Siletz news /, March 01, 2017, Page 11, Image 11

Tribal Council member Gloria Ingle (left) and Peter Hatch (light blue shirt)
discuss Siletz Tribal history and culture with interested individuals.
Tribal Council
member Joseph
Lane Jr. (left)
greets Oregon
Secretary of State
Dennis Richardson.
Photos by Diane Rodriquez
Tribal member Izaiah Fisher talks about his bow tie, among several things, with
Oregon Governor Kate Brown. Fisher is a member of the Grand Ronde Youth
Council.
Indian Nations, con’t from previous page
infrastructure. Data and planning infra-
structure to support smart, informed
decision-making.
Both Indian Country and rural Amer-
ica, where infrastructure has fallen into a
state of disrepair, share a common con-
cern here. Necessary maintenance and
new projects have met delay after delay.
Let me be clear. Economic develop-
ment is important. Investing in community
infrastructure is important. And the most
important long-term investments are in
our children.
Partnering creates winning scenarios.
When this Congress takes up infrastruc-
ture, it can create American jobs by
addressing the $388 million backlog of
deferred maintenance of Bureau of Indian
Education schools.
Statistics show that when Indian kids
graduate from high school and college,
they become contributing members of
society. They break the cycle of drug and
alcohol abuse. They break the cycle of jail
and prison. They break the cycle of poverty
and dependence on the federal government.
Educated Tribal members not only
make their Tribal communities stronger,
they also make America stronger.
Kevin Gover, the former assistant
secretary for Indian Affairs, once said,
“Sovereignty isn’t about power. It’s about
responsibility.”
We take that responsibility to our
people very seriously. Just as we had long
before European explorers and settlers
arrived. Just as we always will.
President Ronald Reagan astutely rec-
ognized in 1988, and I quote, “Tribes need
the freedom to spend the money available
to them, to create a better quality of life
and meet their needs as they define them.
Tribes must make those decisions, not the
federal government.”
The federal government should part-
ner with us to remove burdens that Tribal
governments bear alone.
Our partnership and progress must
extend to the issue of energy development.
Colorado does not charge a fee to
explore for energy resources on its land
and it turns around permits in two months.
But to undertake the same exploration on
Tribal land includes the additional chal-
lenge of the Bureau of Land Management
fee of $9,500 and takes seven months to
turn around the same permit.
The result of regulations like these
is that Tribes pay more and spend more
time – a lot more – for a lot worse service.
This is a missed opportunity for all
of America. Indian Country holds 20
percent of the oil and gas reserves. If fully
developed, these resources could generate
a trillion dollars in economic activity.
Whether or not to develop their energy
resources is a choice that each Tribal
nation must make – on their own terms
and in accordance with their own values
and goals. For Tribal nations that make this
choice, the tools are in place to get started.
Congress created the Tribal Energy
Loan Guarantee Program. If the federal
government invested just $9 million, it
would support up to $85 million for energy
projects that would employ people in Indian
Country and the surrounding communities.
Congress should back up their invest-
ment idea with real investment – and fund
the program.
Tribal governments are proving what
real investment can accomplish. Decades
ago, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of
Colorado created their own Tribal Depart-
ment of Energy and an economic growth
fund. Today, they control the distribution
of roughly 1 percent of America’s natural
gas supply.
Last year, one of the Moapa Band
of Paiute of Nevada solar projects began
powering more than 100,000 homes in Los
Angeles. And last month, the seven bands
of the Sioux Nation began construction
on one of the largest wind power develop-
ments in the entire nation.
These projects are designed with
sustainability in mind. Not just environ-
mental sustainability, but also the cultural,
spiritual and economic sustainability of
the entire Tribal community.
Tribal governments embody the
enduring values of Native peoples. We
understand that each of our decisions
connects our past to our future. We think
about the Indian Country we want our
grandchildren to pass on to theirs.
Culture matters. It is both who we are
and how we govern. That is what makes
working with Tribal governments different
from working with other governments.
Each Tribe has its own customs and
priorities. And that is why the local Tribe
must be at the table where local decisions
are made – starting at the earliest plan-
ning stages.
We have seen too many examples of
what happens when Tribes do not have a
seat at the table.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is one.
In that case, the company consulted the
nearby city – but not the nearby tribe – and
made the mistake of turning sacred lands
into a construction site.
Other Tribal governments have tried
to prevent the worst – only to succeed in
stopping the project after hundreds of
gravesites were unearthed.
We cannot forget the period in the
1950s and ’60s when rivers across the
west were dammed for irrigation and
power. Hundreds of thousands of acres of
Tribal lands were flooded. Hundreds of
Tribal homes were destroyed.
In the Columbia River region, the
salmon way of life was threatened. All
disturbed without the consent of Tribal
governments. All in violation of treaties
that protected these lands and resources.
One day, the Spokane Tribe in Wash-
ington, like so many others, woke up to
find that there were no more salmon in
their river.
When this happens, no one wins. Not
Tribal governments. Not the federal gov-
ernment. Not developers. Everyone pays a
high price. An unnecessary price.
And yet, there are so many instances
in which we see what’s possible when
Native people do have a seat at the table.
The Blackfeet from Montana part-
nered with hunters, anglers, conser-
vationists, energy companies and the
Department of the Interior to cancel
more than 40,000 acres of illegal oil and
gas leases. By working together, they
prevented drilling on the sacred lands at
Badger-Two Medicine.
We will continue to work with the
Department of the Interior to create last-
ing solutions.
Partnerships have proven to generate
the highest return on investment, for they
avoid the high costs of conflict between
governments. Work with us to identify and
implement win-win solutions.
There is a Seneca proverb that says:
“He who would do great things should
not attempt them all alone.”
Our partnership goes back a long
way. Back to the time before the stars and
stripes were first sewn into the flag and
before the republic for which it stands
was born.
Tribal nations have been a constant.
Like the stars that never change.
We stood with you at every critical
moment in American history. From the
Revolutionary War to the World Wars to
the Vietnam War to the war on terror. A
greater percentage of Native people have
served and died in the military than of any
other group of Americans.
We will always stand with you. We
will always fight alongside you. And
through our age-old partnership, we will
usher in a new era of progress.
God bless you. God bless our Indian
Nations. And God bless the United States
of America.
March 2017
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Siletz News
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