know of, to successfully go full-circle with a management company. This is a prime example of a tribal/private sector partnership, which worked to everyone's benefit.

If we had made the decision 7 years ago to manage our own casinos, I don't believe that I would be here to even share in our success. Tribal/private joint ventures can provide not only capital but also expertise. It is no accident today that our two properties are ranging among the 12 most profitable in the Nation and GCI is now the fourth largest gaming company in the world. Everyone benefited from this arrangement; members of the Mille Lacs Band, surrounding non-Indian communities and Grand Casino, Inc.

Another prior example of a joint venture at work is the bonding, which the band, we have done. In 1992, we were the first tribe to issue community improvement bonds backed by casino revenues under the Tribal Tax Status Act of 1982. The first project was for upper schools, lower schools, clinics, ceremonial buildings, and on and on.

And, you know, today the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe has a presence enough in the financial market to borrow below prime with our last bonding. Indeed, we entered into a partnership with one of the premier financial institutions in the world-John Hancockbecause New York views us as being a very safe and secure investment.

In order to survive, tribes must be able to access the capital and expertise through tribal/private sector partnerships. Such joint ventures are the largely untapped steam engines, which can cause a tribal economy to thrive. I see that my time is probably brief. I just want to end my statement.

The fourth key element to our success has been our commitment to economic diversification. The crown jewel to our economic diversification occurred two years ago. As recently as 1990, we would not have been able-we would have been hard-pressed to get a small loan from any bank. Today we own our own bank and holding company.

The fifth element of success is empowerment of tribal members. All the economic development in the world would not mean a thing if people's lives are not changed for the better. And a key to turning people's lives around is to give the people the tools to do it

effort for our work force and our efforts are paying off. Today the majority of our work force is employed.

Finally, sovereignty is the cornerstone of a strong tribal economy. Sovereignty is both a support and a shield. We use this legal doctrine to protect our resources. Sovereign immunity exists to protect the tribal treasury from frivolous lawsuits. The tribal government exists to provide services to band members who need service. These protections and the right to govern us were promised in treaties, statutes and the course of dealings through our history. While some problems have arisen under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the answer is not to legislate a blanket waiver for all tribes. Each tribe is unique and each tribe needs to find unique ways of dealing with this issue. For Mille Lacs, that means a strong tribal court system and fortified law and the purchase of adequate in

surance.

Mr. Chairman, I hope our observations have been helpful to the committee. One final point: In spite of the most careful planning, economic success must also entail taking some risks. At Mille Lacs, we have taken risks, as have our partners. What we have proven is that tribal economy can be a good risk for our members and partners, if the right infrastructure is in place. We have endured many years of hardship at Mille Lacs.

[Prepared statement of Ms. Anderson appears in appendix.] The CHAIRMAN. With our timeframe, we're going to have to move on. We will have an opportunity to ask you some questions. Ms. ANDERSON. Okay.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Mason, why don't you continue.

STATEMENT OF BUD MASON, SR., CHAIRMAN, THREE AFFILIATED TRIBES BUSINESS COUNCIL, NEW TOWN, ND Mr. MASON. Thank you very much, Chairman Campbell and also Senator Wellstone. On behalf of the Three Affiliated Tribes which are the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa Nations, I am pleased to be invited to provide this testimony. I also have the written testimony here today.

The CHAIRMAN. All of your testimony will be included.

Mr. MASON. As the chairman of this committee, you well know, economic development within Indian Nations is key to our survival of our peoples into the next century. Economic development is not something that we can accomplish by one tribal administration and then ignore. It involves a constant commitment of time, moneys and constant cooperative efforts on the part of all involved-the State in which the Indian Nation is located in this case, we have good a working relationship with the State of North Dakota.

We, the Three Affiliated Indian tribes, are just beginning down the road of economic development; although we have modest successful tribal casinos we operate ourselves, we are still trying to develop other enterprises that will provide long-term economic health and welfare to our people of the reservation.

We have the resources. We have over 10,000 enrolled members of which 5,000 are tribal members on the reservation. We have the land. We have the mineral resources, including coal, oil, gas, that we are presently trying to develop. And of these more successful ef

Band of Chippewa and the Uniband Corporation, which we set up a satellite on our reservation which presently employs 40 people and we're looking at two more shifts of 80 more people.

And it's interesting, too, and I think that people need to know what the economic development does. Most of these people that are working there now are off of welfare.

I'm going to cut off some of my testimony so I can get to some of the key factors here. I have with me, that are also sitting in the audience, part of the executive committee of the Three Affiliated Tribes, Ed Fox, who is our treasurer, as well Dave Belcourt, who's our secretary. And we have experienced a healthy working relationship with the State of North Dakota. Our tribe went from having no credibility in the finance world, as well as no credibility in the political world, but with gentlemen like we have on the council, we have established that credibility. We have an excellent working relationship with the State of North Dakota; the Governor, as well as the community. That has taken a lot of work because of where we were at before.

As far as the financial institutions-well, foreign capital is not generally a problem for us. We also do note with some interest that a number of tribes across the country are looking to develop an inter-tribal approach toward economic development that has promise.

In addition, we would note, Senator, your introduction of S. 818, which would establish a Native American Financial Services Organization. I encourage the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to act on this important legislation. And we've asked our senators, who are part of the committee, namely, Senator Dorgan and Senator Conrad, also to support this.

I would like to move on to another issue, that as I mentioned, we have a good working relationship with the State of North Dakota, the Bank of North Dakota, but other barriers, Senator, remain, and that is the Federal bureaucracy. We are now working with a major oil and gas exploration and development company to allow all of our members to possess mineral rights on our reservation, to have an opportunity to share in the wealth created by oil and gas in the Williston Basin, a geological feature in our area rich in oil and gas of which we are a part. This development has been going on for the past 40 years. Unfortunately, although the company with which we are working stands ready to invest over the next 5 years between $30 and $50 million on the reservation. The Department of the Interior still has not given us the approval we need to proceed.

Persons within the Bureau, the BIA, and the Department of the Interior have asserted that only they know what is best for the tribe and for the individual mineral owners who are members of the Three Affiliated Tribes when it comes to development of their mineral resources. That attitude is simply not acceptable as tribal governments have become increasingly sophisticated and are far less likely to be swindled by major energy companies as has happened in the past. Tribes and their members must be given more control over their resources if they're going to fully develop them

And we feel that the Three Affiliated Tribes has that sophistication. Members on our council, we have two members who have law degrees. We have people who have master's degrees, double masters on our council, and also the town that we have within our tribal administration. But yet we cannot progress at all with the BIA nor the Department of Indian Affairs.

In summary, I believe that the economic development potential for Indian tribes in general is great. The biggest resource almost all tribes have is their people, who are increasingly better educated and better equipped to enter the job market and become valuable employees or to enter the business world as entrepreneurs and heads of their own companies. I believe that the tribes are not interested in creating obstacles to effective development; they are interested in eliminating them as much as possible.

As Indian people become employed, they get out of poverty, off of welfare, and the despair that currently grips many reservations begins to dissipate. I encourage the Committee on Indian Affairs to continue its work to assist all Indian people in the United States. Thank you very much.

[Prepared statement of Mr. Mason appears in appendix.]

The CHAIRMAN. Now, before we go on, I noticed a lot of young people came into the audience, as Senator Wellstone just mentioned. I don't know if all the young people that did come in are students here at the University, but would you stand up for us for just 1 moment all the young people that are students. I just want to tell you that we're very proud of you. We are very supportive that you come to events like this and try to learn and understand how your Government works. And I hope when you leave today, that you'll have a little better knowledge. We try to involve you and the community before we make decisions in Washington. There have been big mistakes made back there, but one of the mistakes we've never made in our form of Government is allowing people to have a voice in the Government. Thank you for being here.

Senator Wellstone suggests that I tell you a little about the focus. We're doing a series of hearings here when you came in. And some of them deal with sovereignty and which you may or may not know under the old treaties, Indian Nations were considered to be sovereign within the boundaries of the United States. They were often given the same kind of sovereignty the States have, the relationship with States. But as far as the total complete separate sovereignty and so forth, in many cases they are viewed as separate nations within a Nation.

There are a lot of complicated factors we have to deal with as we try and work through it. I must also say that among those old treaties, 385 that I remember were ratified by the U.S. Senate, that was a solemn agreement between the Federal Government and the Indian tribes; they all were broken by the United States. All of them that were ratified were broken. So, many of the people in America now are working very hard to try to rectify the insensitivity in the years past. We would give our words to the United States Government and just without blinking an eye, just crossed out Indian tribes. And that's what these hearings are about.

Now we will go on with John Sunchild. Thank you for appearing,