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White House Tribal Nations Conference: Opening Session
Poziom:
Temat: Społeczeństwo i nauki społeczne
The President:
I see a lot of friends, a lot
of familiar faces in the house.
I want to thank all the tribal
leaders who have traveled here
for this conference.
And I also want to recognize
all the wonderful members of
Congress who are here, as well
as members of my Cabinet,
including Secretary Salazar, who
is doing terrific work here at
Interior on behalf of the First
Americans and on behalf of all Americans.
So thank you very
much, everybody.
(applause)
You know, yesterday, I had the
chance to meet with several
tribal leaders at
the White House,
continuing a conversation that
began long before I was President.
And while I'm glad to have the
opportunity to speak with you
this morning, I'm also very
eager to see the results of
today's meeting.
I want to hear more from you
about how we can strengthen the
relationship between
our governments,
whether in education
or health care,
or in fighting crime
or in creating jobs.
And that's why we're here today.
That's a promise
I've made to you.
I remember, more than two
years ago, in Montana,
I visited the Crow Nation --
one of the many times I met with
tribal leaders on
the campaign trail.
You may know that on that trip,
I became an adopted Crow Indian.
My Crow name is "One Who Helps
People Throughout the Land."
(cheers and applause)
And my wife, when I told
her about this, she said,
"You should be named 'One Who Isn't
Picking Up His Shoes and His Socks'."
(laughter)
Now -- but I like the
first name better.
And I want you to know that I'm working
very hard to live up to that name.
What I said then was that as
President I would make sure that
you had a voice in
the White House.
(applause)
I said that so long
as I held this office,
never again would Native
Americans be forgotten or ignored.
(applause)
Over the past two years,
my administration,
working hand in hand
with many of you,
has strived to
keep that promise.
And you've had strong
partners in Kim Teehee,
my senior advisor for
Native American issues,
and Jodi Gillette, in our
Intergovernmental Affairs office.
You can give them a
big round of applause.
They do outstanding work.
(applause)
Last year, we held the largest
gathering of tribal leaders in
our history.
And at that conference
-- you remember,
most of you were there -- I
ordered every Cabinet agency to
promote more consultation
with the tribal nations.
Because I don't believe that the
solutions to any of our problems
can be dictated solely
from Washington.
Real change depends on
all of us doing our part.
So over the past year my
administration has worked hard
to strengthen the relationship
between our nations.
And together, we have developed
a comprehensive strategy to help
meet the challenges facing
Native American communities.
Our strategy begins with the
number one concern for all
Americans right now -- and
that's improving the economy and
creating jobs.
We've heard time and again from
tribal leaders that one of the
keys to unlocking economic
growth on reservations is
investments in roads and
high-speed rail and high-speed
Internet and the infrastructure
that will better connect your
communities to the
broader economy.
That's essential for drawing
capital and creating jobs on
tribal lands.
So to help spur the economy,
we've boosted investment in
roads throughout the Bureau of
Indian Affairs and the Indian
Reservation Road Program, and
we've offered new loans to reach
reservations with broadband.
And as part of our plan
to revive the economy,
we've also put billions of
dollars into pressing needs like
renovating schools.
We're devoting resources
to job training --
especially for young people in
Indian Country who too often
have felt like they don't
have a chance to succeed.
And we're working with you to
increase the size of tribal
homelands in order to help
you develop your economies.
I also want to note that I
support legislation to make
clear -- in the wake of a
recent Supreme Court decision --
that the Secretary of Interior
can take land into trust for all
federally recognized tribes.
(applause)
That's something that I
discussed yesterday with tribal leaders.
We're also breaking down
bureaucratic barriers that have
prevented tribal nations from
developing clean energy like
wind and solar power.
It's essential not just
to your prosperity,
but to the prosperity
of our whole country.
And I've proposed increasing
lending to tribal businesses by
supporting community financial institutions
so they can finance more loans.
It is essential in order to help
businesses expand and hire in
areas where it can be
hard to find credit.
Another important part of
our strategy is health care.
We know that Native Americans
die of illnesses like diabetes,
pneumonia, flu --
even tuberculosis --
at far higher rates than
the rest of the population.
Make no mistake: These
disparities represent an ongoing tragedy.
They're cutting lives short,
causing untold pain and hardship
for Native American families.
And closing these gaps is not
just a question of policy,
it's a question of our values -- it's
a test of who we are as a nation.
Now, last year, at
this conference,
tribal leaders talked about the
need to improve the health care
available to Native Americans,
and to make quality insurance
affordable to all Americans.
And just a few months later, I
signed health reform legislation
into law, which permanently
authorizes the Indian Health
Care Improvement
Act -- permanently.
(applause)
It's going to make it possible
for Indian tribes and tribal
organizations to purchase health
care for their employees,
while making affordable coverage
available to everybody,
including those who use the
Indian Health Service --
that's most American
Indians and native --
Alaska Natives.
So it's going to make
a huge difference.
Of course, there are few steps
we can take that will make more
of a difference for the future
of your communities than
improving education
on tribal lands.
We've got to improve the
education we provide to our children.
That's the cornerstone on which
all of our progress will be built.
We know that Native Americans
are far more likely to drop out
of high school and far less
likely to go to college.
That not only damages the
prospects for tribal economies;
it's a heartbreaking
waste of human potential.
We cannot afford to squander the
promise of our young people.
Your communities
can't afford it,
and our country can't afford it.
And we are going to start
doing something about it.
(applause)
We're rebuilding schools on
tribal lands while helping to
ensure that tribes play a bigger
role in determining what their
children learn.
We're working to empower parents
with more and better options for
schools for their kids -- as
well as with support programs
that actually work with Indian
parents to give them a real
voice in improving education
in your communities.
We're also working to improve
the programs available to
students at tribal colleges.
Students who study at tribal
colleges are much less likely to
leave college without a degree
and the vast majority end up in
careers serving
their tribal nation.
And these schools are not only
helping to educate Native
Americans; they're also helping
to preserve rich but often
endangered languages
and traditions.
I'd also like to point out last
year I signed historic reforms
that are increasing student aid
and making college loans more affordable.
That's especially important to
Native Americans struggling to
pay for a college degree.
(applause)
Now, all these efforts --
improving health care,
education, the economy --
ultimately these efforts will
not succeed unless all of our
communities are safe places to
grow up and attend school and
open businesses and where people
are not living under the
constant threat of violence and crime.
And that threat remains real, as
crime rates in Indian Country
are anywhere from twice to 20
times the national average.
That's a sobering statistic
-- represents a cloud over the
future of your communities.
So the Justice Department, under
the leadership of Eric Holder,
is working with you to reform
the way justice is done on
Indian reservations.
And I was proud to sign the
Tribal Law and Order Act into
law, which is going to help
tribes combat drug and alcohol
abuse, to have more access
to criminal databases,
and to gain greater authority to
prosecute and punish criminals
in Indian Country.
That's important.
(applause)
We've also resolved a number of
longstanding disputes about the
ways that our government
has treated --
or in some cases mistreated
-- folks in Indian Country,
even in recent years.
We've settled cases where
there were allegations of
discrimination against Native
American farmers and ranchers by
the Department of Agriculture.
And after a 14-year battle
over the accounting of tribal
resources in the Cobell case, we
reached a bipartisan agreement,
which was part of a law
I signed just a week ago.
We're very proud of that
and I want to thank all the
legislators who helped
make that happen.
(applause)
This will put more land in the
hands of tribes to manage or
otherwise benefit their members.
This law also includes money
to settle lawsuits over water
rights for seven
tribes in Arizona,
Montana and New Mexico -- and
it creates a scholarship fund so
more Native Americans can
afford to go to college.
These cases serve as a reminder
of the importance of not
glossing over the past
or ignoring the past,
even as we work together to
forge a brighter future.
That's why, last year,
I signed a resolution,
passed by both
parties in Congress,
finally recognizing the sad and
painful chapters in our shared
history -- a history too often
marred by broken promises and
grave injustices against
the First Americans.
It's a resolution I
fully supported --
recognizing that no statement
can undo the damage that was
done; what it can do is help
reaffirm the principles that
should guide our future.
It's only by heeding the lessons of
our history that we can move forward.
And as you know, in April, we
announced that we were reviewing
our position on the U.N.
Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
And today I can announce that
the United States is lending its
support to this declaration.
(cheers and applause)
The aspirations it affirms --
including the respect for the
institutions and rich
cultures of Native peoples --
are one we must always
seek to fulfill.
And we're releasing a more
detailed statement about U.S.
support for the declaration and
our ongoing work in Indian Country.
But I want to be clear: What
matters far more than words --
what matters far more than any
resolution or declaration --
are actions to
match those words.
And that's what this
conference is about.
(applause)
That's what this
conference is about.
That's the standard I expect my
administration to be held to.
So we're making progress.
We're moving forward.
And what I hope is that we are
seeing a turning point in the
relationship
between our nations.
The truth is, for a long time,
Native Americans were implicitly
told that they had
a choice to make.
By virtue of the longstanding
failure to tackle wrenching
problems in Indian Country, it
seemed as though you had to
either abandon your heritage or
accept a lesser lot in life;
that there was no way to be a
successful part of America and a
proud Native American.
But we know this
is a false choice.
To accept it is to believe that
we can't and won't do better.
And I don't accept that.
I know there is not a single
person in this room who accepts
that either.
We know that, ultimately,
this is not just a matter of
legislation, not just
a matter of policy.
It's a matter of whether we're
going to live up to our basic values.
It's a matter of upholding an
ideal that has always defined
who we are as Americans.
E pluribus unum.
Out of many, one.
That's why we're here.
That's what we're called to do.
And I'm confident that if
we keep up our efforts,
that if we continue
to work together,
that we will live up to the
simple motto and we will achieve
a brighter future for the First
Americans and for all Americans.
So thank you very much.
God bless you.
Thank you.
(applause)
