Siletz news /, March 01, 2017, Page 10, Image 10

Photos by Diane Rodriquez
Peter Hatch, temporary historical researcher/cultural resources technician, shares
basketry and other elements of Siletz Tribal culture with young people.
Rebecca J. Dobkins, curator at the Hallie Ford Museum in Salem and professor of
anthropology at Willamette University, talks with Tribal Council member Robert
Kentta and Tribal Chairman Delores Pigsley.
Tribal Governments Day at the Capitol • Feb. 9, 2017 • State Capitol Building • Salem, Oregon
Indian Nations, con’t from page 1
commitments. Tribes were invaded and
disturbed. Many of us were relocated off
our homelands. My own Tribe had our res-
ervation land taken without our consent.
Despite continuing breeches of these
promises, in hundreds of instances, Tribal
governments entered into solemn agree-
ments with the federal government. My
own great-great-grandfather, Kel-Kahl-
Tsoot, signed the Treaty of Point Elliott
in 1855.
Through these treaties, Tribal nations
relinquished significant portions of our
original territories. And the federal gov-
ernment became the trustee for hundreds
of Tribal governments and the millions of
acres of Tribal lands that remained.
This means, now and forever, that
every federal official is our trustee.
It’s the sacred responsibility that all of
our elected officials share. That is where our
story of progress and partnership begins.
From the very start, Tribal govern-
ments have been on equal footing with state
governments. And must remain so today.
In exchange for our lands, the federal
government made three promises: To
never take our remaining lands without
our consent. To safeguard our right to
govern ourselves on those lands. And to
enact laws that protect our economies, our
treaties and our ways of life.
This is the foundation of the trust rela-
tionship on which we have built our modern
government-to-government partnership.
Recently, we worked with Congress to
pass the Tribal Law and Order Act and the
Violence Against Women Act to strengthen
community safety and Tribal justice systems.
And now, Tribal law enforcement
departments like the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla in Oregon have access to
national criminal databases that help them
better protect their people.
We worked with Congress to pass the
HEARTH Act and the Indian Trust Asset
Reform Act to further empower Tribes
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to make decisions about their lands and
their assets.
And now, Tribes like Ohkay Owingeh
Pueblo in New Mexico are regulating wind
and solar energy leases on their lands.
We worked with Congress to pass
the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
to modernize Tribal health care networks
and ensure that every Native American
and Alaskan Native receives the health
care promised in our treaties.
And now, Tribal governments are imple-
menting these – and other – new policies.
These policies work because they
provide us the flexibility we need to craft
our own local solutions to our own distinct
challenges. In the process, we are innovat-
ing in our governments, revitalizing our
communities and growing our economies.
And we continue to partner with other
governments to meet common challenges.
Partnerships like these are especially
important in rural areas. More than 70
percent of Indian Country is rural. Indian
people know firsthand that quality health
care is harder to get outside of the cities.
Native peoples like the Coeur d’Alene
Tribe of Idaho have set out to change that.
In partnership with the city of Plummer,
Idaho, they built the Benewah Medical
Center. Today, the center serves thousands
of people from Plummer and the sur-
rounding area.
Tribes are stepping up not only to take
care of their own people, but to take care
of their entire region.
Indian people define prosperity in
many ways, not just economic but also
spiritual, cultural and collective prosperity.
When Tribal nations lift up communities,
we want no one to get left behind.
That is why the Citizen Potawatomi
Nation of Oklahoma built a health care
center for the non-Native spouses and
children of Tribal citizens.
There are countless examples of
Tribal governments investing in their com-
March 2017
munities and creating jobs for their own
people and those who live in surrounding
communities.
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
Community – a Tribe of just a few hun-
dred – employs more than 4,000 through
its retail, gaming and other businesses.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw
Indians has been the economic engine for
its region of Mississippi, transforming one
of the poorest areas in the country into a
growing economy that employs thousands.
Nearly 72,000 Tribal farm operators run
more than 56,000 farms with a market value
of products sold that exceeds $3 billion.
Indian Country stands ready to partner
with anyone and everyone who will work
with us to help build a stronger America.
So this is what we ask of the new
Congress and the new administration:
Make good on the promise of our trust
relationship. Abide by the treaties. Affirm
the wisdom of local decision making by
Indian Country, for Indian Country.
Together, we must remove the obsta-
cles that prevent Tribes from fulfilling our
potential as nations and neighbors. We
must ensure that Tribes can deploy all of
the essential tools that all governments
must have in order to build prosperous
communities.
Not everyone realizes that most Tribes
cannot tax sales on their reservations
because of the problem of dual taxation
by the states. A few states have reached tax
agreements with Tribes, but for the most
part the states enjoy taxing our reserva-
tions without providing services.
We have a great opportunity for the
Department of the Interior to issue new
regulations that will eliminate the unfair
burden of dual taxation on reservation
economies.
The new administration has already
scheduled a series of consultation meet-
ings that start next week at Swinomish.
Unlike every state and local govern-
ment, Tribes cannot issue tax-exempt
bonds for economic development because
the IRS only allows us to use them for
public works – like water treatment.
This unfairness is short-sighted and
cannot stand. Tribal governments should
be able to use the same tools that other
governments use every single day.
Congress should include Indian Coun-
try in broader tax reform. And when it does,
it must give us full authority to generate
revenue, access capital and invest locally.
In a rare moment of bipartisanship,
Congress recently passed the General
Welfare Exclusion Act, recognizing that
Tribal government programs benefitting
Tribal members are not taxable by the
federal or state governments.
Tribal governments have demon-
strated that when we exercise our innate
authority, with adequate resources and
autonomy, we will devise local solutions
that work for our communities.
We plan and budget our governing
operations based on commitments made
through the federal trust responsibility.
Like other governments, we provide police
services, education, fire protection and a
range of core public services for our people.
But Tribal self-sufficiency is not
merely an integral component of the trust
responsibility. It is also an investment
opportunity.
Investing in Indian Country has proven,
time and time again, to produce high
returns. And perhaps no investment has a
greater potential upside than infrastructure.
Today, the National Congress of
American Indians released an initial
report regarding Tribal infrastructure
investments. It provides Tribal leaders
and policymakers with data to inform the
many ways in which Indian Country is
proposing to meet its infrastructure needs.
To us, infrastructure means more
than roads and bridges. More than hous-
ing and broadband Internet connection.
It also means education and health care
infrastructure. Workforce development