SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1999
TESTIMONY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OTHER INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS TRIBAL BISON PROJECT
WITNESS
MIKE FOX, PRESIDENT, INTERTRIBAL BISON COOPERATIVE
Mr. REGULA. I call the committee to order.
Our first witness today will be InterTribal Bison Cooperative. Mike Fox. Just summarize for us because five minutes is not very long.
Mr. FOX. Right. Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. REGULA. Good morning.
Mr. FOX. My name is Mike Fox, president of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative and manager of the Fort Belknap Buffalo Project.
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With me this morning I have Fred DuBray from Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe; Carl Tsosie from Picuris Pueblo; Mark Heckert, our executive director.
Mr. REGULA. Is this a group that bands together to deal with the bison problems?
Mr. FOX. Right.
Mr. REGULA. And do you market products—meat and so on? I remember from last year, I thought that is what you did.
Mr. FOX. Right. That is a part of our plan.
Mr. REGULA. Right.
Mr. FOX. Thank you, this morning, for the opportunity to present testimony before the House Subcommittee on Interior Affairs. The ITBC requests $10 million for fiscal year 1999.
The ITBC is comprised of 45 Native American Indian Tribes located in 16 States, who are dedicated to bringing the buffalo back into the daily lives of Indian people for the economic development——
Mr. REGULA. Are the herds expanding?
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Mr. FOX. Yes. Since we started in 1991, the herds went from about seven Indian tribes, with about 1,500 buffalo, to 38 tribes raising over—close to 15,000 buffalo right now.
Mr. REGULA. Do you have a problem at all with disease?
Mr. FOX. No disease. The only disease problem we have, and we will be speaking about that a little bit later, is the Yellowstone, and——
Mr. REGULA. Yes, I know that.
Mr. FOX. Every herd that is managed by Indian tribes is disease-free.
Our current funding level is at $638,000. That would have been funding for the last two or three years at that level, but our tribes have increased. Every year we get new tribes with new buffalo initiatives.
Mr. REGULA. And each pay some into your InterTribal Council?
Mr. FOX. Right.
Mr. REGULA. Each tribe supports a portion of it?
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Mr. FOX. Yes.
Mr. REGULA. Okay.
Mr. TSOSIE. Yes, sir, Mr. Regula, I was here about three years ago, and the vice president of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative. We are now 46 tribes in 17 States and in New Mexico alone we have been doing the buffalo dance, time immemorial, without the buffalo around, since they were all killed off. So we are the answers to the prayers now, and it has really caught fire with a lot of our people.
We are actually not just dancing, we are raising them, and it is enhancing agriculture, and the old ditches are coming back. The restoration is all coming back and it is really moved by our spirituality, and we are here representing the tribes and the medicine people, and this is a return of the buffalo which, with your help, we are trying to accomplish it.
With the little monies that we get, we are hoping to—well, we do have success stories. At my pueblo in New Mexico, we started with one bull and another gift from our tribal member from Taos, who gave us a—their medicine people gave us another female. Now we have gone through 35 animals since you gave us the first $638,000, and now we are able to start maintaining our own and it is starting to pay off. We hope to become self-sufficient in these areas, and like I told you, it is coming back.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. I wanted each of you to have a comment.
Mr. FOX. I thank you for the opportunity. I would just like to stress the fact that I am from Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and I think, you know, we have had a modest amount of success, I might say, in raising buffalo. We have got about 1,000 head up there now and we started with 80 head when we first started this cooperative.
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Mr. REGULA. I assume you do not fence them. They just roam?
Mr. FOX. Well, we fence them, but I always like to say we fence everything else out because they kind of go through when we want to go.
Mr. REGULA. I raise cattle. I live on a farm in Ohio, so I know all about fences, but I think buffalo are tougher than my cattle on fences.
Mr. FOX. Yes, they are, and that is one of the things I wanted to touch on, is that this is a sustainable development project. These buffalo have been there for thousands of years. They have been our economy in the past, and we had a very self-sufficient economy based on the buffalo. That was destroyed. Now we are trying to bring that back and there are a lot of reasons for it, not just for economics, but our culture as well.
It is a sustainable thing, and with all of the budget cuts coming in Congress—we understand that there is a big push for self-sufficiency and that is exactly what this project is all about.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. You have about one minute yet. Anybody else want to make a comment?
Mr. HECKERT. Yes. Mr. Congressman, I am Mark Heckert. I just wanted to say that we have been trying for about five years to get the slaughter of buffalo in Yellowstone National Park stopped.
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It is being delayed by both the State of Montana and Federal Government agencies who cannot come to an agreement to get those animals saved, and out alive.
Mr. Fox just told you that there are 10,000 buffalo on Indian reservations. They have killed 3,000 buffalo in Yellowstone in the last five years.
Those buffalo, like Mr. Tsosie said, would be the answer to the prayers of the Indian people.
Mr. REGULA. They migrate in from the reservations?
Mr. HECKERT. No; no. They migrate out from Yellowstone National Park.
Mr. REGULA. Yes, but they are killed before they get out, in effect.
Mr. HECKERT. Yes. We proposed a plan, which is delineated in our testimony, which would remove those animals alive. After a period of testing and quarantine, which I am sure you are familiar with, they would be sent out, alive, to Indian reservations for the use of the people, and as well as other public lands.
Mr. REGULA. I think they would want to keep some because the visitors love to see them.
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Mr. HECKERT. Oh, absolutely. We are not talking about de-populating the park. But we have agreements with other national parks for the surplus animals that come out.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you very much; very interesting. And I think even for visitors, they would enjoy seeing buffalos on the range. You know, in a sense, it is part of the national culture of the United States.
Mr. HECKERT. Absolutely, and it is a shame on everybody that we are killing these buffalo.
Mr. REGULA. Yes.
Mr. FOX. Come to my reservation and see how we raise them.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you.
[The statement of Mike Fox follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS/INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
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WITNESSES
PEARL CAPOEMAN–BALLER, PRESIDENT, QUINAULT INDIAN NATION
DAVID MARTIN, VICE PRESIDENT
Mr. REGULA. Quinault Indian Nation. Good morning.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. Good morning, Chairman.
Mr. REGULA. Good morning.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. My name is Pearl Capoeman-Baller. I'm president of the Quinault Indian Nation. I have with me this morning David Martin who is vice president of the Quinault Indian Nation.
You have been provided a copy of my written testimony.
Mr. REGULA. Right. It will be a part of the record.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. This morning I would like to focus on three issues that I think are critical to the Quinault Indian Nation people.
First of all, I would like to comment on a cultural center that we would like built for our tribal members.
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We have, throughout the past, identified the need to preserve part of our history and our culture, and right now, a lot of the culture is preserved basically in people's homes and personal storage, in attics, and a lot of the history is in the minds of our elders.
We feel like unless we get a facility to house these items, to document what our culture is about, we need a facility to preserve that for the past and for the future.
So what I am asking for this morning is an earmark from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, the Save America's Treasures Project, in the amount of $300,000 to build a facility.
Mr. REGULA. Yes, well, we will not directly have any jurisdiction. We have the appropriation, but I am not sure yet who will make the decision on which activities will fit in with this Save America's Treasures Project.
But once that gets established, you will probably want to make an application there.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. We will do so.
Mr. REGULA. Yes; okay.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. The second thing that I would like to bring to your attention is the need for an elders assisted-living facility. We have two communities, small villages, on the reservation. We really have no place to care for our elders.
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Mr. REGULA. A senior center is what you are talking about.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. A senior center. It is an assisted-living facility. Because right now, we are such a distance from any facilities.
Mr. REGULA. How many members do you have in the tribe?
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. We have about 2,800 tribal members on the reservation. So this morning, I am requesting an earmark of $250,000 in initial, and $150,000 on a recurrent basis out of the IHS-Community Health Program, and that would help us staff it, equip it, and build the center. That is the second item that is critical to us.
The last item that I wanted to bring to your attention is dealing with the lands. I want to put on record our strong support for the Bureau's proposed land consolidation project.
I come from a reservation that is a nightmare to manage, it is fractionated, and we see this pilot project as a program that will help alleviate the nightmares that we face in trying to manage this land, the resources, and it will also eliminate a lot of hassles that the Bureau of Indian Affairs currently——
Mr. REGULA. Would you buy additional land, or how do you consolidate it?
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Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. Yes. We would buy individual allotments and try and buy some of the property back from major companies that logged there, years ago.
We want to preserve the rivers and——
Mr. REGULA. This is forest land you are talking about.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. Yes.
Mr. MARTIN. Forest land. We have approximately 2,300 original allotments on our reservation. A major portion of those were bought by individual companies, private companies, et cetera, individual owners, that we are trying to acquire back from.
Mr. REGULA. Are they logging on it right now?
Mr. MARTIN. Currently, we have one active company, a local company, that is actively logging on our reservation; yes.
Mr. REGULA. But on the lands that you would like to buy, are they being logged?
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. Some of them could be, and some of them are just lands that we want to protect, along the rivers and the lakes.
Mr. REGULA. Are they lands that are contiguous to what is already tribal land?
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Mr. MARTIN. Because of the fact that the reservation was allotted, we did not have a contiguous manageable land base, other than what we received in 1988 from the U.S. Government due to a surveying error, which we call the north boundary area, and that is the ultimate goal of the Quinault Indian Nation, is to have a contiguous manageable land base, and acquiring those lands is a number one goal of the Quinault Nation.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. We understand.
Ms. CAPOEMAN-BALLER. On a final note, I want to support any increase in funds over the amount requested by IHS, and also support the Northwest Portland area Indian Health Board budget, and the Northwest Indian Fish Commission budget.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. REGULA. Thank you.
[The statement of Pearl Capoeman-Baller follows:]
Insert offset folios 20 to 23 insert here
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS/INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
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WITNESS
VICTOR R. PRESTON, CHAIRMAN, SUSANVILLE INDIAN RANCHERIA
Mr. REGULA. Next we have the Susanville Rancheria.
Will you, please, give your name so that our recorder has it for the record.
Mr. PRESTON. Thank you, Chairman Regula.
My name is Victor Preston. I am the tribal chairman for the Susanville Indian Rancheria in Lassen County, California. On behalf of our tribal membership, I and our fellow board members are very pleased to be here to provide this testimony.
I would like to introduce to you our vice chairman, Mr. Leo Guiterez, and board member Stacy Dixon, and Hank Sanchez, and our clinic director, Ms. Lea Exedine.
We are all here to address some needs and concerns we have with regard to the 1999 proposed fiscal budget process, as they relate to tribes and to certain programs that we have in effect right now, and the impact that these budget cuts will have upon our facilities.
Of critical importance to us right now is a Youth Treatment Center. The Youth Treatment Center is part of a network that we have established with two other tribes in the State of California.
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The two other tribes, are the Southern California Inhel Council and the Toyabe Indian Health Project. We are providing these very much needed services to youth. In the past, we have never had such a program for our youth in Northern California.
In the past, we have had to send our youth out of State. So this is significant to us. An additional significance also has to do with how we acquired the facilities for our YRTC program. You may not know this, but we are the first tribe to actually gain land through the Base Realignment and Closure process, known as BRAC. This occurred two years ago, and this was significant that we were the first, but also it was significant, in that we also were able to obtain existing facilities that the Army transferred over to us.
Mr. REGULA. Which base did you get?
Mr. PRESTON. This is the Herlong Army Base, which was primarily a ammunition supply depot. So we are in the process not only of acquiring that, but obtaining additional parcels of that Army base.
Mr. REGULA. Do you have a problem with waste disposal sites on the base?
Mr. PRESTON. We have been able to effectively deal with that with the U.S. Army. It has been a fully cooperative effort between all the parties involved, and we want to continue the pace and the process of what we are doing right now.
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Right now, we are concerned that the pending budget cuts for 1999 will affect us, severely, and so we have some important requests that we want to get——
Mr. REGULA. Are these cuts in the President's proposal?
Mr. PRESTON. Proposal; yes. And we have some bullets here, and since there is so much to present, I just want to, first of all, state that for our YRTC, the main point that we want to request is that for this facility we project a need for an additional $1.4 million for operational costs, and approximately $1 million for renovating the facilities.
Even though the facilities did come from the Army, they still are in need of renovation in order to meet the needs of these youth. We plan on opening this facility as early as April of this year, and so it is imperative that we have, are able to plan ahead, and know where our funding is going to come from.
So for the 1999 IHS and BIA fiscal year budget, we are asking for, in regard to Indian Health Service, a request for the subcommittee to restore the reduction of $10 million to maintain the current health services, without any further reductions.
Mr. REGULA. You have about one minute left.
Mr. PRESTON. Okay. For two, we request the committee to provide for the projected inflationary cost increases to maintain at least the fiscal year 1998 level of services at $53.6 million, and we also request the subcommittee to provide the resources required for pay raises to the Indian Health Services at $36 million.
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And we also request an increase of $37.4 million for the population growth that has occurred throughout the Nation in our Indian population, and we also request——
Mr. REGULA. What is the population of your tribe?
Mr. PRESTON. Our population right now is three hundred, but we also have letters and resolutions from 50 other tribes who support our facility because they intend to eventually refer their clientele to us. And we request a program increase of $21 million for operational costs to provide for Youth Regional Treatment Centers nationwide.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Well, you are out of time, but your statement will be in the record. We will take a good look at it. Thank you very much.
Mr. PRESTON. All right, and of course we would have addressed BIA, but we will—hopefully other tribes will address those issues also.
Mr. REGULA. I can understand. Okay.
Mr. PRESTON. Thank you very much for your time.
Mr. REGULA. You are welcome.
[The statement of Victor Preston follows:]
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"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS/INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
WITNESSES
BENNIE J. ARMSTRONG, TRIBAL CHAIRMAN, SUQUAMISH TRIBE AND KEVIN GEORGE, COUNCILMAN
Mr. REGULA. Suquamish Tribe. Bennie Armstrong.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Chairman, my name is Bennie Armstrong. This is my associate, Kevin George. I am the chairman of the tribe. He is councilman. We are from Northwest Washington, located on the Puget Sound, in the northeast of Kitsap County, established by a treaty of Point Elliott, January 1855. We are right across from the city of Seattle, 10 miles across Puget Sound.
We have three priorities that we are working on today. The first one is $200,000 for higher and adult education added to the Tribal Priority Allocation Account.
Mr. REGULA. Do you have your own schools, or do you use public schools?
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Public schools, and BIA-funded secondary schools like Haskell or Fort Lewis in Durango.
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Anyway, the need for educational services of all types has dramatically increased on the reservation, and we are working with a local group called Northwest Indian College, that provides off-campus facilities at the local schools and tribal centers to work on higher education and GEDs.
The number of students requesting higher education assistance has nearly doubled in the last 18 months, and the BIA Higher Education Fund is—right now, if you added it all up, it equals about $1,100 per student, and the need for each student for higher education is like $5,000 each.
So what we are requesting is like $175,000 for fiscal year 1999 to provide the additional funds for all types of training for adults, and the tribe continues to support higher education programs, and meet the needs of all the tribal members, whether it be vocational training or college.
The second part of our request is $150,000 Tribal Government, Tribal Courts, and Public Safety, and Justice, from the BIA/TPA account, and we are in a area that is vastly growing. It is a mixed checkerboard reservation where we have Indians and non-Indians alike, and we work with the local law enforcement agencies, and the caseloads have increased, incredibly. A 150 in 1996 to 315 in 1997, an increase of about 110 percent.
So working within our own system, handling our own people, and helping the Annoninees deliver their people, and work with them, it is just like the costs of it have doubled.
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So we are training our officers. Our officers are already equivalent to any of the county officers, or whatever, and could be cross-deputized. They know not only tribal laws, but Federal, State, and county laws.
So anyway, with this, our incarceration is subcontracted to other jurisdictions, and sometimes it takes about an hour and a half to the closest place where there is a facility to hold one of our people. So what we are thinking about doing is maybe building a jail and getting it a little closer to home. We do not know what kind of facility we are looking at there. That would be part of that.
And the funds received from BIA are no longer adequate to provide the minimum services needed to insure community safety.
So that law enforcement, court systems, jails, all that, is part of that package.
The last one is to reacquire our ancestral home on Old Man House, and this would be out of the BIA, Wildlife, and Parks Budget. And this is a piece of land where, historically, our tribe owned. It was called Old Man House. It is like a 600-foot long cooperative wood longhouse, and the way that—it was taken a long time ago for the United States War Department to protect the naval base in Bremerton. When they were done with it, they were supposed to return it to us.
Instead, it got piecemealed out and sold to non–Indians, and part of our request is $700,000 in 1999 to purchase that piece.
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Mr. REGULA. That would be several parcels you would have to buy.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Right. Just the part where the Old Man House was located; $700,000 in 1999, $400,000 in 2000, and $700,000 in 2001. And just to reclaim the home of the Suquamish people. And then the rest of the regional requests would be, of course, $1.95 million for the 20 Western Washington Tribes for Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, shellfish management.
Mr. REGULA. Thank you very much.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. And of course some contract support. Thank you.
[The statement of Bennie J. Armstrong follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS/INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
WITNESS
W. RON ALLEN, TRIBAL CHAIRMAN AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JAMESTOWN S'KLALLAM TRIBE
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Mr. REGULA. Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. Good morning.
Mr. ALLEN. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
It is good to be here in front of you again this year to talk about appropriation issues. You have my testimony and the details of it.
Mr. REGULA. It will be part of the record.
Mr. ALLEN. I also want to alert you that, as the president of the National Congress of American Indians, we also will be submitting to you some testimony regarding the concerns we have with regard to the overall budgets, the BIA/IHS, and also, as the tribal commissioner in the U.S.-Canada Fishery Commission arena, we will be submitting to you some testimony with regard to that arena as well.
Mr. REGULA. All right.
Mr. ALLEN. With our specific tribal issues, we are a small tribe in Western Washington, a tribe of about 400 people, and we have been coming to you for the last number of years as a self-governance tribe, and self-governance has continued to be successful for us.
We are very enamored with the flexibility that it has provided for us, both on the BIA side and IHS side.
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Our first two requests really are oriented around adjustments, regarding the diminishment of the dollars that has occurred to us from fiscal year 1996 to today, including, on the BIA side, the TPA process that we were instructed to impose on tribes from last year's appropriation directly. The TPA process resulted in a reduction of 50 percent to the Portland area, which, for the Jamestown tribe, reduced our allocation by $73,000.
So these numbers are oriented around that. The IHS side is relative to the tribe. Our tribe is one of two tribes doing a 3-year pilot study to engage in a new managed system for health care services, and that one is very important for us.
We are being successful, partially because there is a health care program in Washington State that we are able to access, and buy reduced services, reduced cost services to provide fuller services for our tribal members.
The third item that is a priority for us is, historically, we have never received any land assistance for the tribe. Adjacent to our 3-acre reservation is a 10-acre tract that we have been trying to purchase for some time, but lack of funds simply has not allowed us to do it.
The $600,000 is targeted at that objective, which we are trying to achieve simply for expansion purposes.
We know the actual facilities, and all that, will be really relative to the tribe's capacity to secure those resources.
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On a regional basis, we have a couple of areas. In the Northwest, as you are well aware, because of treaty rights, shellfish has become a major issue for us and we join the other tribes in asking for the $2 million to help the 20 tribes that have shellfish rights to be able to expand our shellfish operations.
We literally manage thousands and thousands of tideland areas, and it is really a very cumbersome process that we have to deal with.
Another area we are supportive of with the Northwest Fish Commission is a technical adjustment. Because of some bureaucratic snafus, if you will, they lost $185,000, and which they are trying to restore for their programs, and we are being very supportive of that.
We are also being supportive of the $3 million request that BIA has made with regard to the Job in the Woods program, and the Wildstock Restoration Initiative. We are supportive of the BIA request for the $1 million for the Endangered Species Act, which, as you are well aware in the Northwest, has really become a major problem for us.
Mr. REGULA. Yes.
Mr. ALLEN. It is just causing us all kinds of heartburn. We have to deal with those responsibilities.
As President Capoeman-Baller mentioned, we are very supportive of Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, and the Northwest Fisheries Commission requests. There are a number of things that we each equally enjoy.
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On the national arena, we are concerned about a number of things, and we would urge you to seriously consider the $900,000 request for self-governance with regard to restoration of the planning grant. A lot of tribes want to come on board, but they are really being bottlenecked now because of their capacity of planning, and then they have another component. They have asked for $500,000 just to increase their FTEs.
That program, that small little office, now, is managing a large number of the tribes, now, and a large number of the monies, and they basically need assistance in order to do their job, if we are going to downside the BIA and modestly increase that program, so that it is managing more efficiently.
We are supportive of the request for $300,000, 150 from BIA, 150 from IHS for Self-Governance Communication. Self-governance is still an initiative that needs to be communicated, so we want that to move forward, and we have asked for a consideration of $23 million, just because of the inflationary cost. That is a ''big deal'' to us.
Mr. REGULA. Okay.
Mr. ALLEN. The last item, really, is IHS has identified a $120 million shortfall simply because of loss of the mandatory inflationary and population growth increase impacts.
So there is a lot more to it, and I know you will read the details of all these many requests.
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Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you very much.
Mr. ALLEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The statement of W. Ron Allen follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS/INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
WITNESS
HENRY CAGEY, CHAIRMAN, LUMMI INDIAN NATION
Mr. REGULA. Lummi Indian Nation.
Mr. CAGEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Henry Cagey, chairman of the Lummi Nation, and also president of Affiliated Tribes and Northwest Indians.
I will talk mainly on the tribal specific issues, and once again, we are back here requesting from the committee for a new facility for the Lummi Nation, a new educational facility. For the last 8 years——
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Mr. REGULA. You are talking about the school?
Mr. CAGEY. The new school.
Mr. REGULA. Yes.
Mr. CAGEY. Back in 1989–1990, our tribal school facility blew up, and we have been on the list, waiting, patiently, for dollars to replace that facility. So far——
Mr. REGULA. What are you using if the old one blew up?
Mr. CAGEY. We are using temporary modular facilities, which I have got some pictures here to show you the conditions of the facilities that our kids have to live in. Right now, we just had these pictures taken just two days ago, and our kids are having to live under these conditions.
Mr. REGULA. Are these boarding schools?
Mr. CAGEY. These are modulars. These are modulars that were replaced by the emergency conditions declared in 1990 by the BIA. But in 1990, they lost our application, and we had support letters from our delegation supporting putting Lummi back on the list, and so far—in 1992, I think they stopped the new construction. But the tribe is still needing to get the school replaced, and we know that there is additional monies available, but we are not asking to be placed on a new facility list which the Bureau is working on.
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We want the Bureau to deal with the problem in replacing the facility, and in our testimony you will see the recommendations that we are making from the committee to the Bureau.
And also there are some alternative solutions that we think might also be feasible, to look at alternative financing for a new facility.
The second issue, Mr. Chairman, is the water agreements, and this stems over the conflict that the Lummi Nation had in 1995 in the appropriations rider that we see in Section 115. We resolved that. What we have now is an agreement in principle to resolve a long-standing situation on groundwater on the Lummi reservation. What is needed to carry out that agreement is additional dollars to look for off-reservation resources to fulfill the need for Indians and non-Indians, and it is going to take money, it is going to take support to do that.
The last one we have on our appropriations is the shellfish hatchery. The Lummi Nation has a hatchery that assists the other tribes in the Puget Sound to supply needed—seedlings, I guess they call them, to enhance the beaches, and it has been supported by the Northwest Indian Fish Commission, and also supported by other tribes.
Mr. REGULA. Okay.
Mr. CAGEY. Okay. And then the other thing, we echo, you know, a lot of support for the Northwest Indian Fish Commission, and getting those dollars increases and the technical support amendment, I guess they are calling it, or correction, in doing that.
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The biggest support I think we need, Mr. Chairman, is the contract support issue, and you will probably hear that throughout the day, and getting IHS to really look at fulfilling the need in contract support, and it is a big issue, it affects us all, and we do need your support on it.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you.
Mr. CAGEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The statement of Henry Cagey follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
WITNESS
DR. MURRAY D. SYKES, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION, COUNCIL ON FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS AND FEDERAL DENTAL SERVICES
Mr. REGULA. We will skip to the American Dental Association. Good morning.
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Dr. SYKES. How are you?
Mr. REGULA. Good.
Dr. SYKES. Mr. Chairman, Members of the subcommittee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the American Dental Association concerning the fiscal year 1999 appropriations for the Indian Health Service.
My name is Dr. Murray Sykes, and I am chairman of the ADA's Council on Government Affairs.
I also have been practicing the last 30 years in Silver Spring, Maryland, as a general dentist.
Before I begin my testimony I would like to thank the Chairman of the subcommittee for last year's help in funding three periodontal diabetes clinics and increased funding for the modular dental clinics.
Mr. Chairman, last summer, I had the honor of joining five other ADA members from my council, and visiting Navajo area dental facilities in New Mexico and in Arizona.
All of you would have been proud, as I was, of the obvious dedication, enthusiasm, and competency of all the health professionals we encountered.
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Despite overwhelming obstacles caused by insufficient funding, there remained one common theme—the patient comes first.
Unfortunately, due to insufficient funding, the amount of treated native Americans has gone down from a high of 34 percent in fiscal year 1993 to a low of under 25 percent now.
Mr. REGULA. You are talking about 34 percent of those that need treatment or 34 percent——
Dr. SYKES. Who are treated; who are treated. They were able to treat 34 percent that came in. They had the people and the facilities to treat 34 percent of the——
Mr. REGULA. So you are really saying it is 66 percent that went untreated——
Dr. SYKES. Yes; yes.
Mr. REGULA [continuing]. Because of lack of facilities, lack of personnel?
Dr. SYKES. And access. There were not enough mobile clinics far enough away to get to them.
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Mr. REGULA. Okay.
Dr. SYKES. Compare this to 60 percent of normal Americans that are treated and I think you see a big difference. On our trip, we went to an area called Tohatchi where I met a young female dentist who had just graduated from Ohio State.
She was happy and enthusiastic but explained to me that she was overwhelmed by the children, 2 to 4 years old, with rampant decay.
It seems in Indian culture there is a matter of where the mother chews the food first, and then gives it to the child. This is the way they pass their soul down to their children. Unfortunately, they are also passing down bacteria called streptococcus mutans which causes decay.
These young dentists are not trained to handle this overwhelming problem. We need more specialists like periodontists to go down there and treat the children and help the dentists that are treating the children.
Mr. REGULA. Would these be permanent teeth of the child?
Dr. SYKES. These are baby teeth, but the baby teeth are needed for speech, eating, and other functions.
The IHS puts a great deal of emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention but their fluoride water systems are not working due to a lack of trained personnel to run the systems.
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Fluoridation is the number one efficient and safe way to control dental decay. The ADA requests $800,000 to get these systems functional again.
They need people to go down there and teach them how to work the floride water systems.
Next, we went to remote, desolate, Kayenta, Arizona, and I met another young lady dentist who had been there six months. She loved her patients, they loved her, but she was leaving because she could not tolerate the housing and living conditions.
We have to improve both these conditions in order to recruit and retain dentists. We probably could even get volunteers to go there if we could improve the housing.
The ADA played a large role in getting pay raises to help recruit and retain these young dentists.
The problem is it has not been funded and the Indian Health Service has a large monetary shortfall. There needs to be $8 million for this.
The periodontal diabetes disease project shows great promise and needs $1 million to expand it. The ADA was very disappointed with the administration's fiscal 1999 budget of $65.5 million for this dental program.
The ADA recommends a budget increase of $12.8 million for the dental program, and an additional $10 million for the contracted care.
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We saw great success in our visit to the Sage Memorial Hospital, which is a contracted facility.
Finally, in closing, the ADA would like to take this opportunity to tell the committee that because of our concern for the overall health of all native Americans, the ADA has formed a coalition with 20 other national health groups called The Friends of the Indian Health Service.
This coalition strongly supports the request of the National Indian Health Board for funding of $2.4 billion for fiscal 1999.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before the subcommittee and I will answer any questions, if you have any.
Mr. REGULA. Thank you. As you know, we are on a pretty tight leash as far as funds being available.
Dr. SYKES. I understand.
Mr. REGULA. I think it is unlikely that we will have any more than we had last year, so we are going to have to deal with the facts of life when it comes to allocating the resources.
Dr. SYKES. I understand. If we could even just get the funding for the pay raises, I think that would give the infrastructure a great help.
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Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you.
Dr. SYKES. Thank you.
[The statement of Dr. Murray Sykes follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
WITNESS
MARY PAVEL, PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR, NORTHWEST INTERTRIBAL COURT SYSTEM
Mr. REGULA. OK. Northwest Intertribal Court System.
Ms. PAVEL. Mr. Chairman, my name is Mary Pavel, I am a member of the Suquamish Tribe of Washington State and I am a practicing attorney in the Washington, DC office of Sonosky Chambers Sachse and Endreson.
I am pleased to be here today to present testimony on behalf of the Northwest Intertribal Court System, an organization that my mother helped found in 1979, concerning the administration's budget for the proposal of the BIA.
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The tribes in the Northwest are very proud of the contribution that NICS has made over the past 19 years in improving the efficiency, fairness, and effectiveness of tribal court systems in the Northwest.
However, much work remains to be done. There have been extraordinary reductions in Federal Indian programs since 1996, to the point where a virtual state of emergency exists throughout Indian country.
Almost one-third of Indian people now live below poverty. Coupled with the increased poverty has come an explosion in illegal drug use and gang activity, resulting in an alarming escalation of serious and violent crimes.
Current law enforcement personnel and judicial services are inadequate to meet the growing need. We urge the subcommittee to work with tribal governments to reverse the downward budgetary trend.
NICS is requesting a modest increase in its base budget to cover its current annual shortfall, cost of living increases for its staff, and restoration of two of the seven positions which were lost as a result of the 1996 budget cuts.
Mr. Chairman, as I am sure you are aware, in order to provide essential judicial services to the member tribes, it is critical that two of the seven staff positions that were eliminated in 1996 be retained.
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In particular, the court is very concerned with the lack of public defenders.
Mr. REGULA. How many tribes are served by this intertribal system?
Ms. PAVEL. There are nine member tribes; small tribes.
Mr. REGULA. What would that represent in total population?
Ms. PAVEL. For Northwest?
Mr. REGULA. For the nine tribes, totally.
Ms. PAVEL. There are about 9,000.
Mr. REGULA. So you have a common court system that serves all the tribes?
Ms. PAVEL. Yes, and it is a roving court system. My mother was in fact one of the first tribal judges, ever, in the country.
Mr. REGULA. The system moves around to the tribal locations?
Ms. PAVEL. Yes.
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Mr. REGULA. Where do you go for incarceration? Do you contract with a facility?
Ms. PAVEL. Well, it is a Public Law 280 in the State of Washington, so a number of the things we do contract for, certain violations. Some tribes do not have a criminal code. For instance, my tribe does not necessarily have a criminal code. We leave it still to the State because it is a Public Law 280 jurisdiction.
Some tribes are exercising their co-equal jurisdiction with the State of Washington in that regard.
Mr. REGULA. Good morning, Jim.
Ms. PAVEL. Good morning, Congressman.
Mr. MORAN. Good morning.
Ms. PAVEL. Nice to see you.
Mr. MORAN. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. REGULA. Morning.
Ms. PAVEL. The court has detailed written testimony and I would urge you to review it.
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Mr. REGULA. Your testimony will be a part of the record as you know.
Ms. PAVEL. I just want to assure the committee—you see all of the tribal leaders who are here today. They carry the burdens of their people. I want you to know that I am a product of what this committee does. I was born and raised on my reservation. My mother was tribal chairwoman. My brother was chairperson. My sister sits on the council. I got through school because of the JOM programs that you fund. My education at Dartmouth was funded because of the scholarship monies that you provide.
I sit here because of you, and if you wonder who this helps, it helps me, and these tribal leaders, they carry that burden, they carry my life in their hand, and so I want to thank you for that.
Mr. REGULA. Now you are a member of a Washington law firm.
Ms. PAVEL. Now I am a member of a law firm that I am very proud of.
Mr. REGULA. In Washington, DC? [Laughter.]
Ms. PAVEL. Yes.
Mr. REGULA. Very well. Where did you go to law school?
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Ms. PAVEL. University of Washington in Seattle.
Mr. REGULA. Oh, okay.
Ms. PAVEL. Yes. I went home.
Mr. REGULA. Questions, Jim?
Mr. MORAN. As I know you feel, Mr. Chairman, this is the most compelling type of testimony, to see somebody who has made it, who might not have, had there not been a sense of justice and some compassion from the committee. That is what it is all about. The most compelling argument we have made on the National Endowment for the Arts was through Denyse Graves who said, you know, this is what turned her on to the opera.
Seeing you as the personification of what these programs are all about makes a world of difference.
Is Marvin Sonosky the head of the—is that the same——
Ms. PAVEL. It is the same firm; yes. He passed away this last July. We lost him.
Mr. MORAN. Yes. He was a good friend. Thank you very much, Mary.
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Mr. REGULA. Thank you.
Ms. PAVEL. Thank you.
[The statement of Mary Pavel follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
WITNESS
JOE MOSES, CHAIRMAN, THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE WARM SPRINGS
Mr. REGULA. Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.
Mr. MOSES. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I am Joe Moses. I am the tribal council chairman of the Warm Springs Tribe of Oregon.
Thank you for the opportunity. I have four requests.
Mr. REGULA. Okay.
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Mr. MOSES. The first is to adopt a $250,000 BIA request for Columbia River fishing site management, and direct that all these funds be used for law enforcement under tribal contracting.
To fulfill a pledge made by the U.S. when it built Bonneville Dam, the Corps of Engineers is finally developing additional treaty fish and access sites along the Columbia River. The first of these new sites is completed and being turned over to BIA to be held in trust for our fishing activities.
The $250,000 request by BIA is needed for these sites, and it should all be used for law enforcement, which is the most pressing need. The sites are a long way from our reservation and have a lot of people living on them, year around. BIA has never really patrolled them, so the tribes, using funds from the Bonneville Power Administration, has set up our own enforcement arm that is effective and cost-efficient.
It principally protects the treaty fishing and related activities, but also generally patrols the sites. Now, as the new sites are being turned over, BPA funding is being cut, the $250,000 is very much needed to insure law and order on these sites.
Second. The Interior Department is responsible for protecting tribal land and water interests in more than 50 hydroelectric projects coming up for FERC relicensing over the next several years.
The license for the Pelton hydro project, which is partly on our land, expires in 2001. Because Pelton is one of our single most valuable resources, and critical to our Governmental revenue, we are developing an application to compete for the license.
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The total cost will exceed $4 million. While we can cover about two-thirds of that cost, BIA assistance is needed to develop a credible application, and for ourselves and others, these are important and expensive undertakings.
To provide for their adequate funding, we request the committee to support BIA's request of a $1 million increase for FERC-related activities and ask that it be increased by at least $2 million more.
And third, we urge you to reject any rider amendments that would make substantial changes to Federal Indian law or policy, because our Indian tribes, we are Governments as such, and particularly as small Governments, with a uniquely close relationship with the United States, we believe that the United States should provide full and fair deliberations to changes in laws and policies affecting us.
And finally, we wish to thank the committee for restricting the special trustee from any efforts to develop a separate bank or similar entity. In our opinion, the special trustee has never engaged in meaningful consultation, and his plans have caused us great concern. So we appreciate your intervention.
While the special trustee appears to have given up on banking plans, we ask you to check, and if needed again, impose a similar restriction for 1999.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you very much.
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Mr. MOSES. Thank you.
[The statement of Joe Moses follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Mr. REGULA. Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. Jim, any time you want to join, why——
Mr. MORAN. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Has the Dental Association testified?
Mr. REGULA. Yes. They have been here.
Mr. MORAN. Oh, they were here. Okay; all right; fine.
Mr. REGULA. We are on such a tight time schedule.
Mr. MORAN. Sure. I understand.
Mr. REGULA. Good morning.
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
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BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
WITNESS
KATHRYN HARRISON, CHAIRPERSON, THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE GRAND RONDE COMMUNITY OF OREGON
Ms. HARRISON. Good morning.
Mr. Chairman, and Members of the committee, my name is Kathryn Harrison. I am the chairperson of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. I am here to testify on the budgets of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service for fiscal year 1999.
Today my testimony will focus on these four issues, some of which you have heard already this morning. Adding funds to the Tribal Priority Allocations to meet tribal needs for community services, education, natural resources, and tribal court services.
Two, adding funds to the IHS budgets for mandatory inflation and population growth increases, and for Contract Health Services.
Three, providing BIA and IHS increases for contract support costs.
Four, removing restrictions on how self-determination funds can be invested.
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In submitting the testimony, I would just like to add that the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have been a terminated tribe. We were terminated for 29 years. So our request is very urgent. We are trying to rebuild our community, our programs, and to regain the health of our people.
So with some of the program cuts that have come through the years, it has been, a really hard struggle, and I want you to know that I appreciate coming here before you.
I come not only as a chairperson, but as a mother, a sister, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, and an elder for my tribe. So I just wanted to add that emphasis, that these are very important to me. I have seen many changes through the years, and I would like to see some help for my people.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you very much.
[The statement of Kathryn Harrison follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
TRIBAL SCHOOL FACILITIES
WITNESS
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TOM MILLER, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR, HANNAHVILLE INDIAN SCHOOL
Mr. REGULA. Minneapolis Area Community Tribal Schools.
Mr. MILLER. Mr. Chairman, Congressman, my name is Tom Miller, and I am the school administrator at the Hannahville Indian School in Michigan. It is located on the Hannahville Potawatomi Reservation. I am here representing the 12 areas schools in Minneapolis of which there are 2,500 students. Our concern is that in the recent years, we have sought technical assistance and services from the Bureau of Indian——
Mr. REGULA. This is a system that serves several tribes?
Mr. MILLER. Yes; it does.
Mr. REGULA. And it is operated by the tribes. It is a public school?
Mr. MILLER. It is a system operated with individual schools, with an organization which is the Minneapolis Area Community Tribal Schools, made up under the direction of the school administrators and/or board members, our members of that organization.
Mr. REGULA. From the tribe?
Mr. MILLER. Yes; from the tribe. And the technical assistance and services that we have been lacking from the Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of the great concerns in our area.
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Mr. REGULA. Do you get any help from the public schools?
Mr. MILLER. No, we do not. None that I am aware of.
Mr. REGULA. Can you use the public schools special programs, say, for handicapped children, or anything like that?
Mr. MILLER. I believe in some of the organizations, or some of the schools, there are some cooperative agreements with the individual States, and we are talking the four State area of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.
Mr. REGULA. This is a residential school, then?
Mr. MILLER. Yes; it is. Day school.
Mr. REGULA. It is in Minneapolis, or nearby?
Mr. MILLER. No. What we are talking about is the—there are 12 individual schools located in the four State area.
Mr. REGULA. I see.
Mr. MILLER. Those schools have formed an organization.
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Mr. REGULA. I get it. You are speaking on behalf of all of them.
Mr. MILLER. Yes. I am.
Mr. REGULA. Got it.
Mr. MILLER. And what we are trying to do here is to start a demonstration project. We look at the area and we see that we have approximately $50 million worth of buildings, educational facilities, and that runs the gamut from the very good to the very poor.
Mr. REGULA. Okay.
Mr. MILLER. The kids are educated in those, regardless, and what we are trying to do here is we understand that the United States Government has a cycle of replacement and repair. We are attempting to develop services and technical assistance which will allow us to extend the life of the buildings and maintain what is there, now, at the present level.
And what we have come up with is a method that the Minneapolis Area Community Travel Schools—MACTS I can call it from here on out—has developed, and we are looking at a demonstration project which would be 1 to 3 years, depending on the speed with which the final product is produced, that would provide a adequate and accurate facility inventory update. That is one of the key factors when you have a school because that generates operation and maintenance monies within the Bureau system.
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That has to be accurate or you are losing money. The second thing is what I call the PPMS. That is a Planned Preventive Maintenance Schedule. As school administrators—and I have been at Hannahville for 18 years, so I have been through a lot of this—is that we see that we put up brand new structures, and then, for reasons of lack of training, lack of services, lack of money, the facilities are not maintained at the level they should be, which shortens the life of the building and makes that replacement cycle become more costly to everyone involved.
So we are looking at developing and are in the process of developing site specific PPMS schedules.
Mr. REGULA. Preventative maintenance.
Mr. MILLER. Yes. It is one of the plus things I picked up when I was in the military.
Mr. REGULA. Yes; right.
Mr. MILLER. Anyway, what we are looking at is if we could ask for $250,000 for a year. We may be back in year—depending on the amount of the project that we can get done, when you are talking a four State area, and we are working with 12 schools, and we are trying to be site specific, there is a lot of factors that come in, that we cannot control.
But we feel that this could be a very good demonstration project for the 185 schools that are in the BIA-funded system, and our request is that if we fund this project, we think it will be a positive and timely answer to maintaining buildings, which makes everything cost-effective, I believe.
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Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you very much.
Mr. MILLER. Thank you very much for your time.
[The statement of Tom Miller follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
THURSDAY, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
WITNESS
JAIME PINKHAM, PRESIDENT, THE INTERTRIBAL TIMBER COUNCIL
Mr. REGULA. Intertribal Timber Council.
Mr. PINKHAM. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, again, for this opportunity to testify before the subcommittee. My name is Jaime Pinkham. I am president of the Intertribal Timber Council which is a consortium of over 70 timber-owning tribes in Alaska, and native corporations.
Mr. Chairman, the volume of tribal timber lands that have current management plans have been on a decline over the past few years. Among the larger Category I type forests on Indian lands, one-third of them no longer have a current NIPA assessment. On a smaller Category II forest, which also provides essential commercial and subsistence needs for Indian people, we see about two-thirds of those without current assessments.
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Our forests are increasingly struggling to stay within the compliance requirements of the different management and environmental laws that are out there, because the forestry planning funds have remained unchanged since 1991, while we see the planning requirements upon our forest lands becoming more complex and more costly.
Also, we have noticed a decline in the number of staff in both the area office and the central office forestry program.
Mr. REGULA. You are talking about Forest Service staff?
Mr. PINKHAM. Bureau of Indian Affairs forestry.
Mr. REGULA. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Do you do anything with the Forest Service or is it all done through the BIA?
Mr. PINKHAM. There are some cooperative agreements with the Forest Service on things like pest management and fire control, but mostly on-the-ground funding is accomplished through funding from the BIA.
Mr. REGULA. So you sell standing timber?
Mr. PINKHAM. Yes, we do.
Mr. REGULA. Do you do any processing in the tribal programs, or are the purchasers non-Indians?
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Mr. PINKHAM. It varies from tribe to tribe, Mr. Chairman. Some are industrialized, they do their own processing; some sell to local mills. It varies.
Mr. REGULA. Do you have sustained yield in your forests?
Mr. PINKHAM. As a course of Federal law, we must manage under sustained yield, but by the principles of Indian management we usually exceed the requirements of sustained yield, and set aside some of our forest lands for the future, without them being touched at all.
Mr. REGULA. Okay.
Mr. PINKHAM. And we find, Mr. Chairman, that the continuing decline of funding and professional staff has made it even more difficult for the smaller tribes, who then lack any capability at all to prepare the management plans or to comply with the various environmental laws.
So what we would like to request is $300,000 to increase the Area Office staffs, and $150,000 to help with the Central Office foresters, and we recognize this falls short of what is needed, but we hope that it will help slow the decline.
Mr. REGULA. Do you get any help from the Forest Service? What I am talking about are scientists, or disease prevention programs.
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Mr. PINKHAM. On the disease preventions, yes, pest management funds are funnelled through the Forest Service, then on to the tribes.
We would also like to request that forest management inventory and planning be increased by about $1 million, again, to cover the increasingly complex nature of developing new management plans with the environmental burdens that are being placed upon our lands.
For Woodlands Management, we would like an additional $500,000, really would double its current budget, but we see that woodlands are really vital, particularly for subsistence to many tribes. But the current funding under the Woodlands Program only provides for three personnel to cover 9.5 million acres. So that really falls woefully short of what is needed to protect and manage woodlands.
We would also like to see—the latest in resource management is integrated resource management planning, and that has become a basic planning tool for a lot of the private and Federal land managers.
We would like to see the tribes have access to such planning needs as that. Especially when we see our tribe live so intimately connected to the land, it is important that we do holistic management planning. So we are requesting $3 million to help the Bureau of Indian Affairs initiate integrated resource management planning on our reservations.
And finally, Mr. Chairman, we have noticed an increase in forest land base for the Indian tribes through land acquisition, congressional designations, and sometimes BIA land reclassification. Unfortunately, the budgets, as the land base increases the budget has not been increasing, so we are also requesting that under BIA/TPA, that we see an increase of about $2 million, which is equivalent to 7.5 percent of the budget, you know, and tied to 7.5 percent of the land base, be distributed accordingly, to help us respond to the increase in management responsibility upon those acres.
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Mr. Chairman, that concludes my remarks and I would be happy to answer any further questions.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Your members market quite a bit of timber, do they?
Mr. PINKHAM. Quite a few of our members do marketing, not just nationally, but some have been trying to get into the international market as well.
Mr. REGULA. Mostly hardwoods?
Mr. PINKHAM. It varies across the country. Some are hardwoods; some softwoods out in the Great Lakes area.
Mr. REGULA. Okay. Thank you.
Mr. PINKHAM. Thank you.
[The statement of Jaime Pinkham follows:]
Folios 112 to 116 Insert here
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
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BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
WITNESSES
ANTONE C. MINTHORN, CHAIRMAN, CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE UMATILLA INDIAN RESERVATION AND ALFONSE HALFMOON, VICE CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Mr. REGULA. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Mr. MINTHORN. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
I am Antone Minthorn, chairman of the board of trustees of The Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon.
With me is Mr. Alfonse Halfmoon who is the vice chairman of the board of trustees. Mr. Halfmoon is also the chair of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commissioner, and Mr. Halfmoon is also a World War II veteran.
Mr. Chairman, we thank you for the opportunity to comment on the fiscal year 1999 President's budget.
Before I get into some specific budget issues, I will comment on an important issue that affects the budget debate on Indian programs. That is Indian gaming.
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One of the purposes of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 was economic development. In this respect our tribe has a modest and successful gaming operation.
The indicators of success include unemployment that has been reduced from 37 percent to less than 20 percent.
Mr. REGULA. Now you have several tribes. It says Confederated Tribes. Is that right?
Mr. MINTHORN. Three tribes, sir.
Mr. REGULA. Do they each have gaming?
Mr. MINTHORN. No. It is a confederation, and we have one gaming operation on the reservation.
Out of 370 people employed, 60 percent are Indian, 40 percent are non–Indian. Gaming revenues have also made it possible to expand our economic base beyond the gaming facility. That is a hotel, golf course, RV park, and cultural institute. This expansion employs another 100 people.
The Indian Gaming and Regulatory Act of 1988 has succeeded, as Congress envisioned, on our reservation. We are building an economy to help our people. I think it is important for Congress to understand some progress has been made through Indian country.
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Mr. Chairman, the Umatilla Tribe supports the President's budget, with some important comments. These include the fact tribal priority allocations remain below the 1995 budget levels. Also that inflation continues to erode purchasing power of programs.
There needs to be consideration of tribal input in regard to joint law enforcement initiatives between the Departments of Interior and Justice.
We support increased funding for water rights quantification and negotiation to avoid costly litigation.
We support the inclusion of 250,000 in the budget for the In–Lieu fishing sites on the Columbia River. These funds need to be appropriated and not eliminated as they were in the last year's budget to insure that these sites can be maintained for use by our tribal fishermen. We support the establishment of a pilot program on the Umatilla reservation to address fractionated land ownership problems caused by the Allotment Act.
Regarding the IHS budget, we have these comments. We support a needed increase in the catastrophic health care fund. We support an increase in contract support funds.
And our final comments. Do not constrain self-determination funds investments such as was done in 1998. Do not use the appropriation bill as a vehicle to try and make major changes in Federal Indian policy by the addition of Indian riders.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes our comments. Thank you for your time.
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Mr. REGULA. Thank you.
[The statement of Antone Minthorn follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Mr. REGULA. Our next witness is the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council.
Mr. SKEEN [presiding]. We have a little seat switching going on here, and we will get down to business real quick.
—————
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
TRIBAL NATURAL RESOURCE FUNDING INITIATIVES
WITNESS
IRA NEWBREAST, DIRECTOR, BLACKFEET FISH AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT, BLACKFEET TRIBE, BLACKFEET INDIAN RESERVATION
Mr. SKEEN. Are you Ira?
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Mr. NEWBREAST. Yes, sir.
Mr. SKEEN. Welcome.
Mr. NEWBREAST. Thank you, sir. I am glad to be here.
Mr. SKEEN. Begin your testimony.
Mr. NEWBREAST. Your Honor, what I have come here today is for the Blackfeet Tribe's initiative to try and acquire funding allocations for the establishment of a hatchery.
The Blackfeet reservation is 1.5 million acres, and it has 15,000 members on the reservation. We are next to Glacier National Park and have a system of glaciated pothole lakes which totals 20,000 acres. Our recreational fisheries, of which we have come to be dependent upon, quite extensively, are our economic base for many of our natural resource initiatives, and those go into other areas of law enforcement, conservation management.
Our interest is to try and secure our own stocking rates for our reservation, and by the establishing of a new hatchery. We have worked cooperatively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Reclamation in trying to get the parameters set up to establish the fish hatchery and assure items such as biological control, baseline information, et cetera.
Our hatchery facility would be built in a three phase program in which we would do the planning and design for which most of the parameters have been established and identified.
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The second phase would be the construction. The third phase would be the OMB type operational.
The Blackfeet Tribe is a Great Plains regional tribe, and we are largely identified with the buffalo, but as it has turned out throughout—well, with the onset of Western society, that the tribe has to—and for subsistence issues—orient themselves toward fisheries and a lot more aggressive use of the fisheries, and as such they have entered into our society as really a culturally important entity.
And the fisheries, as we have experienced them—as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has experienced their various budget cuts or concerns, we have experienced a decrease in our stocking rates as the trust responsibility that U.S. Fish and Wildlife provides for us.
And what we would like to see is a regain of our original stocking rates, and secure those and be run by the tribe through a self-determination effort.
Mr. SKEEN. What type fish are we talking about?
Mr. NEWBREAST. We are talking about rainbow trout.
Mr. SKEEN. Rainbow trout.
Mr. NEWBREAST. And this hatchery would be used exclusively to sustain our closed pothole lake systems. We have——
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Mr. SKEEN. That is your biggest resource, then?
Mr. NEWBREAST. That is a very extensive resource. We also have a number of—because we are located near Glacier Park, and Canada, we have every large game animal there is, with the exception of caribou and polar bears. Outside of that—and brown bears—we have every species there is. We have a number of threatened, endangered species for which we are also asking an addendum, funding for, that we address.
We have one of the longest standing grizzly bear programs in the U.S., Lower 48, that has been successful.
We have the only established computer model of the cumulative effects for NEPA processes.
We are also looking for an addendum for our existing fish and wildlife contract. We have 15,000 members. We have four game wardens in which to deal with it. We are looking for an addendum to increase that.
We appreciate the funding. In the past it has allowed us to move in areas where the tribe has gained great gains in their resources, particularly in wildlife populations.
We experienced wildlife populations that were minimal numbers before the funding. As we have established our code and our game warden conservation management, we have populations now in the thousands. It is very successful and it needs to grow, and that also includes our initiative here to be funded for.
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Mr. SKEEN. You have buffalo?
Mr. NEWBREAST. Yes, sir. We do. We have 120 head on our reservation.
Mr. SKEEN. If you run out, Ted Turner has plenty in New Mexico.
Mr. NEWBREAST. We knock on his door, frequently. [Laughter.]
Mr. SKEEN. Thank you very much for being here.
Mr. NEWBREAST. Thank you, Your Honor.
Mr. SKEEN. Did that conclude your statement?
Mr. NEWBREAST. Yes, sir.
Mr. SKEEN. We appreciate that and I appreciate what you are trying to do. Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. NEWBREAST. Thank you.
[The statement of Ira Newbreast follows:]
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"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
NATIVE AMERICAN HEALTH/EDUCATION ISSUES
WITNESS
MARIA CACKUSE, COUNCIL MEMBER, THE TULALIP TRIBES AND KAREN FRYBERG, CLINIC MANAGER; ON BEHALF OF STANLEY G. JONES, CHAIRMAN
Mr. SKEEN. Tulalip Tribes, Stanley G. Jones.
Ms. CACKUSE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SKEEN. Identify yourselves for the record.
Ms. CACKUSE. On behalf of Stanley G. Jones, chairman, my name is Maria Cackuse, and I am council member for the Tulalip Tribes. To my left is Karen Fryberg. She is the clinic manager for our tribe.
I would like to thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony supporting the mandatory increases in the appropriation cycle for fiscal year 1999. The Tulalip Tribes is a 638 contract under PL93–638, serving 3,459 members in Snahomish County in Washington State, and one of our first issues, and a very important issue, is the new facilities construction.
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Over the past 15 years, IHS has spent five times the amount on hospitals as it has on outpatient clinics. This does not elevate our health status. We can only benefit if expanded outpatient facilities are constructed and we have been operating out of a 20 year old modular unit.
So we would kindly ask your assistance in that area.
And number two is on population growth and Karen is going to speak on that issue.
Mr. SKEEN. Thank you. Karen.
Ms. FRYBERG. Hi. I am Karen Fryberg and I have worked 17 years in our health programs at Tulalip, and when we originally contracted with IHS for our contract health services and which we rely solely on to provide health care for our members, we contracted for 1,900 members, and for the years 1988, 1989, and 1990, we did not receive those monies until 1993, and we have received no monies for population growth.
And we are currently serving 4,553 people in Snahomish County, all the Indians that live in and around Snahomish County, and we have not received any extra funds to provide that care since we negotiated with IHS at that time.
And so it is really hard to provide care, adequate care for our members at that level, and so, you know, we feel like, you know, the result of that is poor health status for our members, when we are not able to provide the care that they need, they crucially need.
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Mr. SKEEN. So you have outgrown it once again.
Ms. FRYBERG. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. I want to thank you for being here. Mr. Stanley must understand if you want a job done right, well, get the ladies to do it.
Ms. CACKUSE. That is right. [Laughter.]
Ms. CACKUSE. We had one more issue and number three is on education.
Mr. SKEEN. I just wanted to comment, too, that men always get the last word, and that is yes, ma'am. [Laughter.]
Ms. CACKUSE. Oh, okay.
Mr. Chairman, we would like the option of creating our own school district. In 1959, we sold land for one dollar to the Marysville School District to build an elementary school on our reservation so that we could create good education for our children and for the past 40 years, the test scores for this school has been the lowest in the school district. We believe that our tribe, in creating our own school district, we could receive more funds to reduce the classroom sizes and add special remedial programs for our children.
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Also, they could be more successful as they grow older in providing good education in the early, primary years, so that they can read before they get into the secondary level.
We would just like your assistance and to be able to create our own school district, and we thank you for your time and consideration for these important issues for our tribe.
Mr. SKEEN. How many children do you have in your school system?
Ms. CACKUSE. We have 800 tribal members.
Mr. SKEEN. 800 tribal members?
Ms. CACKUSE. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. Do you take any non-tribal members in the school, or——
Ms. CACKUSE. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. Those who live in the proximity——
Ms. CACKUSE. It is a public school.
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Mr. SKEEN. I see.
Ms. CACKUSE. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. And you have a real problem.
Ms. CACKUSE. Yes. We do.
Mr. SKEEN. We thank you for your testimony.
Ms. CACKUSE. Thank you.
[The statement of Stanley G. Jones, Sr. follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
TRIBAL PROGRAMS
WITNESS
BOBBY WHITEFEATHER, CHAIRMAN, RED LAKE NATION OF CHIPPEWA INDIANS AND LAWRENCE DUDLEY, COUNCILMAN
Mr. SKEEN. The Red Lake Nation. Bobby Whitefeather. Welcome.
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[Mr. Whitefeather speaks in Chippewa language.]
Mr. SKEEN. I can answer you in Zuni or Navajo.
Welcome.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Mr. Chairman, good morning.
My name is Bobby Whitefeather. I am the tribal chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, and to my left is councilman Lawrence Dudley.
Mr. SKEEN. Welcome to both of you.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. And on behalf of the 9,300 plus members of the Red Lake Nation, we would like to acknowledge and express our appreciation for the opportunity to testify before the committee this morning.
Just a little bit of background on the Red Lake Nation. We are a very large tribe with a large population base as well as a large land and water base, and like a lot of other rural areas, we are being more and more affected by changes in society.
Situations such as an increase in crime, violence, drugs. We still have high rates of poverty, high incidences of alcoholism, high unemployment, poor health status, inadequate housing, and also inadequate protection for our natural resources.
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Now, the Red Lake Tribe is very progressive in meeting these challenges, to try to be a very progressive tribe in self-governance. In fact we started self-governance in 1997.
Some of the results of that is there is extensive community cohesiveness. However, to accomplish all that we need to accomplish more funding needs to be addressed, not only to regulate, but also to all tribes in law enforcement and tribal courts, and the arena of social services.
Since self-governance, we have made some research and examined what our needs are in Red Lake, and our immediate need right now is—unmet need is about $2.6 million to adequately fund the programs.
And while the Red Lake Nation is very appreciative of the increase that was put into the budget last year, however, whenever the residual amount of $23.6 million was distributed, Red Lake's share was less than 1 percent. We are grateful for that; however, I think it demonstrates that there is still a lot of need out there.
Our immediate desperate need is for a law enforcement and detention facility.
Mr. SKEEN. That is your primary problem?
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. That is a primary problem at this point; our immediate problem. The current facility is a converted forestry garage, and so what happened was the Bureau remodeled the facility and made it into a jail.
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Now the facility itself is not conducive to monitoring of the prisoners, certain prisoners that are prone to suicide and violence, and so over the years we have had numerous suicide attempts.
And within the last 18 months two young men took their lives by their own hand in the facility.
Mr. SKEEN. In the facility?
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. By hanging, or something, or——
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes; by hanging. But as a positive to this, Mr. Chairman, the Red Lake Nation has prepared a design of a facility that is projected to be in the area of $12 million, and I think what—the committee that we have established on the reservation, through all agencies, is that we want to commend and support the joint effort between Department of the Interior and Department of Justice, of trying to get more monies out to the Indian tribes, and we certainly support that joint effort.
Other desperate needs, Mr. Chairman, are the uncertainty of what is going to happen when welfare reform truly affects our Nation. At this point in time we have about one-third of our population on AFDC, and another 500 unemployed single adults.
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Mr. SKEEN. What is your total population?
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. The total population on the reservation is about 6,500.
Mr. SKEEN. Six thousand.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes. And to complicate the matter is that we do not have economic development to any great extent. We do have some tribal industries; however, being where we are located, we are very marginal.
One of the key areas where we are going to be greatly affected is our commercial fishery shut down last year. I would like to remind the committee that I did speak with the Bureau of Indian Affairs regarding this because it is a federally regulated fishery, and relayed our concern that the responsibility rested with the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the regulation of the fishing industry.
Mr. SKEEN. Well, who is responsible for shutting it down?
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. The association.
Mr. SKEEN. The association?
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. The association is a separate body from the tribal council.
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Mr. SKEEN. From the tribal council.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. You still have Federal participation in that facility?
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Not to a great degree.
Mr. SKEEN. Not now; it is gone.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. No; no.
Mr. SKEEN. By the way, I would like to point out to the staff here, there is money that is requested now at the Department of Justice for building jails.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. And including a set-aside for a jail.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes, we are aware of that.
Mr. SKEEN. Have you made an application?
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Mr. WHITEFEATHER. We have not made a formal application. We are still in the design process.
Mr. SKEEN. I see. At any rate, you have started the process.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes; yes. I think we are in Phase II.
Mr. SKEEN. Thank you.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Mr. Chairman, another area is health care. The Red Lake Nation operates their own hospital, and we are examining the possibility of assuming responsibility under either 638 or self-governance. However, even if we do attempt to contract for the health care, a recent study that we performed indicates that only 49 percent of the health needs are being addressed at this point.
And we support any increase that the committee would recommend, or the President. I think our effort, jointly, as a community, in 1995, we declared war on diabetes by instituting what we call a MMAD program—a million miles against diabetes—where we are going to walk, as a Nation——
Mr. SKEEN. A persistent problem in Indian country.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes; yes; it is.
Mr. SKEEN. Diabetes?
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Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes.
So it is going to take Larry and me at least 20 years before we get to a million miles for our entire tribe.
Mr. SKEEN. Well, he looks like he is running on a pretty good speedometer. [Laughter.]
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. We are about 60,000 miles at this point. So we have got a good start on it.
Another area is of course lack of housing and we are not sure what welfare reform is going to affect on housing because there seems to be some tendency that there are thoughts out there, that people that—our members who live in urban areas will come to come home.
And the last thing, Mr. Chairman, I think it has been talked about, that the natural resources of Indian Nations has to be protected, and that the same is true in Red Lake.
We have a large land area, we have a large water area, and I believe that the Department has the trust responsibility to safeguard the natural resources of the tribe, and our situation is similar to the gentleman that testified from Blackfeet, is that we do not have adequate funding to adequately manage our resources.
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Mr. Chairman, I want to say ''meegwich'' to you, and there is detailed written testimony that we are providing, and as tradition in our homeland, we would like to invite you and any Members of the committee that would come to the home of the Red Lake Nation, whenever your schedule permits. Meegwich.
Mr. SKEEN. Thank you. We appreciate it.
Do you have any recreational income from tourism, or anything of that kind? You have that lake there. Is it a resort type operation or——
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. That is an interesting question, Mr. Chairman. The Red Lake Nation is what is termed a closed reservation, where all our land is held in common.
We have had some internal discussions amongst the council members and some elders and some youth, and at this point there is reluctance to open the reservation for resorts and that type——
Mr. SKEEN. You do not have any gambling?
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. We are a gaming tribe. Yes, we do have gaming, but given that we are in northern Minnesota where there are not many people, our gaming essentially is a jobs program.
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Mr. SKEEN. I see. I thought maybe with that cold weather up there, that gambling would be pretty good because you stay inside and you just keep pulling on those handles.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Yes. Well, we thought so, too, but snow—not this year.
Mr. SKEEN. Not this year.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Snowmobilers were very disappointed this year.
Mr. SKEEN. Well, thank you very much for your testimony.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SKEEN. We appreciate the information and we will do the best we can.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. Thank you.
Mr. SKEEN. We either offer you help, or direct you to where you can get help. Thank you.
Mr. WHITEFEATHER. I have got to do my commercial here. Here is my——
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Mr. SKEEN. Oh, you have got your commercial. We appreciate that. Does that give us a free evening at the gaming tables? [Laughter.]
Thank you.
[The statement of Bobby Whitefeather follows:]
Offset folios 153 to 157 insert here
Thursday, March 5, 1998.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS/INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
WITNESSES
TOM MAULSON, CHAIRMAN, LAC DU FLAMBEAU BAND OF LAKE SUPERIOR CHIPPEWA INDIANS AND
LARRY J. WAWRONOWICZ, NATURAL RESOURCES DIRECTOR, LAC DU FLAMBEAU BAND OF LAKE SUPERIOR CHIPPEWA INDIANS
Mr. SKEEN. Lac du Flambeau. Good to see you again.
Mr. MAULSON. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to say that my colleague, one of my directors of the natural resource program, I hope to give him a little bit of time.
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But for the record, my name is Tom Maulson. I am the president of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians in northern Wisconsin. I also carry the cap of Great Lakes Intertribal Council chairperson, and I am also the chairman of the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Commission, which you will hear from one of our deputies later on.
But I think it is really important. You all can read, I know that, because we did get a little bit of help in the last year and we appreciate that, but like I said, it is just a little bit. And I think we need to work harder to really fit, you know, the pot that is needed for Indian country out there, and that is to make sure that the fiduciary responsibility obligations to Indian people are going to be met someplace down the road.
Hopefully this little bit, that increase that we get from the President, and the little increase that you all take time to study on our needs back home, we appreciate that. And you heard my colleague Bobby say ''megwich,'' and that means ''thank you,'' thank you in our language. But we too have a lot of major problems in the health area. I do have, and hopefully as the Great Lakes Intertribal chairman, that I could submit this after we leave as part of the testimony——
Mr. SKEEN. Certainly.
Mr. MAULSON [continuing]. For the tribes in Wisconsin in reference to health care. We definitely are in dire need in those particular areas. That $10 million cut for hospitals and clinics has a major impact, not only on my tribe but a lot of tribes in Wisconsin.
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So we are looking forward hopefully that you will take a look at all the other needs that you heard this morning in reference to the things that Indian country needs across the country. I do have one of the health directors, sitting in the audience hoping that I am going to say the right thing here today to, click and say, well, let's get some more like Band-Aids or whatever.
Mr. SKEEN. Well, it sounds like you are picking on the right thing.
Mr. MAULSON. Right. And education is really important to our people as a priority, as all Indian Nations, to make sure that not only are we educated but that you people start to get more educated. And I think my colleague said, once again, come to our reserves and really see the hurts and needs of our people back home. And I think we could get probably a better snapshot than 5 minutes or 5 seconds of what we are trying to do for you.
Law enforcement is another issue back home I think is really important to our people. We are trying to make the non-Indian people or the white people in America see that we are sovereign governments, we are nations, and that we have got people like Gordon up there in the State of Washington wanting to take away sovereignty.
Mr. SKEEN. You don't mean that Senators do things like that?
Mr. MAULSON. I really mean that. I wish he would come to my reservation.
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Mr. SKEEN. I am blushing.
Mr. MAULSON. He would definitely see what is happening, you know, our needs.
Mr. SKEEN. Yes, we understand it.
Mr. MAULSON. I know that, and I hope that we can go forth and make a bigger pot for us, because I think it is just—everybody is just sort of playing catch-up here today because our needs are great back home. This is something that my elders, my young people, have identified.
I am going to give a little time, as you guys say, to my worker here, and he is a non-Indian person and been with our program for almost 20-plus years. So this is the dedication that we get from your people.
So I am hoping that we make some impact here today. Like other people sitting here, we appreciate your time. And Larry, if you want to just deal with the natural resource programs?
Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. For the record, my name is Larry Wawronowicz. I am the Deputy Administrator for Natural Resources.
Mr. SKEEN. Right. Glad to have you here.
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Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. You have to understand, Mr. Chairman, that natural resources are very vital to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. Mother Earth gave us the life-sustaining ingredients to borrow so we can live. Our role is to keep them clean and viable.
We share the responsibility as, you know, the tribal governments and the Federal Government, to protecting and enhancing those resources for present and future generations, and as the Lac du Flambeau Band calls it, the Seventh Generation. We are always looking seven generations ahead.
We have to be proactive in our management and it is a big responsibility that you and I have as leaders of natural resources, to make sure that the land and water is protected. The land, water and the air, and all the animals and plants that live along with us, are the major, major part of us. You know, we are what we eat and drink.
In order to protect, conserve and enhance those resources for this generation and for present generation or for future generations, we need some dollars to do that. We have some specific requests within the testimony dealing with wildlife and parks programs for the Lac du Flambeau.
The Circle of Flight program, which is a sort of a regional Great Lakes initiative in terms of enhancing wetlands and the waterfowl populations up and down the Mississippi Flyway, I believe there is like 61 million acres that all the tribes and organizations have that could utilize the dollars to protect those resources. You know, the marshlands are very important in terms of clean water, and it also is very important in terms of the subsistence life style that the tribe has, and of course it gives hunting opportunity for a lot of people up and down the Mississippi Flyway.
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Our forestry program, you have heard testimony from the Timber Council. We have 55,000 acres of forested land that gives not only logging opportunities for our members but it also gives——
Mr. SKEEN. Do you have a logging plant there, in operation on the reservation?
Mr. MAULSON. Not a large one. I think we have got two tribal members that do logging within our reservation.
Mr. SKEEN. So it is relatively limited?
Mr. MAULSON. Right. Very limited.
Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. We have a forestry program consisting of one forester and three technicians, but they haven't received any increase in funding since 1992, and we are requesting from the committee to look favorably upon earmarking $60,000 for our forestry program.
We have a land management program that is responsible for managing tribal lands, and we have some needs there. And we also want to go on record to support the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. The Band strongly supports the President's $3.5 million funding request, and the Commission also is asking for an additional $195,000. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission are essential for implementing the Band's off-reservation hunting, fishing and gathering rights in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.
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We need to deal with the tribal priority allocations. We understand there is $34 million that the President is increasing, requesting for programs, but these monies are not enough and we are requesting this committee to increase it by another $50 million.
Just to give you some little more insight in terms of what the natural resources on the reservation are, I would like to submit this to you for your review.
Mr. SKEEN. Fine. It will be in the record.
Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. But the Lac du Flambeau Band has 92,000 acres and we have, you know, 20,000 surface acres of water and 15,000 acres of marshland and 34 miles of creeks, rivers and streams. So the——
Mr. SKEEN. You have a great resource base.
Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. Right, and we need to be able to take care of that, you know, for the future use and for present use, and it is very important in the life style of the Flambeau Band.
Mr. MAULSON. Beautiful water, sir, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. And I do like to again reiterate what the tribal chairman said, that, you know, any time any of the committee would like to come and visit our beautiful reservation, you know, please feel free to come and we will give you the grand tour of our wild areas.
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Mr. SKEEN. Thank you for the gracious invitation, and if we can work it out, we will try to take advantage of it.
Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. I hope so.
Mr. SKEEN. I want to say, too, that we are a little disappointed with the President's budget when it comes to health matters and particularly on the Indian country, and we hope that maybe we can prevail on him to be a little more lenient.
Mr. WAWRONOWICZ. I always go with the idea that if you have a healthy environment, you have a healthy human population.
Mr. SKEEN. Absolutely right. Thank you both, very, very much.
Mr. MAULSON. Thank you very much.
Mr. SKEEN. Nice to have you here.
[The statement of Tom Maulson follows:]
"The Official Committee record contains additional material here."
Thursday, March 5, 1998
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BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS/INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
WITNESSES
FERDINAND MARTINEAU, RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, FOND DU LAC BAND OF LAKE SUPERIOR CHIPPEWA INDIANS; ACCOMPANIED BY MARY PAVEL
Mr. SKEEN. Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Mr. Robert Peacock. Welcome.
Mr. MARTINEAU. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. SKEEN. Thank you.
Mr. MARTINEAU. Mr. Peacock was unable to make it. My name is, for the record, is Ferdinand Martineau.
Mr. SKEEN. Martineau?
Mr. MARTINEAU. Yes. I am the Resource Management Director for the Fond du Lac Band.
Mr. SKEEN. He has an able assistant. You tell him you did a good job.
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Mr. MARTINEAU. Thank you.
Mr. SKEEN. Up your salary.
Mr. MARTINEAU. Can I quote you on that?
Mr. SKEEN. Yes, sir, you certainly may. Tell him you are worth every dime and more.
Mr. MARTINEAU. Mr. Chairman, as previous people have testified before you and as people are going to be testifying in the future, we bring a simple message from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. There is a great need in Indian country that is currently unmet, and we are asking your committee to help us meet that need.
At Fond du Lac we have needs in several areas, but I am going to focus on education, enforcement, and natural resources in this testimony.
The top priority of Fond du Lac Reservation has always been education, as most tribes have been. The Band's greatest area of concern is that we have a—that our children are asked to attend a school that is not safe or conducive to learning, and I have some pictures.
Mr. SKEEN. Why don't you have the young lady just go ahead and sit down there, so she doesn't have to stand and hold them.
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Mr. MARTINEAU. This is Mary Pavel and she is assisting me today.
As you can see, the school is not a very good school. We have operated it since 1980, and——
Mr. SKEEN. Are those portable buildings?
Mr. MARTINEAU. Yes.
Mr. SKEEN. Go ahead.
Mr. MARTINEAU. We have operated the school since 1980, Four years ago the BIA did a