Give I’ll be it it’s a short version what I said in my own language translated into English thusly hello my relatives I have an Oglala Lakota and I come from our very sacred holy land the Black Hills where yellow thunder village is my mother is from the War Eagle clan
And my father’s family is from the Crazy Horse clan this greediness to this day the way all Indians throughout the nations so greet one another those that still know their culture this is the only way we present ourselves to one another that is acceptable we tell you who we are where
We are from who we are from our clans and we do this without ever saying our name anything less would be an insult to you and to my people senators my morning prayers to the great mystery always include you and your colleagues in Congress as well as leaders in all
Governments it is an honor to come before you as a spokesman for my people the American Indians of the United States of America in these United States of America this great country of ours we American Indians we can be anything we want to be except American Indians and
That is created by the laws of this nation and condoned by its subsidiaries the so called tribal government and designed for the Indian to fail to be expendable to be eliminated I take you back in your history after the American Indian hostiles had been subdued and forcibly confined to Indian reservations
It took approximately 30 years one generation for us to adjust and become economically viable contrary to what the anthropologists say and what we even ourselves are taught as Indian people however allotments were made smaller our romantic remaining lands are open to homesteading and we were forced into reducing our livestock nevertheless we
Made the adjustment again in less than half the aforementioned time fifteen years have become economically self-sufficient again but once again the American Enya was forcing to reduce in our livestock the boss farmer concept was instituted we were told what when where how much and how little we could grow this applied to
Agriculture and our livestock again we recovered in a time span of approximately 15 years we were so successful in our third recovery that the American image enjoyed the finest of economic times while the rest of the industrialized world was wallowing in the Great Depression it was then that President Roosevelt introduced the
Howard wheeler Act better known as Indian Reorganization Act the IRA was institutionalized the so-called tribal governments which are not one of our institutions and it is still foreign to us this very day we have yet to recover forty five years later the IRA Indian tribal governments on their own
Initiative began renewed efforts at re-establishing their sovereignty focused on the oldest profession of American Indians that’s gambling bingo and other gaming operations has been without exception a proven initial success failure through mismanagement politics or litigation has been less than 15 percent showing a better than 85 percent success rate the new Indian
Sponsored gaming industry on reservations dwarfed success ratios of any and all other non non-indian industries in America gaming operations have proven to benefit the revenue gathering of all governments with a county state or Indian Reservation with regulation of bingo and gaming by the Congress we are experiencing repetition
Of history one shouldn’t remedy success the results the United States government through Congress once again intervenes to regulate a proven success in violation of all basic and fundamental rules of economics and totally contrary to all laws of capitalism American Indians are human beings we are supposed to be
Citizens of the United States of America we fought in your wars in other countries our Navajo Nation code talkers served and save this nation in World War two we have the inalienable right to joint venture with whom we choose as long as we do not harm nor commit fraud
Upon anyone there is no piece of evidence anywhere that proves Indians ever conspired with criminal elements to establish bingo the Bureau of Indian Affairs the infamous Colonial Office of the Department of Interior and the initiator of sleaze and government has been regulating contracting on Indian reservations since nineteen since 1824 this fact
Alone should convince and teach every student of government that regulation of commerce and enterprise does not work in fact it only produces the opposite result graft and corruption is rampant to the contracting auspices of the BIA and a Serguei tribal government Indian front contractors bid for and receive
Government contracts only to proceed to build shoddy dangerous bridges buildings schools roads and dams the Indian is the scapegoat when there is a failure and is always the one indicted contracting on reservations has proven historically to breed and feed corruption within the BIA and now the tribal governments within
The past two years I personally have attempted to assist seven Indian reservations located in the southwest the Northwest and the Northern Plains to no avail the investors I represented were from various groups interested in establishing banks resorts Indian owned public confirms factories fishing ports and international trade I now know that
Tribal governments do not want economic development unless graft is a major ingredient the BIA is a major player in land leases being sold by petty bureaucrats for as meager an amount as $40 there is a scandal of monstrous proportions occurring in at least two Indian agencies the BIS branch of land
Operations and the branch of realty I challenge this investigations committee to intricately go into the branches of Realty and land operations the BIA does not enforce its trust with trust responsibilities quite to the contrary in September of nineteen nineteen eighty-seven I moved from the poorest County in America the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation to the richest area in the country the Navajo Indian Reservation there is no difference I paraphrase the former Secretary of the Department of the Interior James Watt if you want to see an example of failed socialism go to an Indian Reservation the poorest and richest reservations in our nation
Suffer from identical problems mismanagement a bloated patronage system no checks and balances and tribal governments waiver of sovereignty in order to initiate death this is not anything new this is an everyday occurrence in all tribal governments problem is leadership in this case it is the lack of leadership ironically
Everyone including new senators referred to the allegedly elected tribal officials as leaders leaders are supposed to work for a better quality of life for their constituents it is an insult to my heritage my ancestors and my dignity as an Oglala Lakota to have the term used loosely many of the tribal officials are
Honest and insincere men and women who have good hearts nevertheless a vast majority of the tribal officials parasite on the incestuous world of tribal politics not as our forefathers who were the best providers protectors defenders advocators and friends the game of who is the most important rules it’s embarrassing
At the turn of the century American Indians numbered about 230,000 all traditional with each succeeding generation we lose a population base and our spirit as once proud people’s the American Indian statistics of deprivation have remained constant since the end of World War two all other groups of citizens fortunes rise and
Fall with the gross national product the the GMP the American Indian statistical lines of deprivation remains constant a straight line with the blatant genocide of our traditional people we have less than 50,000 in America today we are averaging a loss of 1000 a year since 1900 we are losing a value system as
Distinct people that sets us apart from the industrialized world these facts surface in our tribal statistics and no one attempts to do anything about it except for a few social workers and reservation police this new statistical horror is women and child abuse child sexual abuse is epidemic on Indian
Reservations and all you hear are whispers this abuse can be directly a turtle attributable to the schools on the reservations education in the BIA public the contract and missionary schools do not teach positive values from non-indian culture and in collusion with the BIA certainly do not allow
Indian culture and values to be taught the fact is educators continually denigrate American Indian traditional lifestyle as primitive dirty and without any redeemable virtues and the tribal councils condone it needless to say every time the US government has interfered with American Indian lifestyles it has been proven to be disastrous in the 1960s
Services were implemented on Indian reservations there was a boon for the people tribal of officials all of a sudden were held accountable legal services stepped in and lo and behold tribal courts had power to the power of attorney for the people the result in a dig from
Washington DC is handed down and legal services can no longer represent people against the tribal government and they can no longer represent class-action lawsuits against any government president legal services are not much more than a MILF or divorce lawyer trainees Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978 to
Date six cases concerning our freedom of religion has reached the Supreme Court we lost every one of them we do not win lawsuits state governments lose the only time we allegedly win a lawsuit it is in reality the federal government winning out over the sovereign rights of a state
Once again the American Indians are the pawn on the major factors presenting American Indian people with existing rights to self-determination American Indians suffer under a system of dual citizenship that is US citizenship and tribal citizenship maintained by the BIA only Hitler did that the dual citizenship is a major obstacle in the
Free exercise of individual and tribal sovereignty the continuing loss and nutrition of existing lands to various federal state and local laws and or regulations is a hindrance the abridgement of sovereign rights to remaining lands and the arbitrary monetary policies of settlement of these rights whenever they are recognized another major factor preventing Indian
People from self-determination subjugation of the American Indian individual to the laws of government-sponsored tribal governments and the continuing arbitration of the BI rules and regulations which have the force of law yet are not repeatable solutions the American Indian people’s right to self-determination is recognized and will be implemented through the following policies the
American Indian individual shall have the right to choose his or her citizenship and American Indian nations have the right to choose their level of citizenship and autonomy up to absolute independence the American Indian will have their just property rights restored which include rights of easement access hunting fishing prayer and water the BI
Will be abolished with the American Indian tribal members deciding the extent and nature of their governments if any negotiations will be undertaken to exchange otherwise unclaimed and on federal property for any and all government obligations to the American Indian nations and to fully and to fully libel those responsible for any
And all damages which have resulted from the resource development on or near reservation lands included including damages done by careless and inexcusable disposal of uranium mill tailings and other mineral and toxic wastes I want to thank you gentlemen for inviting me here it’s been a high honor and especially
Since I’m the only one invited here today to testify that doesn’t receive money from the federal government also I want to make I was introduced as a former founder and leader of American any movement to the tribal chairwoman then you have here a former associates of the American Indian Movement back in
The days when we were gross militants and so I just wanted to let you in on that that the American in your movement is a very proud continuing part of American Indian society and thank you
