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▶ 0:11:51Welcome to the first of our public witness hearings dedicated to american indian and alaska native programs. I'd like to welcome all of the distinguished tribal elders and leaders here today. For the second year in a row, we had an unprecedented number of requests requiring us to extend our schedule to accommodate around 100 tribes and tribal organizations. These hearings are incredibly important, and we appreciate the opportunity to hear from so many tribes and national regional tribal organizations across indian country.
▶ 0:12:19Indian country has been and will continue to be a bipartisan priority for this subcommittee. I look forward to continuing to work with ranking member pingree to expand the subcommittee's efforts to strengthen our federal commitment to honor our treaty and trust responsibilities with american indians and alaska natives. Thank you for appearing before the committee and sharing your concerns and perspectives on these important topics. In terms of hearing logistics, I will call each panel of witnesses to the table, one panel at a time.
▶ 0:12:45I'd like to ask everyone to please keep your testimony to five minutes. I understand the need in indian country is great and I don't want to disrespect anyone, but I will have to gavel hit the gavel if folks run over so that we can hear from all of our witnesses. Just as a reminder, your full written testimony will be included in the record, and I do promise that I will read the testimony. Actually, we will be using a timer to track progress of each witnesses of each witness. And when the yellow.
▶ 0:13:15When the light turns yellow, the witness will have one minute remaining to conclude the remarks. When the light turns red, I will have to ask the witness to stop so we can remain on schedule. We'll hear from every witness on each panel before members will be provided an opportunity to ask questions because we have a full day ahead. I request that we try to keep things moving so we can stay on schedule and respect each other's time. I also want to note that committee rules prohibit the use of outside cameras and audio equipment during these hearings.
▶ 0:13:44The hearings can be viewed in its entirety on the committee's website, and an official hearing transcript will be available at g a g p o.gov. With that, I'm happy to yield now to our ranking distinguished member for any remarks that she might have. >> thank you very much, Mr. chair. And I too want to welcome all of you. I know many people had to battle the weather to get across the country.
▶ 0:14:09So, um, some people are missing and we're going to be happy to take their testimony, but congratulations on finding your way across in the snow storms and bad weather everywhere else. So, um, I really look forward to these days and appreciate that you all take the time from your busy schedules and come from far away to give us some insights as we prepare the 2027 appropriations bill. So, um, thank you again for being here. Um, thank you for all that you're going to tell us, and I look forward to working with you over the course of the year and just appreciate very much that you're here with us.
▶ 0:14:38Thank you. And I yield back. >> thank you. >> thank you, ranking member pingree. Uh, today we'll first we'll call up the first panel of witnesses. Uh, daryl saeki senior. Is that right? Okay. Uh, michael fairbanks and virgil wind. Good morning. How are you this morning? Antoine?
▶ 0:15:06And I will say it again, that we had over 100 tribes that want to testify. Uh, and so we try to we try to keep things moving along. So it's no disrespect if I start to tap the gavel, if things run over, and I know it's hard sometimes to keep things within five minutes, but, uh, it's not disrespectful. And we will, uh, we will, uh, include your full testimony in the record.
▶ 0:15:34So anyway, daryl, your first. It's hard to see if it's on or not, huh? Push it. >> there it is. >> it's. Coming down.
▶ 0:16:01Mark takano. Hi. Good morning, chair simpson and rest of the panel here. All of our friends here. My name is daryl g, senior chairman of red lake nation jimmy gomez for this opportunity to testify today.
▶ 0:16:29I have testified before this subcommittee many times, and I'm proud to say that you have always worked in bipartisan way to do the best you can to uphold your trust and treaty obligations to indian country. And I believe all of you to continue this tradition, as I do every year. I bought the red lake treaties in the united states constitution, outlining the trust responsibility of the federal government to our tribe.
▶ 0:16:59This is not to be an attack on anyone, but a friendly reminder. That is your responsibility to uphold these agreements together. That was done by the year commissioners of state of minnesota with our chiefs.
▶ 0:17:14I am here to remind you that your unique needs of our community, that you must work tirelessly to provide robust funding for indian affairs and to, again, reject the president's proposed cuts to these critical agencies, mandatory funding for tribes, not discretionary. I have five requests that support the basic needs of red lake, 17,000 plus tribal members.
▶ 0:17:39First, I ask that you fully fund the I a, b, I e at 32.6 billion, as supported by the tribal interior budget council. This funding reflects the actual cost data for 31 programs essential to promoting the public safety, education, well-being for our tribe. Second, I ask you to continue to support the to I initiative to.
▶ 0:18:04Why is critical to ensuring that red lake and 65 other tribes can keep their tribal members safe, reunify families to give them a chance to heal together, provide education, job training to make productive citizens, and more importantly, give them hope and the desire to be healthy contributors to this country. In the last seven years, red lake has had 70% reduction in our home replacement of our kids.
▶ 0:18:29We have no zoo's youth suicide in five years. We are making the meaningful change our members need. For this reason, we ask you not to only continue funding to wiki for red lake and other pilot tribes to make tawahi permit permanent. Expand if expanded to all tribal members, no matter where they live, have the same opportunities to heal and become changemakers in their communities.
▶ 0:18:58When we have full funding for these efforts, everyone is better. This is how we break the internet generational trauma. This is how we heal. This is how we become better partners. Third, we need your help to keep our community safe. I feel like a broken record on this ask, and it saddens me that no one is listening. None.
▶ 0:19:20Indian drug dealers are taking advantage of our jurisdictional gaps on our homeland simply because we are tribal governments. They know that with our lack of jurisdiction over them coupled. Excuse me, they are stuck together with shortfalls in bia funding that you can get away. They can kill our family members and simply walk away. No one here should feel good about this.
▶ 0:19:50We have to look at our family members, our citizens, in the eyes, and tell them we are doing everything we can. I wish you were there every time we are with these families because I know we can do more. This is no longer an ask. I need you to support us in expanding special criminal jurisdiction over non-indians. I need I need fully funding our bia public safety programs when we keep indian country safe.
▶ 0:20:22Everyone else is more safe. That example. That is why so many of our people, native people, enlisted in the military to keep americans safe. Let us indian people fight at home to make our people safe, to overturn the oliphant law of 1978. This would allow tribes to prosecute nonmembers who violate our tribal laws bringing in dangerous drugs, especially fentanyl, also abusing our women and our children.
▶ 0:20:51Fourth, we ask you to continue supporting advance appropriation, fully fund the indian health service at 74 billion to support efforts to expand self-governance and non ihs programs education as well. Tribal colleges are very important to our people pursuing higher education.
▶ 0:21:11Fifth, I want to discuss annual pay cost additions for the last 25 years, administration budget requests have often failed to include the full amount of pay costs. This subcommittee is on record calling these hidden decreases and warning about the need to enact full pay costs in all future budgets to stem the staffing and program declines experienced by interior agencies and tribes.
▶ 0:21:34To make matters even worse, congress froze all pay costs in fy 24 and 25, causing irreversible damage and denying tribes ability to provide cost of living adjustments for critical position, including our police five fire departments. I am calling on you to put a stop to this in 2027 to enact full and robust pay cuts. Whether or not the administration requests.
▶ 0:22:03Jimmy gomez for allowing me to say a few words for you, for my for our constituents, but I want you to remind you again, the treaties and the united states constitution. It says that you will take care of us health care, welfare, education and housing. But for decades, the united states government has promised these. And they have failed for decades. It's time for all of us.
▶ 0:22:27No matter if you're a republican, democrat or independent, to do the right thing for tribes that are in the united states constitution and do the right thing. Oh, jimmy. Great. >> thank you. >> daryl. >> michael. >> honey. Boozhoo. Anishinaabe. Migizi. Gabe amo. Andy barr. Miigwech. Um, miigwetch chairman simpson, ranking member, pingree. And also the members of the subcommittee.
▶ 0:22:56Thank you for opportunity, for testifying, for letting me to testify regarding what first nations federal funding priorities. You know, white earth nation is established in the treaty of 1867 and is comprised of 36 miles by 36 miles of land within the northwestern minnesota. Our homelands remain central to our identity, culture and economic future. The future of our children and our people.
▶ 0:23:21You know, one of the things I wanted to, you know, say thank you to is, you know, my the chiefs that sit alongside me here, you know, we meet quite a bit and you know, these things, these priorities that we, we put in place, you know, that it kind of just echoes through all the nations to minnesota. And, um, I just, I'm really grateful to be out here and to, to sit in front of you and, and to let you know that, uh, we're, we're, we work, we work with everyone.
▶ 0:23:47Like chairman saeki says, one of the first priorities we have is the, is the tribal stewardship and the tamarack national refuge. You know, the top priority of our nation is restoring tribal stewardship of the tamarack national refuge, which lies within the original boundaries of the white earth reservation. The tamarack refuge is established under the 1935 collier agreement between the the biological service and now the us fish and wildlife service and the bureau of indian affairs. Throughout.
▶ 0:24:18These lands are within. The reservation contains culturally significant areas used by our people for generations. The nation currently has a limited authority of their management and. One of the things I want to stress is we've been meeting with the fish and wildlife on this and, um, it's been really good talks. You know, I know that, uh, one of the things that was, uh, that we, uh, I can recollect back to this is our wild rice beds. That's it back in those areas.
▶ 0:24:43And those are our original, our original wild rice areas that we used to have our, our rice camps and our fish camps. And, you know, as anishinaabe people, we would, we would paddle, we would, we were nomads. We would go from our camps to camps for our fishing camps, our fall camps, or our berry picking camps or our maple sugar camps. So this, this area is really significant to us and it sits within our borders, you know, and, and the refuge has been done.
▶ 0:25:09Um, don't get me wrong, the refuge has been doing a great job of managing it, but with the, you know, I'm going to get into this. It's like the shortfalls that, that, uh, that's being today's the cuts, you know, and, and meeting with their staff and meeting with the fish and wildlife out here. Last time I was out here a couple weeks ago and talking to the head of fish wildlife is like, I know there's more cuts coming. And, and one of the things that we stressed here in white earth is, you know, co stewardship and management.
▶ 0:25:35That's what we're good at because we manage our, our own forests within our, our nation is, which is the wider state forest, you know, so we, we manage that. We have a robust dnr natural resources department and we feel like it's our time, you know, after all these years that, you know, helping and, and working with and being good partners and neighbors with these agencies and also the state, you know, feel like it's, you know, it's going to be time here very soon to, to ask for these original lands back to white earth, you know?
▶ 0:26:01So I think the main thing here is, is stewardship and, and working and working towards this with, you know, with this administration and next administrations in the future, that hopefully that, you know, that that these that we'll be able to manage all these areas one day within our borders so we can, you know, offer these for our children and in the public that they can come utilize these, these beautiful areas, you know, so thank you.
▶ 0:26:25And next up, the next part we have is our, is our, um, transportation infrastructure. This is one piece to that, you know, that we, the team and I, you know, we sat down and congress prepares to authorize the national surface transportation programs before september 30th, 2026. We urge that robust funding for all tribal transportation programs.
▶ 0:26:49This is one area, too, where, you know, we're so big and, you know, we have such rural communities out in, uh, you know, it's like takes like an hour from one corner to the other corner of the reservation. So transportation is a must, you know, and the jobs that we're producing, the jobs that we do on our reservation requires for employees from to get from point a to point b to their works, to their work. So these are things that are really, really important to white earth is our is our is our tribal transportation. And we've been working with the transportation department to on that.
▶ 0:27:18So and that's one area where we really want to see that program be fully funded. So. The other thing that I wanted to talk about was environmental justice and protection of our treaty resources. And these are things I guess, that continues to face environmental challenges affecting our treaty, protecting our lands and waters. One example is, is a enbridge line three replacement project, which was now runs through the our treaty territory.
▶ 0:27:46Watersheds connect our headwaters of the mississippi river. And I guess as as obama's here is, is as chiefs and leaders here. That said, at this table with with congress is like, we're we're here to, to fight not only for the for the our water, but the future of our children.
▶ 0:28:02You know, these are things that we look at as not only our children that that I'm talking about, I'm talking about everyone's children that were that were I'm talking about is like, how do you know myself and the other tribal nations that that we represent, you know, that we're, we're water protectors and, you know, we do everything we can to, to save, uh, our ni b, you know, and I think this is something that I think is really, really important that at least, you know, when, when you're, when you're looking at doing these projects or looking
▶ 0:28:34At cutting into the ground, you know, you think about, you know, think about your grandkids. So I think these are things that I really feel like it's really, really important, especially to, to myself and, you know, to all of us here that sit at this table that, you know, taking consideration the next seven generations, you know, and I think that's something that I'm really, really kind of, um, I'm glad and I'm glad to get to sit up here and sit with you and express this to you.
▶ 0:28:56So something I'm not, you know, reading off the paper, but, but something I really, I'm really honored to be here and to let you hear me. >> so thank you. Thank you, thank you for being here today, virgil. >> good morning. >> um. Ani ann wagner and bassoon. And my name is virgil wind. I currently serve as the chief executive for the mille lacs band of ojibwe.
▶ 0:29:21Um, serving roughly 5100 band members in central minnesota, employing nearly 3200 band and non band members. You know, throughout all of our enterprises and organizations. First off, thank you so much for having us here today. Um, you're going to hear a lot of repeats, right? And going over, I think just doubling down on some of the things, right. Treaty and trust obligations. I mean, you're going to hear that all day, right?
▶ 0:29:47When it comes and really just hearing and listening to, it's really about the people that, that we represent, right? It's people, it's mothers, it's fathers, it's aunties, it's everybody that we represent. Um, so first the us department of interior, including the bureau of indian affairs, bureau of indian education, ihs. Um, really just pushing for that treaty and trust obligation to be upheld.
▶ 0:30:14Second, fully fund the bureau of indian affairs and the bureau of indian education at 27.1 million billion, sorry, indian country programs are critically underfunded. This results in reduced health care services, weakened public safety efforts, fewer educational opportunities for our members. Our well-being depends on robust funding for programs promised in our treaties with the federal government.
▶ 0:30:38Um third, continue providing resources for native american languages and b schools. It really is tied to our identity. When you look at our kids and our b schools, when you look at the importance of our language, without it, we're going to cease to exist. It's a very, very difficult thing to fill and find right now in mille lacs, we've had a number of, you know, our elders pass on here recently. Um, some of them the most, uh, inspirational people that you could ever have. Right.
▶ 0:31:07And they're not with us anymore. So, um, really at a critical, critical time to be able to carry that out and figure out how we can work together to, to carry on the language and the culture, you know? Um. I got a whole list. Um, second, our third, sorry, fourth on my list. Um, tribal police parity. So these people oftentimes become members of our communities, right? They become families.
▶ 0:31:37I think one of the things that we really look at in relax is how do we engage these individuals? How do we treat them like they're one of our own? And it's really, really difficult. So admiral ax, we spend nearly $6 million a year on our tribal police programs, with only 3% of that being funded outside of the mille lacs band.
▶ 0:31:58Um, these police officers don't only provide, uh, you know, public safety for our reservations, but they also provide it for the surrounding community. Um, again, just how do we take care of them taking care of us? And the last on my list, um, fully fund the indian health services at 63 billion, um, continue to provide advanced appropriations, right?
▶ 0:32:25During, uh, american indians experience greater health disparities than any other group in the united states. We see it. Our life expectancy is short, right? It's a lot lower than everywhere else. Um, facing some of the hardest things, right? Our elders, I think we, we, we struggle with how do we take care of them? It's one of the things that we hold in high regard, and it's really hard to take care of them and figure that out, especially with these disparities that start at a younger and younger age. Um.
▶ 0:33:00We're at a critical time. Mille lacs is at a critical time. We have a growing number of elders coming into that age. And it seems like as time has passed, those problems have become worse and worse and worse. And we just need to help. We need help figuring it out. Um, we all know the midwest region is one of the most underfunded ihs programs everywhere, right? And with that, how do we figure out exactly how we're going to help these people? And, um, it's people, right?
▶ 0:33:30I mean, you're going to hear again here from a number of tribal leaders here today, but I would urge you to think about the people and the children that it's really going to affect, right? So sometimes we get focused on numbers. Sometimes we get focused on, you know, this problem or that problem. But please just remember that it's people, it's children, it's family members that we really care about. And that's who we're here representing. So I do appreciate it. And that's the first time I've ever stayed under five.
▶ 0:34:00>> thank you. I appreciate your, uh, all of you being here today. We didn't know if everybody's going to be able to get out of minnesota. The way the weather was handled going, uh, last week and stuff, we didn't know if we were going to get in, but, uh, glad to see that you made it. And thank you for your testimony. I'm going to turn up the ranking member if she has any questions. >> thank you, Mr. chair. Yes. Well, thank you so much for being with us here today, and I really appreciate your testimony. We appreciate that you come to visit.
▶ 0:34:28I know betty is the true minnesotan here, but I always like to remind everyone that I was born in minnesota. Yeah, sure. You betcha. >> minnesota. >> yeah. We, uh, we dress alike. Of course. Um, and, uh, my family has a lake cabin in glen, so I've been to visit, um, some of the facilities at mille lacs and. Wonderful, wonderful. And just really appreciate all that all of you have brought to us today and so many critical issues.
▶ 0:34:52You know, many of them, we hear year after year, but I hope we can take some action on some of them this year, particularly, you know, the ones that we hear over and over again about police protection and making sure we're funding, you know, education, um, hearing about your roads. I mean, there are just so many fundamental things and I appreciate you, um, chief bringing the, Mr.
▶ 0:35:11Chair, bringing the treaties with you because we have to be reminded all the time that this is our obligation and we should be making much more of this funding permanent and making sure that we don't have to ask you to come every year to beg for it, that it's actually something that's allocated and comes forward. So really do appreciate you bringing all that up to us. And, um, it's a long list.
▶ 0:35:33I won't repeat everything that you said, but it's just I was making a lot of check marks and saying, you know, this year we've got to get on this and do more with that. So thank you. And I, um, you know, I make it a strict policy in my house to never get wild rice from anywhere but minnesota. So thank you for that. And I hope we can help to keep that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's a good place to, to, to locate it. So, um. >> do we have the best walleye? >> well, yeah. Yeah, you do have the best walleye, but that's because we don't have walleye in new england.
▶ 0:36:02So how do we know. But yeah. No, it's a treat to be there. So anyway, I will turn it back. But thank you so much for being there. >> I always love these. >> discussions on wild rice and walleye when I'm from idaho. And potatoes are what matter? No. Uh, Mr. lc, uh, I suspect, uh, betty, you have some questions or comments? >> I have some comments on some ideas or concerns I'd like. I know that you and ranking member pingree will be working on as we go forward.
▶ 0:36:31Um, first off, you know, talk about leaving things for next generations. The elders who, uh, who helped bring me to where I am today with being, um, open with being a lifelong learner are two elders, marge anderson from mille lacs and stanley crooks from shakopee.
▶ 0:36:56And so, um, they're there with me in spirit as, as I, as I ask, uh, as, as I ask and make a few statements. Um, epa is coming up in a lot of the testimony. I won't be here for all of it this afternoon. Jake, you're my alibi because we'll be in defense in a in a secured room getting some testimony. But, um, in particular, I'm picking up that you've got two issues that we need to look at within the epa.
▶ 0:37:26One is, um, how they work with you regulatorily to protect wild rice. And I know minnesota's working on some current laws right now at home. And the other thing is the grants and the backlog that you're starting to see for your water infrastructure. And there's no there's no set aside. So you have to compete with everything. You have to compete with the state dollars and and all of that.
▶ 0:37:46So, um, I noticed, I noticed that as I was looking through things, um, and then before I make my closing statement, I believe, chairman, that the reason why his is successful as it is, it was from the tribes up to the federal government working. You worked with your, your tribal nation at red lake and then the counties and, and the other support services that the state offers.
▶ 0:38:15And then what the federal government office said, this is how it would work for our tribal nation. And that's been repeated now, um, to, to fit the mold to fit the nation's needs in minnesota, oklahoma, montana, idaho, and maine, as well as there's a total of 14. But red lake's to be commended for your perseverance and for your openness to work to make to make that happen. Mr.
▶ 0:38:38Chair, I think the challenge that I'm really seeing, and I think we start you and the you and the ranking member dealt with it. Great in our bill with the allocation that we had, as there's cuts made to other agencies, whether it's in commerce, state and justice, uh, or if it's in health, the health and education bill, we have some pieces of the funding, but they're in other bills as well.
▶ 0:39:04And as those cuts are being made, we don't know how they're going to impact tribal nations. And so if there would be some way that we could encourage or figure out how to monitor when a cut to epa happens, what happens to tribal nations, but also when there's cuts in education, because some of the some of the language programs are in the education bill as well.
▶ 0:39:27Um, if we could figure out what that is, because I think we'll see that tribes are hurt more disproportionately than, than, you know, some of the areas that, that I directly represent in the state of minnesota. So, um, if you, um, leaders in the community have anything to kind of guide us on that and how you're feeling them and we can see how the cuts are, I think we could have discussions in the appropriations committee with, with the others.
▶ 0:39:54And with that, um, you're going prairie island didn't make it there from southern minnesota. You know, they're not they're not from the. No I'm teasing. Um, but I know you're going to be putting their um, testimony into the record and I thank you for doing that. Meegwetch. >> mark messmer. Betty mccollum. I got a comment for you. Our infrastructure, because water is life, our water lines are need. They've been there over 60 years and lagoons are overfilling.
▶ 0:40:23And some of these water lines are it caused cancer. And, uh, we need about $40 million throughout our reservation to fix our water lines. Got that up before and we'll continue bringing it up. Yeah. >> yeah, I just want to, um, uh, representative mccollum reminded me of something I was thinking about. And that is particularly because we've seen so many cuts in other agencies.
▶ 0:40:52And, um, I think it is helpful when we can keep an eye on that. And one that I was concerned about and meant to bring up. And you mentioned indigenous languages, and I hear that from so many tribes to worry about as you lose the elders, um, the people who have that knowledge, we have to work hard to make sure we pass it along to the next generation. And the nih canceled the indigenous language grants. I wonder if, um, you might join me in, you know, just encouraging them to put them back in because it's really the perfect place to, um, access that funding.
▶ 0:41:21And, uh, I think it was kind of wrong sided to take it away. So anyway, just wanted to bring that up. >> we'll work on that. Preserving the indigenous languages is very important to me. I've been out in, visit some of the schools and watch them teach bannock to the young children there and stuff, and they're trying to expand it into shoshoni and stuff. But, um, I do appreciate you being here. I don't have to tell you that you got a great representative that fights for you every single day here.
▶ 0:41:49Uh, betty does a fantastic job when she chaired this committee, and then she decided to move on to other things, I don't know know, but she does a great job representing you. Uh, you did mention, um, one thing, daryl, when you were testifying, uh, you said we need to overturn the law of. >> 78, 1978. >> what exactly is that? >> it's, uh, it doesn't allow tribes to prosecute nonmembers.
▶ 0:42:20That violate our tribal laws. They bring in drugs now they bring in fentanyl. Although our law enforcement fights big time. But lack of funding, because we're short $1 million every year on law enforcement. >> but that's the law that allowed that disallows you. >> okay, okay. That's why I'm saying you guys got to overturn it so we can prosecute him. >> it was, uh. >> now we turn him over to the county, but they let him go in a couple days. We had. >> some testimony last year on.
▶ 0:42:51The we had some testimony on the murdered and missing indigenous women. And that's something that really bothers me. That bothers me that we haven't done it. I know it bothers you. It bothers bothers all of us, but it's, uh, the general public doesn't know that we lose 6000, uh, people every year.
▶ 0:43:04Uh, and during the hearing we had, I came away from the, the hearing saying our main issue here is this jurisdictional issue, whether it's the tribes have jurisdiction or the counties have jurisdiction, or the state has jurisdiction, or the federal government has jurisdiction, and things get lost. And I think tribes ought to be able to do what they want to do on their reservation, and you ought to be able to prosecute people on your reservation that violate the laws.
▶ 0:43:32Uh, but somehow we've got it's a more difficult task than, than a lot of people believe. Uh, I've read a lot about the rights of tribes in indians written by different authors and stuff like that. And I'm always pretty good when they get to the water rights and when they get property rights, etc. Etc. All this kind of stuff. And then I get to law enforcement and it is just confusing as hell.
▶ 0:43:55Uh, and we've got to straighten that out if we're going to, if we're going to somehow, uh, address this issue of murdered and missing indigenous women, it is a disaster. >> uh, I'll give you an example. Three years ago, we had a nonmember. He kept coming back to our reservation. So I finally told law enforcement, keep him in jail. You know, about 2 or 3. We had him in two, three months.
▶ 0:44:22Three months later, they told us they're going to take our law enforcement funds away if we didn't release the guy. Yeah, because because of all the law. >> and that's just that's just crazy.
▶ 0:44:36Uh, we said last year we knew we were having reduced budgets across the board that we weren't going to balance this budget on the backs of tribes and consequently in our interior bill, every other area got cut substantially as we tried to increase funding for health care. We all recognize health care is a big issue. If you don't have your health, not much else matters. Uh, that's where most of the funding goes. But we have not done a good enough job in indian education.
▶ 0:45:09We got tribal members going to schools that, frankly, I've, I wouldn't send a kid to and we need to address that. And, uh, also, uh, with indian justice, we've got to do something about tribal members. And I suspect it's the same in your areas where you have a tribal member that comes out, they send them to, they send them to police training, same training that your state officers go to or your local police officers go to. They come, they work on the tribe, work with the tribe on the reservation.
▶ 0:45:37And then pretty soon the community down the road hires them away because now they got the training and they can pay more, they have better retirement and all sorts of things like that. They have a hard time keeping both policemen and firefighters on the tribe, on the reservation, doing the job. >> when we kept that guy for three months, they were going to charge me with obstruction of justice. They're going to arrest the chairman. But our law enforcement said nobody's going to arrest your chairman. >> yeah. We got we gotta solve this.
▶ 0:46:07Anyway, thank you all for being here today. I know it's a long trip out here and especially in this weather, but we appreciate the fact that you came out. It's very important to us. Thank you, thank. >> you, thank. >> you, thank you. We now have, uh. The next panel, uh, bruce savage, uh, austin lohse. How do you pronounce that name when. Win win a.
▶ 0:46:35And, uh, john johnson. >> thank you guys. >> thank you.
▶ 0:47:10>> you. What are you doing, brother? Good to see you. >> ah, there it is. How do you pronounce your last name? Okay. I was going to say. Yeah, I just didn't want to, uh.
▶ 0:47:37Uh, mispronounce it. Uh, bruce, your first. >> well, let's see here. We're on. >> well, good morning, chairman simpson and ranking member pingree and the respected members of the committee. I am chairman bruce savage of the fond du lac band of lake superior chippewa in northern minnesota. Thank you for inviting me to speak.
▶ 0:48:06We have submitted written testimony, detail of our federal funding priorities for the fiscal year of 2027. It is vital that congress pass a budget that provides federal agencies that are historically underfunded, with increased funding to support tribes. Today, I want to emphasize a few specific areas.
▶ 0:48:35One example is fire safety bureau of indian affairs. Funding for fire preparedness has been far too low for over 20 years, and that puts lives at risk. We also increase. We also need to increase funding for our forest inventory so we can expedite timber sales and make informed forest management decisions.
▶ 0:49:02A second example is environmental protection. The fond du lac band relies on epa funding to protect our air and water resources. The band has established treatment as the state status under both the clean water and air act's.
▶ 0:49:21Any cuts to the epa's budget will have a negative impact on our ability to continue to protect these resources. We ask that congress continue to support and increase this funding. Another example is food security.
▶ 0:49:45The band retains the right to hunt, fish, gather within our reservation, and across over 30 million acres of land that we've ceded through territories with treaties with the united states. This means we have the right to feed ourselves. We manage these resources to promote healthy living. Health care's very important.
▶ 0:50:14And it starts with your food's. We need increased funding to protect treaty rights. This is also why the band is a leader in food security and why requesting more funding to support tribal foods, access to historical foods.
▶ 0:50:36We ask that congress provide funding to expand these programs, like the indigenous food hubs programs, so that more tribes are able to feed themselves. These programs help incubate small business, restore our language, and also provide provides increased knowledge of food systems to tribal members.
▶ 0:51:00We also know that the administration is working to consolidate federal programs across agencies. We urge congress to make sure when programs move, the funding moves with them. Indian tribes get funding from many federal agencies. If programs shift, like the indian programs of the department of education moving to the interior, the tribe should not lose funding. Final.
▶ 0:51:34Finally, federal agencies like the bureau of indian affairs, bureau of indian education and indian health services have long suffered understaffing. We ask this committee to fund the staffing that will allow these agencies to fulfill your trust responsibilities. Lack of staff creates a backlog that impedes our ability to effectively govern and run our tribes. I recognize my time is limited.
▶ 0:52:05However, before I conclude, I want you to know, as tribal leaders, we know you have a difficult road ahead of you. We urge you to continue your work in upholding the trust, responsibility and protecting federal funding and resources in indian country. We truly appreciate all that you do. I'm happy to answer any questions the subcommittee may have. That's all I have for today. But I got 20s left. >> 17.
▶ 0:52:36>> thank you. >> um, one of the things that I stress in our communities is limit the privatization of public lands. The state of minnesota is beautiful, and a lot of people utilize those public lands. And when we privatize them, it directly impacts the tribal members. Miigwetch. >> thank you. >> austin chairman and member of the subcommittee. My name is austin lewis, chairman of the sault ste. Marie tribe of chippewa indians and michigan's upper peninsula.
▶ 0:53:06My tribe serves over 50,000 members, with over 16,000 in our seven county service area. We administer 23 governmental divisions with more than 75 programs. We steward over 4000 acres of trust, land and exercise treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather throughout our ceded territory. We operate eight health clinics providing comprehensive, culturally grounded services, and this includes community and behavioral health, medical, pharmacy, optical, dental and traditional medicine.
▶ 0:53:35As a social worker who has served in multiple tribal communities, I know firsthand how critical it is to invest in qualified professionals who support our children and our families. These investments strengthen indian country for generations. While we appreciate the subcommittee's efforts to preserve bia social service funding, current levels remain far below what's needed. Bia funding must cover children's services, elder services, general welfare and burial assistance.
▶ 0:54:05Although nominal funding has increased about 23% over the past decade, inflation and population growth have erased those gains. Tribes now operate essential programs such as child welfare protection, welfare assistance and housing repair, with effectively less funding than we had ten years ago. And the consequences are absolutely clear.
▶ 0:54:26A 2020 casey family study found that native american children represent 15% of children in care nationwide, despite only being 3% of the total us population. At the same time, major investments have been made in bia criminal justice programs. While public safety is absolutely essential, we must invest equally in social services. The systems that teach parenting skills help families manage stress and strengthen cultural identity.
▶ 0:54:57Without this balance, the criminal justice system will remain overburdened and unable to support healthy families. Protecting our treaty territory is also central to our people's well-being. The sioux tribe accounts for roughly half of all commercial treaty fishing and the majority of subsistence harvests. In the 1836 treaty ceded territory. Because of this, we request that funding for our natural resource division reflect this.
▶ 0:55:21Our tribal court, which is an essential expression of our sovereignty, is also severely underfunded. Federal support covers only 3.76% of our base need, and funding has increased by less than $3,500 over the last 21 years. We urge congress to fully fund tribal court based budgets consistent with the bia's own model.
▶ 0:55:43We also operate the jkl anishinaabe based school, which is a k through eight b funded school that provides both culture and academic excellence, yet be operational. Funding has remained stagnant despite rising costs for salaries, insurance, transportation and food. Investing in native schools is one of the most impactful choices that congress can make. I'd now like to change gears towards substance abuse.
▶ 0:56:11As this subcommittee knows, substance abuse and mental health conditions pose one of the greatest threats to our future. According to the 2021 national survey on drug use and health, nearly 35% of american indians and alaska natives experienced either mental illness or substance abuse disorder. Meanwhile, access to inpatient treatment remains extremely limited.
▶ 0:56:36Better coordination among the bia, ihs, and doj, consistent with the tribal law and order act, is absolutely essential. We urge the subcommittee to direct these agencies to report on their efforts to coordinate and improve programs related to public safety, justice and behavioral health in indian country. Miigwech for the opportunity to present my testimony today. Thank you. >> thank you. Renee.
▶ 0:57:08>> any. Indigenous. Moscow. Sodium. Being menacing. Andrew garbarino. Ann wagner. Singh. Odawa. Thank you. Chairman simpson, ranking member pingree and distinguished members of the subcommittee. I am juan vargas, chairperson of the little traverse bay bands of odawa indians. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and for your continued commitment to indian country.
▶ 0:57:38My tribe's funding priorities are as follows. First, more federal funding to support the indian health service and tribal health care programs is critically needed. Little travers provides health care services to its members through contracts with ihs entered into. Pursuant to the indian determination and education assistance act, our clinics serve members and descendants of any federally recognized tribe within a 27 county service area.
▶ 0:58:03Given the critical need in our area for providers that participate in the medicaid program, we also provide services to some of our underserved non native neighbors in becerra v san carlos apache tribe and becerra v northern arapaho tribe, the supreme court determined that ihs must pay contract support costs incurred by tribes that utilize funds from third party payers like medicare, medicaid and private insurers to provide services under their
▶ 0:58:33Self-determination contracts and compacts. Like many other tribes, little travers is currently pursuing claims with the ihs for unpaid contract support costs arising from the becerra decisions in fiscal year 2027, we ask that congress provide mandatory funding for contract support costs so that ihs may continue to meet its obligations under becerra without negatively impacting the ihs budget.
▶ 0:58:56In addition, we are deeply concerned that ihs is chronically underfunded and often fall short of meeting the healthcare needs of native people. We urge congress to increase funding for ihs above fiscal year 2026 levels, and continue to provide advance appropriations to fully meet the federal government's trust obligation to provide health care services to native americans.
▶ 0:59:20Second, additional federal funding to meet public safety and justice needs in indian country is urgently needed because little travers suffered termination. Our original land base was lost. Since our restoration, we have had no choice but to rebuild our reservation by acquiring acquiring parcels of land over time from willing sellers.
▶ 0:59:42As a result, today our reservation consists of small noncontiguous parcels scattered throughout emmet, charlevoix and sheboygan counties. Our law enforcement officers must patrol and serve within the large geographic reach of all three counties.
▶ 1:00:00Our police department relies heavily on federal funding to support daily operations, but for fiscal year 2026, the tribe's bia law enforcement contract provided only $150,471, enough to cover only one officer's salary and benefits, and a portion of a patrol vehicle.
▶ 1:00:19We also struggle to recruit and retain police officers due to the rural nature of our reservation and the lack of affordable housing, according to a february 2024 report released by the bia, the funding needed to provide for public safety and justice services in indian country in 2021 was approximately $3.5 billion.
▶ 1:00:40Appropriations have lagged far behind this amount, and the continued underfunding of public safety and justice services has led to higher rates of violence in indian country. We appreciate that congress appropriated $570 million to support bia public safety programs in fiscal year 2026, a $14.5 million increase, but a much larger increase in funding for bia public safety programs is urgently needed. In fiscal year 2027.
▶ 1:01:09Third, since housing is a foundational component of the health and safety of our people, additional funding to support tribal housing is needed. The tribe's headquarters and many of our members live in the cities of petoskey and harbor springs and emmet county, michigan. Both cities are summer resort destinations in which housing prices have increased due to people buying properties for vacation homes. This has caused a severe affordable housing crisis.
▶ 1:01:35While we understand that this subcommittee does not have jurisdiction over appropriations for the department of housing and urban development, we respectfully urge you to share with your colleagues on the subcommittee on transportation and housing and urban development, the need to increase funding for tribal housing programs. The lack of affordable housing is a significant barrier. A significant barrier to the recruitment and retention of physicians, law enforcement and other professionals who we need to serve our community.
▶ 1:02:03Jimmy, for your time today. >> thank you john. >> mckinney. I need you can. Was walking in and good morning, chairman simpson, ranking member pingree and distinguished committee members. I'm john johnson, senior president of the lac de flambeau band of lake superior chippewa indians.
▶ 1:02:28I am serving my third term, and we do have members of my tribal council that have joined me here today. We thank the subcommittee for your continued advocacy to increase federal appropriations for the tribes, the. 638 and other programs we contract and perform are vital to the health and safety of our members. Our request and those of other tribes today arises from our treaties with the united states.
▶ 1:02:54Ojibwe tribes ceded our aboriginal lands and reserved the right to hunt, fish, and gather in our ceded territories in return for the protection of the united states. The united states is again at war. Tribal members serve in the nation's armed forces in great numbers. They have fought and died for the united states in all wars. The funds we discussed today represent just a portion of the united states trust responsibility to indian tribes and our citizens. I summarize this in my written testimony.
▶ 1:03:23First, we ask the subcommittee to write president trump and urge that he lift any remaining hiring freezes at the department of interior, dhhs, and epa positions that are critical to the tribe's carrying out our programs and services under 638 contracts and compact and other agreements, vacant federal employee positions often result in our delayed receipt of federal funds.
▶ 1:03:46Second, we ask the subcommittee to address the disparity between the $3 billion estimate nci identified in congressional testimony last session to fully fund law enforcement, corrections and tribal courts and current funding levels of $570 million to these programs. Tribes are losing our trained police officers after a few years of service.
▶ 1:04:13They take better paying jobs in towns, nearby counties and state sheriff's departments. 11 police officers patrol our 144 square mile reservation and nearby towns and county sheriff's offices. They have three times as many officers and a third of the caseload that we have in lac du flambeau. Since I testified last year, we lost five members of our community to fentanyl and fentanyl related overdoses. We simply lacked the manpower to handle investigations, surveillance and intervention.
▶ 1:04:43Fellow representatives introduce cosponsored the parity of tribal law enforcement act. The legislation died last congress. Until congress enacts the legislation, please increase significantly. Funding for the tribal police, safety officers and tribal courts. Third, please double the current time program budget to. Flexible taiwan program improves the ability of tribes to provide alternatives to incarceration.
▶ 1:05:12Social service programs, counseling, job training, parenting classes, and other programs to at risk community members in a culturally appropriate manner to keep families together. Fourth, education is critical to the nation's future. We appreciate there were no cuts to the bi programs in the fiscal year 26. Please increase the johnson o'malley assistance grants program by at least 25% to give our students culturally appropriate classroom activities.
▶ 1:05:41Please increase at least 25%. Post-secondary scholarships and adult education program grants we fund with tribal general revenues, bia scholarships, funds with an additional 50% subsidy, and we continue to fall short of our students needs. Increase funds for native american language immersion programs. Help us build strong, confident native youth. Tribal youth will return tenfold to the united states. Your $1 investment in them.
▶ 1:06:11Fifth, we continue to provide advanced appropriations to indian health services, accounts, tribes, and healthcare advocates for nih. We believe that the appropriations to ihs should be there to. Four times the current funding levels, we request that congress increase funding to the sanitation facilities, construction accounts so that aid septic, sewer and water lines serving reservations can be replaced.
▶ 1:06:40Ihs policies prioritize new home sewer, septic and water hookups. Ihs has not responded timely to our request to assist us to replace 150 tribal homes, septic tanks that are at capacity, or replace a three mile water line that is leaking. Please consider dedicated funding within ihs facilities account to assist tribes replacing aging water, sewer, wastewater and water system. Last, the bia trust natural resources management account.
▶ 1:07:11We request that congress increase the rights protection implementation program and tribal management development program by at least 20%. These accounts, together with epa's great lakes restoration initiative and epa state and tribal assistance grants, are critical to the band and to the great lakes. Indian fish and wildlife commission, which serves 11 ojibwe tribes in minnesota, michigan and wisconsin and are seated territories. This concludes my remarks. Meegwetch. Thank you. John.
▶ 1:07:41Um, before we go to questions, I'd like to recognize the full committee chairman, tom cole. Uh, I'm sure someone that needs no introduction to to everyone here and thank him for joining us today as the first native american to serve as chair of the appropriations committee and a member of the chickasaw nation, he continues to be the biggest champion for indian country. And I'd like to yield to chairman cole for any remarks you may have. Well, thank you very much, Mr. chairman and ranking member pingree. Good morning to everyone.
▶ 1:08:09Thank you all for being here this week and taking time to testify on important issues affecting your communities. This is actually my favorite set of hearings to get to attend. Uh, because we hear from all of indian country and, uh, you know, I'm always struck by the diversity, uh, and frankly, the, the quality of the testimony.
▶ 1:08:29It really helps us as we make our decisions as an enrolled member of the chickasaw nation of oklahoma, tribal issues have always been extremely important to me and continue to shape my work as a member of congress and chair of this important committee. I have been and will remain committed to ensuring the federal government upholds its trust responsibility to native americans. You have champions of indian country and the chair and ranking member of the subcommittee who care deeply about the issues you all are here to discuss.
▶ 1:08:59They've proven that tribal issues are not republican or democrat. They're truly bipartisan. I'll continue to work closely with them to ensure we provide the services, resources and advancements needed throughout indian country. I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time and traveling all the way to be here today. Your voice is directly shape this subcommittee legislation each fiscal year. I want you all to know that every year we hold these tribal witness days.
▶ 1:09:28These members and staff hear you and listen to you. I look forward to hearing testimony from each of you and working with my colleagues to advance our commitment to tribal communities across the country. With that, Mr. chairman, thank you for the time, and I yield back. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. Tom does a great job, and he is one of the busiest people in congress that you can imagine because he not only deals with just this issue, but a gazillion of them. Uh, I don't know how he does it all, but thanks for being here today. Thank you. Uh, I want to first ask a couple questions.
▶ 1:09:58Just you'd think I'd know this, but I don't. How many bands of chickasaw, of, uh, of chippewa indians are there? And how closely are you affiliated. >> in, in minnesota, we have a total of seven ojibwe tribes. >> okay. >> and four lakota tribes. >> are they are are they affiliated closely? I mean, is it.
▶ 1:10:22>> six of the bands are members of the minnesota chippewa tribe, and we are very closely affiliated with with each other, mostly over the competition of who has the best wild rice. And I personally invite you to fond du lac and I will guarantee you personally, I will have the best wild rice prepared for you. >> I can. >> feel the world. >> coming on. >> here in the world. >> we have six ojibwe. >> tribes in wisconsin right.
▶ 1:10:53>> now, apparently. And um, throughout our staff, seven ojibwe tribes, michigan, minnesota and wisconsin that share our treaties. >> has do you each have separate treaties with the federal government, each band or were they was it one treaty? >> we have multiple ones. >> 25 really? >> yeah. >> okay. Uh, thanks for clearing that up for me. You brought up something, bruce, that I that is interesting that's going on. You mentioned, uh, fire safety.
▶ 1:11:23We had really five wildfire fighting agencies in the federal government, big one in the forest service, obviously. And then we had the blm, the national park service, fish and wildlife service and the bia. They've combined, uh, those that were in interior into one firefighting agency. Uh, what's your thoughts on that? And how's it working out or what are your concerns? If, if you have any?
▶ 1:11:53>> I was a wildland firefighter myself. My dad was and our youth are. So the biggest thing is equipment. Equipment failure is unacceptable in a situation like that. So equipment is a big part of it. And, uh, we have to have a living wage in our tribal communities. We've been removed from all economic centers.
▶ 1:12:23It's very difficult to, to maintain good employment with the added cost of living in rural minnesota, lack of infrastructure. I could go on for hours. That's why I invite you to fond du lac, because I will gladly sit with you and explain all of these different disparities that prevent tribes from moving forward in this world of 2026.
▶ 1:12:50>> well, it is, uh, you bring up some good issues and it is, it is this movement that's going on in the wildfire agencies and maybe the best move in the world in terms of getting things done. It may not be, I don't know, but I, I, uh, we're looking, we're watching very closely about how this works. And, uh, it may be that it's better to coordinate, you might have more coordinate, but you might lose some control when we put it under a central agency like that.
▶ 1:13:17You brought up something that I mentioned in the first panel that is of concern to me, and that is I know that I've, when I've gone and talked with, uh, the showband tribes on the fort hall indian reservation that they train their officers, they train their, their firefighters, uh, and as soon as they get trained, they get a better salary in pocatello, idaho falls, which is just down the road. So how do we keep those people on the reservation doing the job they were trained to do and are qualified to do?
▶ 1:13:45I mean, that's that is a huge issue, uh, throughout indian country. >> sir, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I'd like to mention that each one of our respectful tribes here sitting at the table today, we have to look at the economics provided for each one of our communities and surrounding communities. And this is what keeps our nations together, I guess, per se in our territories. Um, we're the biggest employer in like five counties right now. And we produce like 900 and some jobs where we're at.
▶ 1:14:13But you know, when they got funding, they're actually not just funding to the reservations. You're cutting funding to the surrounding communities. So thank you. I just wanted to mention that here while I'm here today, because that's a big part of our lifestyle there back home. >> I appreciate it, john. Uh, ranking member pingree. >> uh, thank you very much. Just want to thank you again for your, your testimony and the many issues you brought up. And, and thank you, Mr. chair, for bringing that one up. I, I feel like you're right.
▶ 1:14:42We hear that every year and some year we have to be able to tackle this idea of parity, um, within the police forces because it's just such a long standing issue as well as the court systems. Um, I know you brought up a lot of other things that we'll hear about today, but I really appreciate hearing more about housing and substance use disorder, mental health, all the things you're working on. So thank you for bringing that first hand information. It really is helpful to us. Appreciate you being here. And I'm going to take you up on the while addressing. >> all right. >> favorite of mine.
▶ 1:15:11>> we'll go up and we'll have a competition between all of them. And she'll. >> be anytime. >> Mr. chairman, do I get an invitation too? Oh, sure. >> absolutely. >> okay. Well, um, first of all, I apologize for missing most of your testimony, so, I don't know. I'm in a very good position to ask the very intelligent question.
▶ 1:15:26I only caught the last of john's testimony, but I will ask you this just quickly, um, you laid out a number of needs, obviously were federal governments come up short if you had to pick the biggest infrastructure challenges you have, the thing that is stopping you from moving forward, what would that be? >> if you're asking us, it is, uh, sanitation is a big problem.
▶ 1:15:54Um, we have to adjust our housing guidelines. And as far as in rural minnesota, if you make $15 an hour, you can't even afford to drive to work. And most of our tribal housing programs, you're no longer eligible for tribal housing.
▶ 1:16:18And so then most of our reservations, almost every one of us, we, we were removed from the economic centers, but we chose to be around beautiful landscape. Any of us that are checkerboard reservations, americans are moving out to the rural areas too. They love their recreational homes. Counties are pressuring to increase property taxes.
▶ 1:16:43It makes us really hard to have employees that aren't tribal members to find affordable housing around the reservations, and so they have to drive a long distance. And sometimes the infrastructure is just not there. And like I said, if you if you come to fond du lac or the duluth, minnesota area, big tourist area, I will gladly go over this in extensive. I grew up there, I lived there.
▶ 1:17:18>> please. >> I wasn't sure if I could bring up the housing issue, but it's actually connected to everything else. Um, so in my area and I always use my michigan map, I live right here. Um, we have the, the, the good fortune to live in a beautiful location right on lake michigan.
▶ 1:17:43Um, but that also brings a lot of, uh, resort, um, it brings a lot of folks up there to vacation. Um, and it's been happening for generations. And because our reservation is checkerboarded, we, um, are always competing for land with those that have a little bit more to spend.
▶ 1:18:04And for us in trying to attract and retain employees for our tribe, we really see the struggle with affordable housing for them, for the workforce. We've partnered with the local community. Um, we just built workforce housing in partnership with the city of petoskey, michigan.
▶ 1:18:25Um, so that we could, uh, have housing for doctors and nurses and, um, law enforcement officers and fire, uh, fire staff. And it's really a continued issue. I can echo, um, what, uh, Mr.
▶ 1:18:44Savage had just said about the difficulty with even our own citizens who want to move back home and work for the tribe with the, um, pay that they are receiving in our area because of the high cost of living, they're finding it hard to find housing so that they can even come back home and contribute in a positive way to our community.
▶ 1:19:08Because the caveat is then they also don't qualify for our tribal housing programs because they make too much money. So I hear probably on a daily basis from at least one citizen who doesn't understand why that's the case, and they want me to fix it tomorrow. So, um, any kind of help in that respect would be wonderful. Thank you. >> and I agree completely with what everyone has said here about housing.
▶ 1:19:35Uh, we have a large membership and right now we're unable to meet their needs housing wise. And housing is one of the most precious gifts that our tribal governments can provide for our citizens. Um, you know, the sault sainte marie tribe experiences the same things that the other tribes are experiencing in terms of housing costs. Uh, we're home to the soo locks, which is undergoing a massive renovation. We have a lot of, um, well paid workers that are coming into the area from out of town, out of state is driving the cost of housing up.
▶ 1:20:02And when I talk about housing, I talk about all forms of housing, emergency housing, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, homeownership, opportunity, low income housing, elder housing, all the above. Um, a close second would be healthcare in terms of infrastructure, you know, our people are disproportionately impacted by a myriad of different health issues. You know, an increased resources are one of the few ways that we can, uh, we can correct that.
▶ 1:20:27>> you know, uh, we actually, this committee to its credit, um, about two years ago made a substantial increase in housing. Uh, and what we found is we looked at this, I actually chaired the committee at the time. It's indian housing is actually in transportation, housing and urban development. It's not in front of this committee. So as much as they're sympathetic with you, they can't do much for you here. Uh, they can on the health care issue and have this committee has a great record of increasing that.
▶ 1:20:55But we went back and looked all the way back to when the basic program was passed for indian housing. How much are we spending at hud on indian housing in the late 18, uh, excuse me, late 1990s. And we found we were spending about 2.8 or 9% of the total hud budget was on indian housing. By the time we looked at it, it was down to 1.4% hadn't been cut. It just hadn't kept up with the increase.
▶ 1:21:23Every place else I asked my committee to. When's the last time we had a hearing on tribal housing? We went back 20 years. There had not been a hearing under either party. Uh, so it's not a partizan issue. And it was just, you know, out of mind, uh, out of out of sight, out of mind. Uh, and so we raised to back to 2.8 and I think, uh, steve womack who chairs that committee has kept it there actually had a modest increase last year.
▶ 1:21:52So we're going to do that, but that doesn't make up for 20 years of not investing. You can't do it overnight. And we have a long way to go. So this housing thing really interests me because it's terrible on most reservations. It really is. Most americans need to go see what it's like to live. In some cases, 20 and 30 people in a house, literally in shifts in some places out in the midwest. Um, what, uh, this income thing is also an interesting problem.
▶ 1:22:21So tell me what the income level you need is. And you know, what would happen if we raised that income level so more people would be eligible. >> so in wisconsin, we have a wage median. That really hurts us because south of 29, it goes all the way across the middle of wisconsin, the median down there for a good living is $75,000 a year. But you get to the north of that, where most of the tribes are. It's 50,000.
▶ 1:22:50And most of our tribe tribal members earn between 20 and $30,000 a year. So this is where the housing shortage comes in. And I'd also like to say something to Mr. simpson. Two years ago, you, um, you asked us to use the language when we came in front of you. And I think we were on the second day and you said you haven't heard the language yet. And when you sponsored our language, you said two. I think it was two years ago when the tune of $13 million. Well, how much is that really between tribes? You know, 575 tribes.
▶ 1:23:22It's a little over $2,000. And you know, who are we without our treaty rights and our language? You know, we have all of these things that we have here sitting at the table. Yeah, they're they're all wants and needs. But if we lose that language and we lose our culture, we who are we then as native americans? And this is why I'm testifying on behalf of lac du flambeau. Thank you. >> do are any of you in miss mccollum's district? She's just.
▶ 1:23:54She. Yeah. She sometimes quotes you because I've heard meegwetch before. Uh, but you're very lucky to have her. Uh, there's not a better advocate for native american issues on either side of the aisle. And my friend who used to chair this committee herself. And, uh, so again, this committee will, uh, if we give them the money, they'll, they'll get the job done. It's always a matter of what their allocation is, but their emphasis will be on the things you like. Thank you, Mr. chairman. I know went along. Yield back. Thank you, Mr. chairman. Uh, ready.
▶ 1:24:27>> thank you, Mr. chairman. I'm going to take a second to set the scene here because a lot of what we're hearing, whether it's health, health care, housing, infrastructure, water and everything like that, is something that was caused by a law that the federal government passed after many of these tribes signed their treaties. Um, just recently.
▶ 1:24:46It's breaking news in northern minnesota and in the northern tier, uh, $1.2 million from the lloyd johnson, um, foundation helped us. Help grand portage put its part of its reservation back together. And here's the history of this and why it's even more expensive to do transportation. Everything else, especially in this part of the united states.
▶ 1:25:14And this is I'll use the example of grand portage in 19 excuse me, in 1854, grand portage signed a treaty with the us government, along with fond du lac and bois fort. They ceded more than 5 million acres to the federal government. Grand portage band got. Uh. It's at the tip of what? What? When people look at minnesota, it's at the tip of minnesota. But they did preserve their rights to hunt, fish and gather in the ceded territory, which they constantly had to fight for.
▶ 1:25:44But that was in the treaty just a few decades after signing that, uh, the federal government allowed a land to be divided up along the reservations and sold off to timber and mining interests. The federal on allotment laws also took land out of community, held tribal ownership and assigned to individual band members. And I'll tell you, the grifters came in. They came in the only tribe in minnesota that didn't get caught up in this is red lake.
▶ 1:26:10And, um, if you see, uh, the chairman of red lake in the hall, ask him the story. It's, it's mind boggling. What, what, what their, their folks did, but they saw what was happening to the south of them. So they were able to react. Um, and here's a quote from one of the elders of council member of grand portage, sean moran. When they did that, they began carving away the spirit of our people, our culture, piece by piece. They created a lot of trauma within us as human beings.
▶ 1:26:40And we're still trying to deal with that today. The the grand portage tribe thanks them for for the johnson family for doing what they did. And this is a quote, um, uh, kind of from, um, from the, the chairman, the johnson name carries with it a complicated history with our people. Many of our band members know this history. Well, it's still hatzfeldt. So who was kurt johnson?
▶ 1:27:07Lloyd, kurt, uh, k johnson was a prominent lawyer and businessman from grand marais who died in 2006. His father and uncle held positions on the cook county land department.
▶ 1:27:19At the time, the federal allotment policies began to split up the grand portage land that put him in a prime position to scoop up the land, or in some cases, they did it, um, because they were past due and taxes, which was never really explained that they were going to have to pay taxes on the land that they lived on. So, um, the foundation now has started digging into the hard truth of how they acquired so much of its wealth.
▶ 1:27:47They learned that related family trusts still held three parcels of land in grand portage last month. And then that's when the money came to be. So when you're not, when you're not fully connected to one another, it's even more expensive to provide schools, healthcare, transportation, sewer, water, police, everything else. So and we're not the only ones that were affected and allotment, but I kind of know the nations the best, the mass nations the best.
▶ 1:28:18And this is, this is why it is so difficult for these tribes, even with the support we give them to kind of put it all the pieces back together again. And so, um, we've done a lot, uh, to chairman cole's benefit. Um, you know, thank you for all that that you did for, for being able to purchase land back and all. And we're still working on that at the federal government, uh, allowing that to happen.
▶ 1:28:43But this is part of a traumatic, um, thing that, that that's not that many generations removed. And this is why it's so expensive for these tribes and I've overtaken my time. But being a social studies teacher, I had to give one little history lesson and some people might call it woke. I just call it the truth. >> I respond to that real quick, please. Very quick. Um very quick. Okay. Yeah.
▶ 1:29:09So what I was told, you know, from our treaties and, um, we were talking about grand portage here, that the tribal lands that butted up to our reservations were put there for a reason because we were going to outgrow them. So this is why I wanted to ask, when are some of those lands going to come back? Why should we have to buy something that was originally ours? That's all I have. Thank you. >> thank you. >> chairman. I got one thing, um, with this.
▶ 1:29:34What she would miss mccullum mentioned about the land taken by what I call illegal tax forfeiture still affects the tribes. When you try to use the land within the reservation that you privately own as collateral, it can turn up on a claims list, and the usda won't use it as collateral.
▶ 1:30:02Which makes us have to go seek other higher interest rate money to participate in agriculture. >> Mr. lc. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. I, I, um, I didn't know that. >> I lived. >> there and that's that's wrong. I we could do this for hours. Like I said, we're behind timeline.
▶ 1:30:24I just want to take 30s to say I did some homework about the wild rice thing about about manoomin and, uh, it's the internet says it's, uh, the menominee tribe that has the best is that. And they're called the wild rice p I'm just saying what the internet says. That's that's all I'm pointing. Anyway, sometime, Mr.
▶ 1:30:47Chairman, I would love to come up with you and and betty come see you and, and see how this is done and and get in a canoe and fall into the water. But but but see the traditional ways in which you, you harvest something that's clearly very important to you. And it is a source of pride for you and your people. Thanks for being here. >> thank you. And thank you for your testimony. We appreciate it very much. >> men. >> okay.
▶ 1:31:15Uh, next is jason schindler. Whitney, uh, gravel and asa. >> the fight over the right. To travel things. >> is my favorite part of being on this committee. Yeah, it's always interesting stuff. It is.
▶ 1:31:47>> oh, yeah. Go ahead. >> yeah. It's also infuriating. >> we have whitney around. Once. Going twice. Jason, you're up first.
▶ 1:32:15Doug, >> and in addition to carlos and adam. Odawa and jabbar and. Meanwhile, you should go. Or. Uh, angie. Angie, go with a king. Go or b1 guy.
▶ 1:32:40Go industrial guy, go guy, go! Don bacon and. Uh, good morning everybody. Um, I'm jason schneider, the executive administrator for the great lakes indian fish and wildlife commission. And I just want to kind of kind of break from some of the formality here this morning by just expressing my extreme appreciation for being here.
▶ 1:33:10Uh, yesterday I was, um, I started driving from milwaukee at 730 this yesterday morning and joe courtney and drove through a blizzard blizzard all the way through ohio, pennsylvania, and maryland. So my, uh, my hands are a little sore from gripping my steering the steering wheel of my vehicle. So I'm really appreciative of, of everyone being here.
▶ 1:33:32Uh, and, and, and my motivation for doing that is that, uh, when tribes have have a seat at the table, uh, we want to make sure that we, we, that we, that we, that we fill that seat and also that we also, um, um, it's also our determination to be here to represent, uh, to represent the tribes, especially for the great lakes and fish and wildlife commission.
▶ 1:33:57And so I will provide my, my part, uh, the testimony on behalf of the great lakes indian fish wildlife commission. So the department of interior, the bureau of indian affairs, uh, the trust, natural resources management, rights protection, implementation, uh, no less than 66 million for fy 27, the amount calculated by the five inter-tribal commissions to meet their basic needs of that amount, no less than 17.71% to
▶ 1:34:29Be directed to the great lakes area resource management, regardless of overall rpa funding, golfweek has identified a need of at least uh 8,927,000 to be directed through the great lakes area resource management, the area of trust, natural resource management, and at least 19,044,000 enacted by congress in fy 26 and the tmp requests of member tribes.
▶ 1:34:58The trust, natural resources management fish wildlife parks program at least 2720 3,751,000 b enacted for fy 26. For epa 369 million, including no less than 7% to the distinct tribal program, or ddp, which is approximately 25 million.
▶ 1:35:20So the great lakes official wildlife commission has been active for over 40 years and and is in a federally recognized, uh, governmental institution that, uh, for the implementation, the comprehensive conservation, natural resource protection and law, law enforcement programs to ensure compliance with federal court orders that provide the framework within, um, within which member tribes exercise their treaty rights.
▶ 1:35:53And so, uh, glyphic was established in 1984. Uh, we represent 11 tribes. As president johnson had mentioned earlier, 11 tribes in three states. So fy 27 funding request highlights our, as mentioned, um, eight point or 8,927,000 for great lakes area resource management, the great lakes restoration initiative funding of no less than 3369 million.
▶ 1:36:21Um and full funding for contract support costs as required by I s d e a act sufficient funding in the tribal management and development line item for member tribes to fulfill needs of of reservation based natural resource programs. More specifically.
▶ 1:36:42Uh, glyphic has been, um, chronically underfunded for, you know, our, our buying power has, has, has decreased over time. So, um, with the, with the requested increase, we will see, um, you know, an opportunity for our wages to be increased so that we can be competitive. And it is specifically, um, for our, um, our law enforcement, our, our, our conservation wardens that provide services as well.
▶ 1:37:12That's where we remain underfunded. So those are some of our priorities for fy 27. So meegwetch, thank you for listening. >> thank you jason, I appreciate it. Uh. >> Mr. simpson, ranking member pingree and members of the subcommittee and chairman cole, uh, is it not on? Hello. >> you have to kind of hold it down. >> there we go. Sorry. Okay. Let me start again.
▶ 1:37:38Uh, chair simpson, um, ranking member pingree and members of the subcommittee and chairman cole, uh, thank you so much for this opportunity. And also thank you for the ongoing support that protects and restores our treaty resources. My name is asia decoteau. I am the executive director of the columbia river inter-tribal fish commission, and we are the fisheries management support agency for the for columbia river treaty tribes, which include the umatilla, warm springs, yakama and nez perce.
▶ 1:38:05Our combined homelands cover more than 66,000mi of the columbia river basin, an area slightly larger than the state of florida. Today, the rivers and streams in our homelands are also. 88% of the area still accessible to columbia river salmon above bonneville dam. In 1855, our tribe seated tens of millions of acres that would become part of idaho, oregon, and washington. And in return, the united states made a promise that we would always have the right to fish in our usual and accustomed places. And that promise has not changed.
▶ 1:38:34This work continues to be critical and ongoing. Today, 12 salmon and steelhead populations are listed under the endangered species act, and many populations have been extirpated. Pacific lamprey have declined 95% from historic numbers. These are not just species at risk. They are the foundation of our culture and an economic backbone of fisheries. Stretching from the interior west to southeast alaska. Our tribes are internationally recognized leaders in salmon restoration, managing one of the largest fishery recovery efforts in the nation to continue this work.
▶ 1:39:05For fiscal year 2027, we request the rights protection implementation program, or rpi, to be funded at 66 million, which covers a broad range of goals, responsibilities and projects. Specific portions of rpi that fund priorities include 6.4 million for fisheries management. Managing columbia river fisheries is increasing in complexity, requiring more technical expertise, collaboration and enforcement.
▶ 1:39:30The bia's columbia river fisheries management budget supports core fishery program efforts at cryptic and our member tribes. The overall management responsibilities of the tribal programs have grown significantly and need appropriate increases in bia based funding.
▶ 1:39:44Second is 2.059 million for fishing access site operation improvements oversees operations, maintenance and improvements at the 31 federal fishing access sites established by congress to ensure tribal member access to the river.
▶ 1:40:00After the development of the federal columbia river power system flooded our fishing grounds thanks to funding with bipartisan support, a significant improvements to the aging infrastructure is already underway, and we will complete the first phase of improvements this fall. This funding request will keep these critical sites operational and also continues the safety improvements congress called for in public law. One 1699 next is 7.42 million for tribal support for the us canada pacific salmon treaty.
▶ 1:40:29This keeps our tribes at the international table and protects our fisheries equitable share of of the harvestable resource, while also supporting fisheries and communities from idaho to alaska. Next is 555,000 to support a range of youth program initiatives. Our middle school salmon camp, workforce development efforts and college internship program are changing our training. The next generation of tribal scientists, policy specialists and natural resource leaders will be entrusted to do our work in the future.
▶ 1:40:59And finally, a 2.18 million of our request is for the columbia river. In. Lieu cites law enforcement. Our officers patrol 150 miles of the river across remote, multi-jurisdictional terrain and often without immediate backup. Two programs that are included in this enforcement request I would highlight include 200,000 in recurring funds for victims advocate program for tribal citizens along the columbia river.
▶ 1:41:24A department of justice temporary grant helped us to start a victim advocate program, and due to its value, we want to create a permanent program to keep our community safe through trauma informed, culturally grounded services to crime victims across all 31 fishing access sites. And last is 130,000 in a one time appropriation in fy 2027 to establish a k-9 unit that will meaningfully improve officer safety across this challenging operating environment.
▶ 1:41:51On behalf of our four member tribes, I want to sincerely thank you for your time today. I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. Thank you, jason, for your testimony. Uh, if we could have a discussion for the next several hours on, on salmon. Uh, as you know, I've been somewhat involved in trying to restore those.
▶ 1:42:10And it's not just for tribes that, uh, that, uh, represent you represent, it's also other tribes in the pacific northwest that have, in fact, without the work that all these tribes have done in trying to save, uh, the pacific salmon and salmon that come into idaho, which is the spawning ground for most of these fish. For a lot of these fish, they will go extinct. You can, you can, uh, if we don't do something, you can have the best reserve fishing rights in the world. Doesn't mean anything if there's no fish.
▶ 1:42:39Uh, but, uh, this if it wouldn't have been for the work of the tribes, those fish up there would be extinct. Now, that's just a reality. And they're going to go extinct if we don't make some hard decisions. Uh, that's why I put out a proposal concept of what could be done, but it's dramatic. Uh, the people of the pacific northwest are going to have to make some decisions, and it's not about what we've got now, but it's what do we want this place to be 50 years from now?
▶ 1:43:09Do we still want salmon? I have not seen one person raised their hand and say, I just let them go extinct. Everybody wants to save him. So far, we spent $17 billion, hasn't done the job. They're declining and they're going to go extinct if we don't do something. So I appreciate all that you do. I know it's tough work. Uh, get it done. We'll keep working on it. But thank you both for being here. And and your testimony. You do important work. Uh, Mr. pingree. >> yeah. Thank you very much. And thank you, Mr.
▶ 1:43:38Chair, for bringing up the importance of of keeping the salmon from going extinct and restoring them. I'm on the east coast, but in maine, we've spent a lot of time trying to, uh, mostly doing dam removal and other things to bring back our salmon populations. And it's, it is really critical, but it's expensive. >> and you had to mention dam removal. Yeah. >> which of course would never have to happen. >> in.
▶ 1:44:01>> um, but you know, we've already seen a significant, um, return in the alewives, which were also a very important, um, native species, but are critically important to our fishermen as a bait fish. So we have seen the changes and while salmon is a little bit slower, and we have issues where salmon often migrate over to greenland and other places, and we're never sure we're going to get them back. So we've got other kinds of challenges. And I'm not a fish scientist, but I deeply appreciate the work that you're doing and you as well.
▶ 1:44:28Jason, thank you for putting in that long drive that really shows a lot about your commitment, but we're grateful for that and really benefit from your presence here and the important things you're talking about. I know how important funding these natural resource, um, entities are to the tribes, but really benefit all of us, particularly with the changing weather and disappearing species. It's really more important than ever. So thank you for your work and thank you for the time you spent with us. Thank you. >> Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:44:54I don't know anybody from oklahoma has much to say about salmon other than I like it. Uh, let me ask you, if you had to. You laid out, uh, is it asia? >> asia? Yes. >> um, you know, kind of your needs budget by budget. If you had to pick, you know, 2 or 3 of the most important things that would make a material difference here. And I would ask you the same question, jason. Uh, what would they be? >> you know, that's a really tough question.
▶ 1:45:21Just because our priorities are so expansive, um, in terms of, and they're very different from each other, you know, we have a lot of enforcement needs. Um, we have these treaty fishing access sites that we have, um, we, you know, the federal, it's federal, federally owned, but we do all the o&m on them. Um, and the issue to kind of think about the previous panel is we have those, those sites were created for seasonal use to access the river.
▶ 1:45:47Um, but because of the lack of housing in the columbia river gorge and the lack of affordable housing, we have, um, tribal citizens living on these sites year round, um, without the infrastructure to really support them. So I think although the housing is not in my court, it's within individual tribes. Until we get that figured out, the, the, the use of these sites and the maintenance of these sites will continue to increase as, as the, the enrollment and the citizens kind of take in the area.
▶ 1:46:15But, um, you know, for us, uh, really the, the biggest is the columbia river fisheries management. Um, that just doesn't go specifically just to fish. That goes for our member tribes. Um, and that really supports all of the work at the baseline of what we do in terms of advocacy, but also policy and science. >> education.
▶ 1:46:38I know the great lakes are very different from the northwest, but if you know, for the things you work on, what would be the most important thing? >> well, the most important thing obviously, is to maintain our funding. So our api is always is, is our kind of is our, you know, is our bloodline.
▶ 1:46:55I would say, you know, and then I would also just also equally prioritize, um, just more buying power for, for our specific, um, our specific organization so that our staff so that we can, uh, increase, you know, our pay scale hasn't been updated in years. And so our staff have been the one fortunate thing for us is that we have our staff for a long tenured. So we have many people that have been there for a long time.
▶ 1:47:23And so their dedication and expertise, uh, needs to be, uh, needs to be rewarded. But at the same time, we, we lose, you know, the opportunity to compete with state agencies and our counterparts because we'll train them, we train our people in, but then they end up leaving for agencies like yourselves or, or even state agencies as well.
▶ 1:47:44So, um, and so we need to be able to be competitive so that we can maintain, you know, the, the excellence that we provide, the services that we provide to our tribes. And, and we know that, uh, states and, you know, people that recreate in, in those areas where we live, they benefit from that as well. >> thank you. Yield back. Mr. chairman, Mr. cohen. >> thank you.
▶ 1:48:12Um, so reflects really key in the great lakes area, especially because you're charged with the intertribal commission. Uh, you use your funding to ensure that the fulfillment of court orders. Um, so you, you have a, you have a real important role in making sure that federal orders are fulfilled.
▶ 1:48:38Um, I appreciate what you said about what happens to staff, whether they're scientists warrants or just, you know, community outreach people on, on, on how to, how to do, uh, what we need to do to protect this environmental resource. I'd like you to just take a few minutes and maybe tell the committee, especially in light of what's happened in epa region five, which is the region you pretty much sit in.
▶ 1:49:05Um, uh, what has happened with, uh, the us forest service, the us geological survey and other federal agencies because of the cuts that they've had throughout your ceded territories. And either what you're and you can provide us testimony, written testimony later, but either what you're not able to do or, um, things that, you know, you could do better if, if, uh, those support staffs were there.
▶ 1:49:28When you lose a lot of people in epa region five, that that affects you because it's everything that touches the epa also touches the work that you do for tribal organizations. >> yeah. So the, um, well, obviously, I would just say, just plainly, just say with, with the lack of staff, it's, um, we don't have, uh, people there that are, that are responsive to any, any, any, any issues that come around that arise for, for our tribe.
▶ 1:50:00So that's, um, that's the biggest thing is this, it's the, it's the, you know, you know, the delay as, as far as communication and correspondence. Uh, and so those are, that's the, I would say that's the most prominent thing as far as when, when we lose staff or in any organization or when they're, when their staffing levels are reduced, um, you know, the services are delayed or even responses or, um, you know,
▶ 1:50:30Correspondence correspondence is delayed as well. >> uh, thank you for that. So, Mr. chair, I think in light of the fact that there are one of their priority roles is to see the fulfillment of court orders. And I know from talking to tribal members and from things the white house said when it was first, um, uh, came into office, that tribal nations, um, we're not going to get caught up in their attacks on d e I um, I have some concerns from some
▶ 1:51:00Individuals that, that I've heard both at a federal level, state levels and other than minnesota and tribal levels that, that, that original statement from the white house might not be happening the way in which we all had hoped it would work out. Uh, because with, with the cutting, um, of that, uh, it impacts them very different from the roles that they have.
▶ 1:51:24So any conversations we can also have with the white house to make sure that the things that the president originally said about honoring trust and treaty responsibilities and that that also includes what does. And I hope that that possibly is reflected in the president's budget. With that, I yield back. >> jake ellzey. Tara, thank you for your testimony and for being here. And and I know it was a challenge to get here.
▶ 1:51:51We didn't know we were going to make it flying in, but I appreciate it very much. It's very important we'll continue working on these issues. >> and I thank you. I have to drive back to. So that's that's the other part. >> I'd get a hotel room until it gets to about 70 degrees. Anyway. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Next, uh, is, uh, ashton picard, uh, donna thompson and chief allen. Excuse me. Nobody needs it more.
▶ 1:52:26What's that? I said nobody needs it more. Yeah. That's right. >> it's good to see you. >> you think you guys never see each other? You're both from idaho, only 500 miles apart.
▶ 1:52:58Ashton. Your first. >> I thought maybe representative simpson and members of the committee. My name is ashton picard. I'm a vice chairman of the executive committee. And, uh, just wanted to start off by saying. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you and testify not only for an esper's try, but all the tribes and the tribal representation that will be here to testify today.
▶ 1:53:18Um, one of the things that we appreciate, um, from this is, uh, this committee's, uh, response to the missing and murdered indigenous peoples and hearing testimony from our past member, mary jane miles. We know that this, uh, educated the broader american public about this issue that has impacted nez perce and other tribal communities.
▶ 1:53:39We hope that in fy 27, the subcommittee will continue to make efforts to address missing and murdered indigenous persons through targeted funding to the bia for missing and murdered indigenous women initiative, and the facilitation of sharing of law enforcement and public records data as well. Um, through the domestic violence prevention initiative of the ihs.
▶ 1:53:58We also hope the subcommittee will use the insights you gained from the powerful testimony and working with other committees of congress to address issues of jurisdiction in indian country. Like any government. Um, the nez perce tribe provides a variety of important services to tribal membership as well as the community at large. The tribe has a health care clinic, tribal police force, a social service department, and comprehensive natural resource program.
▶ 1:54:22We also operate one of the largest fisheries departments of, uh, any tribe in the nation working on recovery of listed species under the endangered species act. Each of these programs is necessary to preserve and protect the treaty rights of the nez perce people. All the tribes actions and decisions are guided by this principle. The tribe works extensively with many federal agencies and proper funding for those agencies and their work with, for and through tribes is of vital importance.
▶ 1:54:46We appreciate that the appropriations committee rejected many of the substantial reductions to indian program funding proposed in the president's fy 26 budget request and provided specific directives in the explanatory statement about how congress intends for fy 26 appropriations to be allocated, as well as regarding proposed staffing reductions at federal agencies. The tribe has experienced several delays in funding, especially related to fish um restoration activities that hinder our governmental operations.
▶ 1:55:16We appreciate the congress stepped in with federal agencies such as the fish and wildlife service, funding for the hatchery and the nez perce tribe's instance to prod the release of fy 25 funds that were being delayed. The united states obligations to tribal sovereign nations should be honored, upheld in a timely fashion based on the treaties and federal statutes that clearly define the trust relationship between the united states and the tribes.
▶ 1:55:37The tribe provides a full service law enforcement justice program and recently completed construction of a correctional facility. Uh, and currently our tribe provides about 80% of that funding, which is roughly $4 million, while the bia, um, covers about 20% or roughly $1 million, the jail facility is necessary to house tribal inmates, but comes with increased operational costs, money that pays for these services for the come from
▶ 1:56:09Tribal taxes on goods and fuel, and as well as from our tribal gaming revenue that could otherwise be used for other tribal government services for the tribe to fulfill its law enforcement obligation on the reservation. The tribe needs increased funding from bia for staffing and administration, operational costs and operations of the detention facility. For these reasons, the tribe recommends the bia public safety and justice account be increased by 75.5 million over what has been enacted for that account.
▶ 1:56:36Regarding the indian health service, the tribe supports the 13 billion provided for the ihs and fy 26, which includes 5.3 billion in advance appropriation. The tribe operates nellie pou health um is one of our clinics and we would, uh, say that it provides service to approximately 4000 patients each year to help continue providing these services, we recommend maintaining fy 26 funding levels going forward for fy 27, but it must be noted that funding should be continually adjusted to keep pace with
▶ 1:57:06Medical and non-medical inflation with population growth. Finally, the tribe operates a community development financial institution, nellie pou fund, that is invaluable resource for the tribe and assisting with small business development on the reservation.
▶ 1:57:19To aid the effort, the tribe recommends 35 million for the bia office of indian and economic development for job training and technical assistance, support for the indian business incubator, grants and support for the native act grant and 25 million for the indian loan guarantee program to expand the program to incentivize banks to finance projects in indian country.
▶ 1:57:39We appreciate your consideration of the tribe's recommendation for public safety and health funding, as well as our request to properly fund other areas such as economic development and for the epa and the forest service. Um, I just want to, again, thank you for this opportunity. And, uh. It's been an honor. >> thank you. Esther. Good to see you. Donna. You're next. Yeah. We could have just talked in the airport for four hours yesterday.
▶ 1:58:10>> tried, but you was busy reading his book. Good morning. My name is donna thompson, and I am the chairwoman of the fort hall business council, the governing body of the shoshone-bannock tribes. And first, I want to thank chairman simpson and the subcommittee for your efforts to help indian country. And it's also an honor to see chairman cole here today. So today I will focus on one.
▶ 1:58:38Advanced appropriations and mandatory funding for ihs and bia, the ihs realignment and hiring and bia staffing and services. The tribes appreciate that. You've included advanced appropriations for ihs for over the past few years. As we saw this fall. It was very much needed. I've got my paper screwed up here, you guys. Uh, this provision is critical to maintaining operations, and we request that this continue.
▶ 1:59:08We also request a similar provision for bia, although advanced appropriations for ihs is key to upholding the trust responsibility, the larger issue remains the annual discretionary approach for health care. That is still less than 50% of the level of need. As a result, the indian health system relies heavily on medicaid to make up this shortfall.
▶ 1:59:33Approximately half of our tribal members on the reservation are enrolled in medicaid. However, this reliance on medicaid has several problems. First, the federal government has a trust responsibility to provide health care. But medicaid is run by states who do not have a trust responsibility. As a result, tribes in different states face different rules for eligibility, services and benefits.
▶ 2:00:00This forces tribes to negotiate with states for health care, and these. And these days, there's pressure from congress and the state of idaho to limit medicaid spending. Funding for ihs should be made fully mandatory to truly uphold the trust and treaty responsibilities, cms should work directly with tribes, not states on health care funding.
▶ 2:00:27Turning to ihs realignment and hiring, ihs proposes centralizing administrative functions and shifting other functions to new regional offices. However, we are deeply concerned that while ihs is focused on realignment, it is failing to address basic issues like hiring that would actually improve services.
▶ 2:00:49With the 35% vacancy rate, it is critical that ihs fix the broken hiring process. The lack of providers is a huge problem. The hiring process takes too long. Job candidates can't wait months as ihs reviews applications, they move on to other jobs. Further, more effort must be made to retain providers. The loss of even one doctor, dentist or nurse can have a massive impact.
▶ 2:01:19We request the subcommittee conduct oversight to ensure that ihs is focused on actually improving health care services in indian country. Finally, bia staffing. Last year, the bia carried out two deferred resignation programs, resulting in. More than half of the employees leaving are already understaffed. Fort hall agency causing significant disruption disruptions, especially with realty and probate.
▶ 2:01:48Our agency remains short staffed with just six of 17 positions filled deferred resignation programs carried out in the name of efficiency have only resulted in less capacity to provide basic services. This is extremely frustrating for our tribal members. Many have received late lease payments or have not yet received lease payments. Tribal members rely on these payments to put food on their tables.
▶ 2:02:17I hear from tribal members daily about this. Despite recent department efforts to prioritize the probate backlog. B the bia has not hired anyone to address these issues, and there is a lack of judges to resolve the cases. Currently, we have a five year backlog in probate cases, which equals to about over 200 cases.
▶ 2:02:41We need more people working at the department to work on probate and leasing issues. We also request oversight on how the bia can approve these services to the tribe. Thank you. >> thanks, donna. Chief. >> mister chairman. >> ranking member, chairman cole is honored to.
▶ 2:03:06Is it on now? Yep. Sorry. Uh, and ranking members of the committee. Uh, my name is chief allen, and I'm, I've, uh, before you guys, that is my name. My mom had high expectations. Uh, she named me chief. Chief as a. And, uh, I've been, I've had the honor and privilege to be the chairman for my tribe for 20 years.
▶ 2:03:34Uh, I've been on council for 23 years, and I don't want to, uh, talk to you guys about numbers and all that stuff. You guys have already heard that. You guys have my testimony. I just want to talk to you guys. About what, you know, what indian, what indian country is and what indian people are. We're just like you. We we have the same same goals and same things. We want safe communities, uh, to have safe communities. You know, we got to have, you know, the funding for law enforcement. Um, we want to protect our natural resources.
▶ 2:04:01Chairman, thank you for mentioning, uh, you know, yeah, we're not part of that, that organization, you know, but salmon is a big part of our, uh, what defined us as coeur d'alene people. Uh, we don't have a treaty. Uh, we were, uh, we were executive order tribe. Uh, I always tell everybody, uh, we just, we, we never, we never gave up. Uh, so, but a lot of people don't understand what difference between executive order and treaty tribes are. Uh, congress just quit doing, uh, treaties with tribes at a certain date.
▶ 2:04:30And so we had to do a executive order tribe. Um, but I also want you guys to know who I am. I'm, uh, when I took over, we don't know what the budget is. We don't have we haven't seen president the president's budget yet. And, uh, we can guess and throw darts at, you know, how much it's going to be and what it's going to be and what's not going to be what we, what we know, uh, what is fact is that indian country has always historically been underfunded in, in everything.
▶ 2:05:00And so, um, I've known that my whole career. And so what I've always done is try to not only just want you guys to be, when you guys help indian country, we're, you're helping everybody, you know, our, my, my reservation is a checkerboard reservation. Uh, I'm, you know, I come from this great state of idaho and it's beautiful. And, you know, we have a lot of people moving in.
▶ 2:05:23Um, you know, we, we contracted our irs and, uh, with our, with, uh, with and that, and that allowed us to help everybody. We're all, if you guys understand rural america struggles with healthcare and we need to, uh, all, you know, work together. And that was been my goal from day one is always to work together. So we have about 6000, uh, patients in our thing. And it's not all native.
▶ 2:05:49It's, you know, uh, we help everybody in the, you know, north idaho, uh, we are able to provide really good doctors, dentists. When I, when I was growing up, we saw the doctor once, once a month. The dentist came out once a month as well. It was in a little trailer. Our, our ancestors, our elders at that time had the vision to build a facility.
▶ 2:06:11I used to think, you know, as a young man, I thought my arrogant, cocky self used to thought, oh, gaming was the end all, be all, you know, that really provided funding for tribes and gave us money to do a lot of things. But when when covid hit, I understood ancestors gave me a slap beside the head my elders gave me. It was healthcare.
▶ 2:06:30Healthcare was what really saved us and what really, uh, think, you know, uh, we were the first in the country to open to open back up, you know, and the reason why we were able to do that was because we had a strong healthcare, we had a strong thing. And so funding. So we really appreciate the advanced funding that we have for indian health services, and that we will continue to support that. And like I said, we all I know, we all know that the funding is always not what it is.
▶ 2:06:57And so but we have to be creative in ways how we can work together as communities. And that community for me also involves my, my non native brothers and sisters and we, and we open that. And as, uh, chairman simpson knows, he's, he's visited, he's, he's been to our facilities. I, I'm always willing to host anybody that has a time.
▶ 2:07:21I know you guys are all super busy and, you know, please, uh, come up and see what, what we're doing and what some of the things that we've done to really help bridge that gap between that lack of funding and what we can do to be creative. And with that, I will open up for questions and happy saint patrick's day. Uh, just a side note, my, my brother and sisters, uh, they have a different father and they're, they're half irish.
▶ 2:07:48So, so I got, uh, so they're half native and half irish is kind of funny. I was kind of just kind of funny. >> so thanks, chief. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. >> thank you all for being here today. It's a long way from idaho, but, uh, appreciate your testimony. I've, I, I go down and visit with donna and, and, uh, the business council periodically and talk about things. And I, if I don't get up to north idaho at least once a year, I don't feel like it's been summer because it's so beautiful up there and stuff. But I appreciate you taking the time to, to be here today.
▶ 2:08:17It is chairman cole that, uh, taught me, uh, several years ago when we both served on this committee and, uh, that he went through and showed me a chart of how much we spend on veterans health care. And you'd expect that to be higher because there's a lot of injuries in war and etcetera, etcetera and stuff. And then how much we spend on everybody else's health care, average person across the united states. And then how much we spend on indian health care or indian.
▶ 2:08:49And the differences are stunning. And we wonder why the lifespan of indians is going down rather than going up like everybody else. Uh, this is, uh, this is a challenge. And that's why this committee has been focused on this for a number of years. And I, uh, I asked this question during hearings last year because I was hearing this from several tribes that would come in and visit with me and stuff. And I haven't got an answer yet. It's something that I'm not proposing.
▶ 2:09:16I'm just I'm this is what I'm people are talking to me about is that. Some tribes will come in and say, you know, we would, we would get better health care. We would be able to deliver better health care to our, to our, uh, community members. If we got the middleman out of the middle of this, that being indian health services and directly funded the tribes to deliver their, their services, because, you know, ihs takes some off the top.
▶ 2:09:45It's just the more you go through. And I don't know if that's the smart thing or a bad thing. And I suspect for some tribes it's probably would be beneficial. Others might not have the infrastructure to be able to do that themselves. But it's something that, uh, I would like the, the tribes to look at and see if it makes sense, uh, to do something like that and what it would take to do it.
▶ 2:10:10But I agree that, uh, the advanced appropriation, as you know, it was recommended that we, uh, we not do that in the last appropriation process. Uh, I know shelly fought very hard for that when she was chairman of this committee and, and got it done. Uh, we're not going back on that, uh, but we need to make it mandatory funding. I think indian health service is the only health care program that is not mandatory funding in this, in this program or in health services delivered by the federal government.
▶ 2:10:39You mentioned the number of, uh, tribal members, uh, in fort hall that get medicaid that I know the state of idaho is looking at cutting back because they have a budget problem right now. They're looking at cutting back on medicaid. They're looking at cutting back on the medicare expansion program and other things. How's that going to affect your members?
▶ 2:11:01>> that's very deeply because, as I mentioned, over 50% of our tribal members are on medicaid and rely on medicaid, and so does the ihs to help fund their program relies on that as well.
▶ 2:11:17So it would impact us very deeply because it's, um, it's programs that are very much needed not only by our community, but idaho as well, behavioral health, you know, we all have those problems in our communities. And, you know, by cutting those, we're, we're looking at, uh, you know, having some not so good things happen in our community. So we need to really keep those, um, home health care.
▶ 2:11:46Many of our elders depend on that, not just on indian reservations, but everywhere, you know, in the state of idaho. So cutting medicaid would really impact us. >> and, uh, I was glad we were able to get to fish hatchery. Issue solved. Sometimes when new people come into administration, they do things that they don't know the impact of in the long run and stuff. So I was able I was glad we were able to work that out.
▶ 2:12:14And you can't do a fish hatchery and fund it three quarters of the year. It's just kind of crazy. Anyway, uh, miss pingree, great. >> um, thank you all for being here. It's wonderful to see everyone from the idaho tribes. We, uh, we know how much the chair works closely with you and thinks, um, you know, about the importance of his home state. So I'm glad that you have a real champion there, and it's good to hear some of the issues that you're all here to share with us.
▶ 2:12:41Um, and chief allen, thank you for, uh, chairman, chief allen love that name. Uh, uh, we have a young man in our town whose mother named him king. And his last name is arthur. Go figure. Uh, my children have many things they're angry about, but luckily, I didn't miss name them. No, but I think chief allen is an appropriate name. And. Wonderful. And obviously, you were destined to this role. So thank you for sharing that story with us.
▶ 2:13:09And I really did appreciate often we hear that, but just emphasizing once again about how tribes impact rural communities around them and the great benefit that you provide. And when you are underfunded, it just makes it that much more challenging for rural communities. And I represent a very rural state in maine. And we we know how important it is to have, um, input into the rural economy. So, so thank you for that. And, um, chairwoman thompson, I'm glad the chair picked up on that because I think that is really critically important.
▶ 2:13:37I'm also very worried about what will happen when these medicaid cuts kick in. But already, as you mentioned, um, there are so many issues because we've gotten very dependent on having tribal members be covered by medicaid.
▶ 2:13:50And I don't know how we should be thinking about that in this year's appropriations cycle, but if there's ways we could write some language in there to help protect that, um, you know, whatever we can do to sort of prevent, uh, disaster when there suddenly a huge pool of unfunded people because, um, it's been a benefit in a sense, for us to not have to provide so much for ihs if people are funded through other ways.
▶ 2:14:13But if there's a moment that this is going to be a cliff or, or if it's already an issue or if it's something to do with how you work with cms. You mentioned that. Anyway, I just hope we can we can continue to talk about that. Um, as we move on, we will have ihs before us. I don't know if we have bia before us, but I think we should also be talking about the many vacancies that were created last year and just getting a real accounting of what has been.
▶ 2:14:38Sometimes there were vacancies created because we didn't need that position, but I think the majority of them were retirements or probationary people who really were important. And I know it's been hard to fill those positions at bia. So that's an important point for you to bring up. And thank you too, for being here. It's really been very beneficial to hear your testimony. Thanks. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. Uh, again, I want to join my colleagues. Thank you for being here. It's helpful. I never can see that light. Okay. That's better. It's very hard to see.
▶ 2:15:08Um, so thank you for your testimony. I can assure you, I think I made the statement last year. Whatever the presidential budget says, uh, this committee will not, uh, be, uh, eliminating advanced funding. It's just not going to happen. It's a bipartisan commitment. We worked very hard. Miss mccullum was here earlier. And as the chairman pointed out, miss pingree has worked hard on this and he's worked hard on this. And, uh, I didn't think we were going to need it so quickly. Yeah. That's right.
▶ 2:15:37Uh, but, uh, last, last year's shutdowns, uh, a critical example of why we are not going to touch that so that that is going to stay in place regardless. Uh, and we will, uh, you know, try. Look, we all realize, uh, this system is underfunded and I think it's largely underfunded. And Mr. simpson made this remark that it ought to be mandatory.
▶ 2:16:04Indian health service is older than all the mandatory programs we have. Uh, and I think it was just sort of out there on its own as one of the few areas the federal government actually had an obligation to provide health care because of treaty and trust responsibilities before medicaid, medicare and all those programs. So, uh, it never got roped, pulled into the system.
▶ 2:16:27That's something I think we should look at, uh, because it's, uh, I don't know how you get there, given the size of the budget and the range of responsibilities this subcommittee has, although it's, it's, uh, done pretty valiant efforts to do things. And, you know, I'm very fortunate my tribe has, uh, a lot of outside income. So we contract, uh, and then we add money on top of not every tribe has the opportunity to do that.
▶ 2:16:55Uh, and so our health care is actually very, very good, but it's because it's not all provided by the federal government, it's because we have additional income. And there are, you know, some programs that actually help you, uh, in terms of if you'll build the facilities, the federal government will start funding, etc. Again, we have the ability to take advantage of that. Many other tribes do not. So, uh, there's inequities built into the system.
▶ 2:17:23Uh, I do think, um, uh, secretary kennedy has made some interesting proposals about making extra money available for infrastructure in hospitals, and we'll see if he can do that. Uh, certainly would be supportive of it. And, uh, we'll see what else we can do. But the health care challenge isn't going away. It's going to take long term sustained effort. Uh, this committee has done that.
▶ 2:17:52I think it's steadily increased. Um, you know, health care expenditures, but we're so far behind. And again, the demands on this budget, uh, outstripped the size of the budget. That's just the truth. Uh, so we'll continue to work on this, try and make progress. But, uh, the other challenge we have here is getting the personnel we need, uh, to a lot of these facilities.
▶ 2:18:16I had the opportunity to take a tour, uh, of what I call first world indian country and third world indian country with Mr. simpson a number of years ago. And that was tribes that had ability to spend money and tribes that didn't. There was no difference in the need or the want or the ability, but, uh, it makes a big difference when you have extra revenue. But I noticed every place we went, they found out simpson was a dentist.
▶ 2:18:42They wanted him to retire from congress, and they would hire him immediately. And job offer after job offer, uh, out there. So I'm not worried about your retirement. You know, I think you're going to be okay. Uh, but, uh, again, those kinds of things are hard to get in remote localities, uh, and hard to retain. Housing's an issue as well. Uh, you know, folks have to have housing near where they're going to work and sometimes that's not available.
▶ 2:19:11So you get such incredible turnover at a lot of these facilities. It's hard to get continuity in care. So anyway, thank you for being here and advocating. We will do the best we can, but I will assure you, uh, advanced funding will not be in jeopardy no matter what the president's budget says. Uh, when it rolls out probably later this month, you'll back jake ellzey. Thank you all again for being here. I know how hard it is to get here from idaho.
▶ 2:19:40I do it every other weekend or something like that, but. >> sorry, Mr. chairman. One last, uh, just you you posed a question and I just kind of wanted to. Not all tribes are the same. And, you know, it is a double edged sword, but under my tenure, tenure as chairman, I welcome cutting the the middleman out of the out of the thing.
▶ 2:19:59And just like, you know, idaho just was recently awarded 150 million for rural health, you know, that, but that kind of stuff that would really help indian country, you know, cut the middleman out, you know, letting the tribes, uh, you know, control their own destiny and do that. And that's what coeur d'alene has done. And, uh, I've been really blessed to really move in that direction. Like chairman cole said, not all tribes are equal and some have the resources, some don't.
▶ 2:20:23And, you know, but like I said, I think it really if you take that that parental, you know, way of thinking out of the mixer, I think it would be very helpful because in the country has become more and more, um, sophisticated. >> so can I make a point here? Um, actually toured some reservations. Actually, it was the same trip I was talking about with Mr.
▶ 2:20:48Simpson and miss mccullum was on that trip and, um, some of the tribes we visited, uh, did not want to get out of ihs because I asked that question everywhere I went. Why aren't you running this yourself? We made that decision as a tribe back in the 1970s, and it was before we had a gaming revenue. A lot of other things have helped us and our head of our medical system at the time, who's now the longest serving chief in our history.
▶ 2:21:19Governor anoatubby, uh, you know, made the decision that look, he said it's pretty simple. He said, a lot of our own people wondered whether or not we could do it. But nobody looks after your own people like your own people. Uh, and he said the biggest first place they saw change was wait times because, uh, you know, you could sit there for hours. Nobody knew how to get a hold of ihs to complain, but they certainly knew how to get ahold of their tribal legislator.
▶ 2:21:46Uh, and those phones started ringing and wait times started changing pretty dramatically. So. And we found in our tribe, it helped us train, uh, honestly, a whole generation of administrators and budgeting and things that are when you're running a complex system that we later, as we moved into more commercial activity, that expertise was brought in there and helped us. So again, I'm a, it's always tribal choice.
▶ 2:22:14We have an obligation as the federal government here as to provide the service. So I would never want to take away the choice, but I would encourage most tribes. And you ought to think about running this yourself, because at the end of the day, you'll run it better than the federal government, almost certainly, even if you have no additional resources to bring. So anyway, it's my view, but their decision. Yep. Yield back. Appreciate it.
▶ 2:22:39Well, for all of you that don't know that, uh, I get a kick out of chief allen and I always know he's a chief. Or is chief allen. I I've gone through that over the years. But when you see, when you see when you when you see him smiling. I've never seen him that he doesn't have a smile on his face. So he's a great guy to be around. Donna, it's always good to see you again. Always love to get up to the nez perce reservation. They do a great job up there in a lot of areas.
▶ 2:23:08So thank you all for being here today and we look forward to. I'm proud to work for you all. So thank you. >> thank you. >> tom. Tony. >> tony in there somewhere?
▶ 2:23:39>> yes it is. Pronounce your last name for me. >> it's a mule. >> I got the mule part. The setup was kind of. And, uh, also vivian and kristina. Andrew. >> uh.
▶ 2:24:24>> yes. >> the nih. Uh, if you'll all excuse me for a minute. I've got to run up to a different hearing for a few minutes because I got a couple questions I need to ask up there. Uh, Mr. lee is going to take over the chair here, so I appreciate all you being here today. Uh, doctor? Tony, you're first. I'm. >> just press it down. Just.
▶ 2:25:00Okay. Well, good morning, esteemed members of the committee. My name is tony soto. I'm a citizen of the kiowa tribe and currently serve in the role of executive director of the kiowa education agency. I'm here today speaking on behalf of the kiowa executive branch and at the request of our chairman, david sullivan.
▶ 2:25:22I'm here to be a voice for kiowa students of all ages and share about our essential needs within the kiowa tribe and the southern plains region as a whole. Today's hearing provides a way for tribal nations, no matter how large or small, to exercise tribal sovereignty. Reaffirm the federal trust, responsibility, and honor the firm foundation of treaty law.
▶ 2:25:46A supreme law of the land, securing and prioritizing funding for the department of the interior and all related agencies are not only foundational, but are dollars well spent that meet some of the greatest needs and dire conditions that exist in our country. These critical funds make a difference to real people like myself and the students that I serve. Know resources better spent than to progress the pursuit of education and improve the quality of life.
▶ 2:26:13Throughout our history, we have endured and survived, and today is no different. In these very uncertain times and ever changing times. I sincerely appreciate each one of you for listening to all the testimonies given during this hearing. Today. I'm speaking before this body as a product of tribal college education. Haskell indian nations university, located in lawrence, kansas, is a six hour drive from carnegie, oklahoma.
▶ 2:26:37Today, haskell prepares native students for career paths and leadership roles, but not at the expense of native identity in tribal colleges. Our identity is a strength, not a weakness or a challenge that hinders academic success. When I entered haskell, the only, only educational experiences that I carried with me were in mainstream public schools. That is very common for many.
▶ 2:27:01By that time, I only knew what it felt like to be unseen, unheard, outnumbered, small, and excluded. As a child, I could not articulate the imbalance of power and the marginalization that was so evident to me. Our kiowa education agency is located in anadarko, oklahoma. That is the home of riverside indian school, which provides a safe and quality education for so many students in need.
▶ 2:27:28To the people who work and teach there, and for the students that attend there, it is much more than a school. It's a family. Also in the town of anadarko, our kiowa education agency serves children and youth from our babies that enter childcare so parents can contribute to the workforce or pursue education. Our johnson o'malley and youth leadership development program promotes academics and leadership development.
▶ 2:27:57We have kiowa students in schools all across oklahoma and the united states. We celebrate their achievements and create protective factors to support and encourage them. Our higher education, vocational training and job placement training helps facilitate self-sufficiency among our kiowa citizens. Who understands our students challenges.
▶ 2:28:21Many challenges originate from a history marked by land displacement, resource exploitation, and war. The implications of our shared history manifest every day in the social problems that we all witness and experience in native communities, in the form of poverty and violence. Despite all of these things, our students seek knowledge armed with possibility and desire to make a difference for themselves, their families, and the tribal nations that they inherently represent.
▶ 2:28:48American and american indian educational programs and institutions have been affected, most recently by drastic propositions and abrupt cuts in funding programs that primarily affect native students have been subject to arbitrary moves, changes and consolidations, with no meaningful tribal consultations to guide these actions. So our native students. This feels like a direct threat to the future of our young people everywhere.
▶ 2:29:18Our students are persistent, hardworking young people who dare to aspire to something greater. Many demonstrate mighty resilience, and against many odds, they contribute and continue to pursue their studies under a constant cloud of insecurity. It is very difficult to conceive that education of any matter could be a target. You must excuse me.
▶ 2:29:40We must safeguard the b, I, a and b systems that have the potential to right so many wrongs in the history of american indian education, including the boarding school era, which separated children from families and their parents and disrupted our ability to transmit language and cultural knowledge. The only path for tribal self-determination is education. Unfortunately, I don't sit on the appropriations committee.
▶ 2:30:05We must inform others who have the power to protect our students, our teachers and our learning institutions. Advance appropriations and increased support for b, I, a and b I e fuels educational opportunity. It is because of these vital programs that I sit here today, fully equipped to confront the educational challenges of our people, the infrastructure needed to grow, the capacity of each tribal education department or agency, also called a ted or t a, is crucial in our educational journey.
▶ 2:30:35The role of teds assists and eases navigating the intersections of local, state and tribal education agencies to remove barriers. The core values of persistence, strength, and purpose that are instilled through kiowa wisdom have guided my steps from the kiowa headquarters on the southern plains in a small town known today as carnegie, oklahoma, to the front steps of the rayburn building here in washington, dc.
▶ 2:31:02Like many of our kiowa leaders of the past, we make this journey to assert ourselves as the indigenous people of the very land that we stand on the mission and work of the bureau of indian affairs and the bureau of indian education are not die. We affirm the government to government relationship. We acknowledge that the basic and fundamental provisions of education and health care were of primary importance in binding treaties signed by our ancestors, which established the federal american indian trust responsibility.
▶ 2:31:30So today I present this oral testimony before you as an example of educational opportunity afforded through resources appropriated to the bureau of indian affairs. At times, the decisions that we make have impact that we never see in our lifetime the mission and work of the bia and the b I e can and does make a difference in the lives of kiowa citizens.
▶ 2:31:52Every day I want to extend my appreciation to the subcommittee for allowing me the time to prevent to present sorry testimony in support of program funding that is so critically important to indian country. And in the kiowa language we say aho, which is. Thank you. >> thank you. Tony. Christina. >> good morning, chairman and members of the subcommittee. My name is christina andrew. I'm the third chief of the tribal council from dillingham, alaska.
▶ 2:32:22I am here today to ask for an exemption for my tribe from the alaska moratorium. The moratorium bars indian health services from contracting directly for the delivery of services with tribes in alaska that were not already contracting prior to 2006. The non contracting tribes are instead served by regional inter-tribal health care entities. Our regional entity is the bristol bay area health corporation. Bbq provides health care to 28 tribes in the bristol bay area.
▶ 2:32:50Ted lieu is the largest user population in the region, over 30%. Under the current moratorium provision, only bbq can compact for the delivery of health care in bristol bay region. At bbn bbc's inception, our tribe supported bbq with the understanding that as the largest tribe, um of this intertribal organization, we would continue to have a strong voice in health care matters while also improving the quality of health care for the entire region.
▶ 2:33:18However, bbq has now created an organizational structure that freezes out from any decisions related to the delivery of health care in our community. Specifically, bbq has a 28 member board with only one seat designated for traveling, but bbq created a nine member executive committee, which does not include any representation from our tribe.
▶ 2:33:41This executive board makes all operational decisions for bbq, thus has no voice over how the hospital or clinic intended to serve our members delivers health care. When chung young expressed concerns in the past, bbq took action that negatively impacted our people. At one point, bbq issued a directive that tribal members were not to be provided care by bbq. Thankfully, this directive was reversed, but bbq continues to stifle criticism and concerns.
▶ 2:34:11Bbq continues to ignore valid concerns regarding its policies that impact patient care. For example, bbq insists that patients can be transported out of the village only for life or limb care. This decision results in higher costs because it means people have to pay out of pocket to access higher level of care, or be put on a medevac flight to in an emergency. As a result of this treatment, chungong provided notice to withdraw from bbq in 2019. Because of the pandemic, we delayed.
▶ 2:34:38Once the pandemic was behind us, we delayed again to try and engage in mediation with bbq. These efforts ultimately fail due to bbq refusal to meet us halfway. Our concerns remain unresolved and we wish to exercise our self-determination rights. Our impending withdrawal means that ihs is going to have to find a way to deliver health care to young.
▶ 2:34:58This likely means ihs will have to enter into a cumbersome fa procurement agreement with cheong or another provider, with none of the protections afforded to tribes under the self-determination act in the 21st century. We should have the right to contract for this health care, just like any other tribe in the lower 48 and other places in alaska. Young's capacity to deliver quality health care has grown.
▶ 2:35:20We have developed an excellent behavioral health program thanks to one time covid funding by contracting for our share of ihs behavioral health funding, this small program could vastly expand to better serve all qualified alaskan natives living in the dillingham area. Substance abuse has been tragic in our community, and no family has been left untouched. Without access to any ihs resources, we will not be able to sustain this program beyond behavioral beyond behavioral health.
▶ 2:35:46We are confident that we could undertake many other outpatient services in a way that better serves our members. But our tribe needs to control our local services and resources like tribes in the lower 48. We ask that you support an additional exemption to the current moratorium so that our tribe has the maximum options. Available to design health care systems that provide the best quality care. Right now.
▶ 2:36:13Eastern aleutian tribes incorporated the council for athabascan tribal governments and the native village of eyak are exempt. Moreover, all tribes that were contracting before the moratorium was enacted are exempt. Thus, we are asking tribal council to be carved out too, so we can move forward to improve services for our community. Thank you for our plea. >> thank you. Christina. Vivian, it's good to see you again. Good morning. >> it's good to see you.
▶ 2:36:41I thought I recognized you so good morning everyone. My name is vivian. I serve as the chief executive officer for the association of village council presidents. Our headquarters are located in bethel, alaska. Before I continue with my. My presentation, I'd like to recognize our chairman who is sitting in the audience. His name is todd tycoon, and both of us flew in from bethel, alaska just early this morning.
▶ 2:37:16Chairman, ranking member, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony and written statement for the record regarding the initiative and related social services and indian child welfare icwa program investments that support tribally driven, family centered services. To.
▶ 2:37:33Began in 2015 with a simple, practical idea organize services around families rather than leaving people to navigate disconnected systems. Tawahi has since evolved in to a whole of government framework.
▶ 2:37:52The framework operates at the federal, state and tribal levels, which helps tribal nations align programs, reduce duplication, fill service gaps, and improve outcomes for children and families.
▶ 2:38:06Over the past decade, six original pilot tribes helped design, implement and refine tawahi, documenting lessons learned and demonstrating the benefits of family centered, coordinated coordination across social services, equity, and related programs. Avp is one of the original six demonstration sites and was the only site in alaska with that designation.
▶ 2:38:36Avp is the largest tribal consortium in the nation, serving 56 federally recognized tribes across the yukon-kuskokwim delta in western alaska. Our tribes are located in 48 villages in a service area roughly the size of the state of new york. Our communities are off the road system and accessible only by plane, boat or seasonal ice, road or snowmachine routes, making services, service access and any coordination uniquely complex.
▶ 2:39:06From 2005 to 2015, avp experienced enormous growth program growth without parallel investment in administrative infrastructure. By 2015, avp managed 157 open grant streams, supporting 26 programs largely siloed by funding source and with no true organizational infrastructure to sustain integrated service delivery at
▶ 2:39:36Any scale. This fragmented structure constrained our ability to serve families efficiently, efficiently, efficiently. Despite the breadth of resources flowing into the region, tawahi was a turning point. In 2015, avc executive board and key staff developed the tawahi proposal as a blueprint to change how we operate.
▶ 2:40:00Two he became the catalyst that enabled avc to move from a siloed program model towards a coordinated, family centered system. Tawahi provided the support and flexibility needed to do the work of organizational transformation, creating a clearing space to evaluate operations end to end, and rebuild infrastructure that matches the scale of need across our region through tawahi a, b, c, d designed and
▶ 2:40:31Built a service delivery model that works for us. Our model works in extreme rural conditions in what I call extreme rural america, and strengthened our ability to bring services. We align multiple funding sources and program delivery so that families experience a clear, more navigable pathway to receive the services that they need. Tawahi supported avc development of an integrated service delivery model with healthy families at the center.
▶ 2:41:03Shifting the core question of how do we satisfy the grantor to how do we best service our tribes and tribal members? This shift enabled a bcp to recognize and reengineer programs into a structured framework that improves access, reduces duplication, and expands services at the village level not just for our families and children, but for all our clients.
▶ 2:41:26We went beyond just focusing on families and children and applied this strategy all across all av c p program delivery to form a strong foundation in which today we stand.
▶ 2:41:39Just as importantly, tawahi helped av, cp build and deploy quality improvement as an operating discipline supporting phased organizational change, including rightsizing and growing administrative capacity, building a braided division structure and advancing toward wraparound village delivery, village level delivery and community safety.
▶ 2:42:03This quality improvement approach follows allows av, cp to continuously refine how we deliver services across a large remote region while maintaining accountability to tribes and families. Our asked today are three increase the funding for tawahi so that demonstration sites have parity with the original pilot sites.
▶ 2:42:28Second is to provide resource for continued innovation under the tawahi model, and third is to preserve tawahi and make it make it permanent. While I just have a little bit of time left, I want to say that over the past ten years that av c p in western alaska, um, we've experienced many challenges.
▶ 2:42:51If we did not have funding to really create that service delivery model that we couldn't even pivot to covid, to the salmon crash, to the arctic typhoons, because those are the villages that were hit in our region and other challenges, including the public safety, public safety crisis that we are now in, uh, experiencing.
▶ 2:43:20My one of my requests to this, um, committee is to take a look at the gao report on public safety pl 280 states and really take a look at how we can deliver better services to our regions across alaska.
▶ 2:43:33And I want to specify during the arctic typhoons in our region, we had, uh, 25 villages along the bering sea coast that were in the pathway of a second storm that they told us that was coming. Those 25 villages only had four village public safety officers. What that means is that there were only four incident commanders in those 25 villages.
▶ 2:44:02So we are operating at a real desperate situation in our region, um under pl 280. And we want to take this opportunity to utilize the 40 years, 35 years of experience of contracting and compacting that, um, ala alaska compact in healthcare has provided because as the chairman who, who left for another meeting said that um, tribes learned from contracting
▶ 2:44:32And compacting and we're applying those 35 plus years of experience to other arenas, including emergency response, public safety, family centered services, and other services that were developing. Um, based on the model that we've created in our region under the demonstration project. Thank you. >> thank you. Vivian. Chairman cole. >> thank you. >> very much. >> uh. >> number one, thank you for your testimony.
▶ 2:45:01Doctor, if I could start with you, I assume that the great majority of kiowa students are in the public school system. Is that correct? It's hard to check that light. It really is. >> get used to that. Yes. That's correct. >> and what are the programs in your experience that are the most helpful to them? Supplementary type programs like johnson, o'malley or whatever?
▶ 2:45:27>> yeah, I think johnson, o'malley and title six are critical programs for our students in the public school system, because sometimes they are the vast majority, as you know, especially in metropolitan areas and things like that. We have a lot of students who kind of just get lost in the shuffle of things. And so their their indian education tutor there, johnson o'malley coordinator, whatever that position is, is their one connection sometimes. And that's the critical thing that kind of lifts up their, their cultural identity.
▶ 2:45:57And that really helps them in the public school system. When they have a sound self-esteem, they're able to navigate those difficult situations. >> I remember now, it's a long time ago, my brother and I went to our school system, uh, which was a public school system. We're both chickasaw. The, uh, the questions were always, are you in? If you were, they wanted you to check something. Uh, but there was never any program. They just got a little extra money, but nothing ever came to us. And same thing.
▶ 2:46:25We were military family. So if you worked on base or something, there was impact aid, that's that. And that was fine. There was nothing extra for anybody. So do you have that kind of problem? Do you see people that like get the money and not use the money for the intentions as it was intended? >> I think that does happen.
▶ 2:46:44I think another thing that happens that we're finding out, um, is that some of the smaller school districts just are not equipped or they don't feel like there's enough impact or dollars to really go after that funds after those funds. And so that's just, you know, detrimental to our students because they're entitled to that and they're not getting it. So, um, what we have done is identified students in school districts.
▶ 2:47:09And if the school is not serving them, we're able to serve them through our education agency. >> terrific. That's terrific. Christina, tell me you were talking about would this take special legislation to allow you to opt out of the system that you're in now? And how would that work? >> um, that's correct. It would, um, be just adding, um, our name to that legislation. I believe a copy was provided to you guys.
▶ 2:47:37Um, and then from there we would be able to contact according to our wishes and decide what services we'd like to pull out from bbh. Um, we're definitely thinking about mental health services for sure, but I think it would give us leveraging power to be able to improve services for our people. >> yeah. Well, well, controlling your own healthcare is a big deal. Um yield back. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. Ranking member pingree. >> uh, thank you.
▶ 2:48:05I think the chairman has asked a lot of the things I wanted to ask, but, um, doctor, I, I think it would be helpful and maybe in your testimony, I just didn't go through it, but, um, those areas that you brought up of concerns where there may have been changes over the past year and funding losses, whether it's the downsizing, the department of education or scholarship funds or other places, it's very helpful for us to know the places that we've come to depend on for outside funding, you know, outside of the bureau of indian education, but other departments and if that is
▶ 2:48:36Disappearing, sometimes we're not as aware of it, but we can advocate for it. So anything else you want to provide to us? Or like I said, if it's in your testimony, I'm happy to dig it up. But you can just think about that, um, you know, and get back to us about it. >> yes, we can add some more, um, support, supplemental information in the written, written comments.
▶ 2:48:54Um, I think that the, um, the inter agency agreements was a big concern and it was very alarming for um, most of indian country and we all showed up in washington, dc to say, um, you know, we have a whole lot of questions and we felt like the consultation happened after, after the agreement had been signed. So it was after the fact that didn't feel very meaningful, but still, um, you know, that's important.
▶ 2:49:19I think that, um, especially again, going back to the fact that most of our students are served in the public schools, that's very different from b schools. So some of them don't have that option. And so, um, those inter agency agreements and how that's going to pan out, um, is very concerning. >> great. Well we would love to stay abreast of that. So thank you. Thank you. And I'm happy to look at that legislation. So I'm sure if we have it, I'll look at it.
▶ 2:49:46And um, it's not an issue I know much about but I'm happy to, you know, dig in deeper. And having control of your own health care is obviously very important. I understand that. Um. Thank you. And, um, vivian, uh, it's hard to sort of wrap your head around the idea of a territory bigger than the state of new york, and you're already within inside alaska. We really, in the lower 48 don't understand the scale that you guys operate on, but, um, thank you for that. And hearing you talk a little bit about the why we hear so much about the importance of that program.
▶ 2:50:14So it's certainly one of my focuses about how we can expand it and deepen it. And you gave a lot of really good examples of why it has made a huge difference for you. So thank you for that. >> thank you ma'am. Well, tony, uh, I came from the panhandle of texas originally, and in 1930, my grandfather, thomas v elzey, was a friend of spotted bird, who's the younger brother of lone wolf. So I have an affinity with the kiowa people and, uh, and look forward to coming to visit you.
▶ 2:50:43I still have, uh, family up in perryton. They, uh, my grandfather was actually the treasurer of kiowa county at one time. So, um, I look forward to coming up at some point in and seeing what you, what you have going on. If there's, you have 15 seconds to tell me one last thing that you wish you could have said in your opening. >> I've always wanted to say I yield back. >> okay, okay. Well done. >> okay.
▶ 2:51:12Christina and vivian, uh, you've you've come a long way from alaska. Uh, and it's and it's arduous. And in fact, some of our members from texas aren't even here yet. So I understand that you do this on your own dime, on your own time. It's, uh, it's a it's a long journey. It's not just a flight. It's a, it's a trek. It's a pilgrimage, so to speak, for you to come up here. And I certainly do appreciate it. Same to you, either of you. Starting with you, christina, if there's something that you missed or that you'd like to close with, please go ahead.
▶ 2:51:41>> I just like to say, please consider that language. It would make a world of difference in our community for our healthcare. >> you know, the best thing about language is it doesn't cost anything generally. Right? Shelley. So, uh, so, you know, as we've talked about before and I, and it's good to see you again.
▶ 2:51:57Um, that, uh, that in this panel and certainly on the appropriations committee, the, uh, these days are so important with the travel days are so important up to 90 that, that we listen to because it's important to the chairman, it's important to the ranking member. It's important to even though they're not here, this is appropriation season. So I want to tell everybody this once. I may have to say it again, it's appropriation season. There are a number of committees that are meeting right now.
▶ 2:52:26One of my other committees is meeting currently, which is where the chairman went to. It's unfortunate that they overlap, but, uh, for everybody who's not here, I can speak for Mr. zink. Mr. cloud, miss malloy, that, uh, Mr. rosenthaler, that this is still very important to us in spite of the fact there's only two of us here. It's a bipartisan effort, and it means a lot to us. Um, and vivian, uh, I'd never heard of that. I. I just want you to know that when you're talking to me, uh, when you were talking about a, b, c, p, everybody in the back was nodding their heads.
▶ 2:52:56So I watched the crowd to see what's what's important then going on. And nobody's asleep. Nobody has fallen asleep. And a, b, c, p is important so as to why. And so thank you. Uh, same to you. Do you have anything that you'd like to close with really briefly? We're a little behind timeline, but I want to give you a chance. >> yes. It's on. Okay. Thank you. Um, g let's see. Um, I have three requests. The first is to, of course, support twi in its entirety.
▶ 2:53:23And senator murkowski's work on children and families. Her bill, please, um, support that second is, um, I'd like to ask the committee to take a look at the g g o report on on pl 280 states. Um, it's really challenging to provide public safety in an area the size of our communities.
▶ 2:53:48We have 48 different communities and we have a village public safety officer program that is contracted by, um, non-profits like ours, tribal consortiums. And it's really difficult. Um, the, that particular report we worked with them on and they did a site visit to our region. And I think those findings will be very helpful. And the recommendations.
▶ 2:54:14And then lastly, um, I want to talk about the arctic typhoons that we've experienced in our region recently. Um, we have whole communities that have been absolutely devastated. And for avp last week, we were in a meeting with senator tillis and senator tillis.
▶ 2:54:33His staff is working with senator murkowski staff and senator sullivan's staff on a proposal from abc to create regional response centers, emergency response centers in western alaska. And we ask for your, you and your staff to take a look and work with the senators to, um, come up with a strategy where we can address arctic typhoons on the northern border in the united states, specifically alaska.
▶ 2:55:05Thank you. >> thank you, thank you all three for your impactful testimony. Appreciate it. Thank you. Now we're up to panel eight. We're looking for duane jackson, derek leslie and duane clark. Is that right? Okay. >> thank you very much. Thank you.
▶ 2:55:52>> we'll try to get the train moving on time. Again, thank you all for being here. Appreciate you coming from arizona. I hope the travel wasn't too difficult. So, uh, we'll go we'll start right, right ahead. Duane clark, the the floor is yours, sir. >> good morning. Good evening. >> let me try that again. Good morning. My name is duane clark, tribal chairman of the walapai tribe. And send my greetings along with the tribe chairman and ranking member. Pingree, it is good to see you once again. And members of the subcommittee.
▶ 2:56:22Thank you once again for the opportunity to testify in support of the 312 million in the bureau of indian affairs fiscal year 27 budget to fulfill the united states obligation under the walapai tribe water rights settlement act, our 1 million acre reservation in northwest arizona is arid.
▶ 2:56:44It has no significant, uh, surface streams other than the colorado river and very limited groundwater resources. The tribe's wells are depleted. Depletable resource and water levels have been dropping for many years. Historically, we've relied on groundwater wells. The first serves our primary community of peach springs, installed back in 1975.
▶ 2:57:14Now the piping is over 50 years old. It has suffered multiple e coli contamination events, leaving our community without water for days. The second well is on the east side of the reservation. It provides water to our ranchers, our wildlife, but it is not potable and cannot be used for human consumption.
▶ 2:57:36Now the third well serves our grand canyon west, the tribe's economic engine and one of the largest employers in mojave county in arizona. Due to the aquifer depletion. And that, well, the well has failed back in 2018.
▶ 2:57:56Since then, the water for grand canyon west has been hauled by truck to peach springs daily, first 15 miles, then pumped another 35 miles to the operation. Now this is extremely expensive and insufficient, but currently our only option because the east side is non-potable to the grand canyon west and the well failed, the entire reservation now relies almost exclusively on what the single well in peach springs.
▶ 2:58:25The one thing failing in the infrastructure and the history of the e coli contamination. When that well goes down, the reservation has simply no water. The colorado river forms 108 miles of our boundary, the northwest boundary, but we cannot access it. It is the only feasible long term solution for our people.
▶ 2:58:50That's why back in 2022, with a strong bipartisan support, congress passed the water walapai tribe water rights settlement act. Now, the act secured 4000 acre feet of the colorado river and authorized 312 million to build the pipeline to deliver the water to the reservation. Even though congress has not yet appropriated the funding promised in the settlement act. The tribe.
▶ 2:59:17We've taken on that spirit of the act seriously, using our own limited resources, we have undertaken significant environmental compliance activities. The obligation of the federal government under the settlement. We have financed these efforts to avoid delays, hoping that the appropriations will soon come to a turn and focus on the building of the water system. But today, the promise of the settlement is in peril.
▶ 2:59:41Last year now the president requested in the funding, and this committee right here included it in your appropriations bill, but it was excluded in the final conference agreement. We received zero funding back in fiscal year 26, because congress has not yet appropriated any funding.
▶ 3:00:03We now have only two fiscal years, 27 and 28, to appropriate all 312 million, with the full amount to be deposited by april 15th of 2029, or the entitled entire settlement becomes void. The date only 79,000 has been deposited. Now, failure would only devastate our tribe.
▶ 3:00:26It would unravel this hard fought settlement has been negotiated throughout the years for all the parties in agreement. It would mark the first time in history that the united states has failed to meet its funding obligation under the ratified tribal water settlement. We're asking that the full 312 million this year, because we cannot know what the proper the process will be next year.
▶ 3:00:55With only two years left, the. Essentially that. No funding to date. We are coming to a serious close within the next two years. With that said, we would find substantial down payment acceptable and there is a firm, reliable commitment with the appropriations to for the remainder of fiscal year 28. And we stand ready to work with you.
▶ 3:01:23And like I said last time, please come out and visit us, see what is going on on the on the ground. And once again, thank you, anca. Thank you. >> thank you. >> you testified. >> no, derek. >> you're next. I just I got in the middle. >> welcome back. >> can you guys hear me? Is this okay? Okay. Uh, doug. And greetings. Uh, my name is derek. Leslie.
▶ 3:01:52I am of the red horizontal people born for the mesquite people. Uh, from turkey creek, arizona. I appear today as the director of the white mountain apache tribal education department and as the chair for my tribe's health advisory board. As tribal education director, I oversee programs supporting education and career pathways, including the adult vocational training program, adult education, office of higher education, johnson o'malley, and the vocational rehabilitation programs.
▶ 3:02:20The vr program is essential for tribal members with disabilities, helping them access education, training and employment opportunities. These programs require stable, predictable federal funding and statutory protections like informed choice and due process. Any changes to funding, grant administration, or oversight could directly harm individuals with disabilities who rely on these services.
▶ 3:02:45We urge congress to maintain continuity of funding and to preserve rehabilitation act principles, while respecting tribal sovereignty and federal trust and treaty obligations during and after changes in administration of funds, as proposed in the interagency agreement between the us department of education and the us department of interior. Regarding the johnson o'malley program, we appreciate passage of the modernization act and updated student count.
▶ 3:03:14However, funding history shows a long term decline in per pupil support for my tribe. Per pupil funding fell from $155.25 in in fiscal year 1979 to $125 in 1995, and to only $64 by federal fiscal year 2024.
▶ 3:03:35Even as the national student count grew from 171,290 students in 1979 to 317,102 students for school year 25, 26 more students are served per pupil, but funding has steadily decreased to maintain our per pupil investment. From 1979, it required approximately 49.2 million for john programs.
▶ 3:04:02Without increased appropriation, contractors will receive less funding while serving more students. We support the national indian education association and the national congress of american indians in calling for increased funding. Impact aid is a critical funding stream for the whiteriver unified school district. Because much of our land is federal trust land and not subject to local property taxes, delays are. Reductions and impact.
▶ 3:04:30They directly affect classroom resources, staffing and services for our apache students. We urge timely and full funding school facilities in the bureau of indian education system remain a serious concern. This typical community school in cibecue, which was built in 1991, john f kennedy day school in cedar creek, which was built in 1969, and the theodore roosevelt school in fort apache, which was built in 1877 as a military military post.
▶ 3:04:59All need replacement facilities. Congress has previously directed the bureau to develop long term facilities planning model on dod school modernization processes, and recent committee reports have emphasized the need for safe, functional and accessible school facilities. We support continued implementation of comprehensive facilities planning and funding to address these urgent needs, a major health priority for our tribe is the replacement of the white river indian hospital.
▶ 3:05:27The current hospital, completed in 1979, is outdated and cannot adequately support modern healthcare delivery or expanding medical technologies. The indian health service health care facilities, construction priority lists developed in the early 1990s through tribal consultation, ranked our hospital replacement. We thank the committee and congress for allocating final appropriations for our new hospital. We expect to break ground later this year.
▶ 3:05:54In closing, our federal trust and treaty responsibilities require that tribal communities receive predictable, adequate and adequate funding for education, health and disability services. Please support stable appropriations for tribal, vocational rehabilitation. Increased funding for johnson o'malley. Timely impact aid, bia school modernization and construction for the white river indian hospital. Thank you for your time and consideration. Okay.
▶ 3:06:25>> thank you. Derek. Duane. >> good morning, chairman. Um, simpson and ranking member pingree and committee members, I want to thank you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of the indian community. My name is duane jackson, jr. I am a council representative for the community.
▶ 3:06:42Before I address our specific appropriations request, I want to thank this committee for ensuring that the proposed cuts to tribal programs were rejected in the fiscal year 2026 budget, that the increases in health care, public safety and self-governance fundings were critically important to the community's government and our individual members.
▶ 3:07:05We rely on you to honor the trust responsibilities, and you did so in a very difficult appropriation cycle. The community's first request concerns the indian community's federal right of rights, of way easements and boundary clarification act. In 2017, we reached settlement with the federal government on its breach of trust suit filed 20 years ago.
▶ 3:07:30One remaining issue that continues to prevail prevent full implementation of the settlement is the obligation to survey all the federal rights of way on the reservation. The legislation contemplated a six year period for completion of the rights of way, but we are now in year eight and have received 1 million of the 5.7 million needed for this work. Mr.
▶ 3:07:56Chairman, as you know, the community's preference was to include appropriations into the bill passed by congress. But we ended up with authorizing language, which means we are here to request the remaining 4.7 million needed to complete this work in 2027. The next issue is the legislative language to support the sixth grade at the casablanca community school. This is the school we opened in 2021, utilizing the 105 l construction program.
▶ 3:08:22As governor lewis has mentioned in prior testimony, there was a misidentification of the school as a k through four during the lease negotiation. Even though the original structure built by the department was to serve a k through five school, the school was constructed as a k through five, which the department was aware of. But the classrooms are not being utilized for a fifth grade because we need this language in the appropriation bill to resolve this issue.
▶ 3:08:51One of the issues that comes up in discussion between your staff and interior is the need for accounting of all schools that would be similarly situated. The community feels like this is a false flag. To our knowledge, the community count. The casablanca community school is the only school that will require this funding and fiscal year 2027 um, appropriation cycle and any other needed grade expansion could be budgeted in future years.
▶ 3:09:21The cost for the casablanca school is approximately $380,000, and would have a very limited impact on the overall budget. I want to add a personal note that the casablanca community school is in district five, the district of councilman who is sitting behind me today. Councilman carlson is a former teacher. He can attest to the incredible difference this school has made in the lives of the students and the entire district.
▶ 3:09:49The community constructed this school to invest in the future of our students, and we are asking this committee to partner with us in this effort. Our third request is that you continue to support the section 105 l program. As you always have. This program has been a shining example of how self self-governance and self-determination were intended to work. And it's just the. And it.
▶ 3:10:14And it isn't just the community that has benefited our friends from the mississippi band of choctaw are on track to have a seventh through eighth grade, eight seven through 12th grade. Sorry, school come online in july. There are several hundred tribes now in the program, either through leases for existing facilities or for new construction. Ultimately, our goal for this program is to be funded through mandatory funding to match the statute. But we know this is not the time to make that request.
▶ 3:10:44So our request is for continued support. So tribes all across indian country can take advantage of this innovative program. Finally, as this committee knows, there is a significant funding needed to address pending water settlements, which the community supports. The colorado river post 2026 guidelines are being negotiated now among seven basin states and the 3030 tribes in the basin, including the community.
▶ 3:11:11Our role in these discussions is about trying to reach consensus on what it will take to ensure the 40 million water users throughout the basin are able to equitably access water, but any consensus agreement will require funding, likely in the four 4 billion range, or the agreement will fall apart. At this time, we do not know if the funding will come out of this committee's budget, but this does fall within this committee's jurisdiction.
▶ 3:11:40Because of your expertise on water rights, the trust responsibility and because of the role of the interior department. Thank you for the thank you for the time from hearing from the community. >> thank you all. And thanks for being here today. Uh, brought up a couple of issues that I'll rant for a minute and then you can answer them if you want to. One of them is education. Uh, we have.
▶ 3:12:06As we visited different tribes and stuff, and I was a dentist in the real world before I got into politics. And we go out and visit these reservations and oftentimes reservations are remote a long ways from, from, uh, anything essentially. And it was, how do you get doctors or dentists or nurses or even teachers to go out into these communities? Uh, they're not going to make a lot of money.
▶ 3:12:37They're oftentimes not enough to pay off their student loans and that kind of stuff. So how do you, you know, in the housing, how do you, how do you do that and stuff? I came in conclusion, the only way you're going to do it in the long run is to educate tribal members, get them to go to college, get them to go to dental school, get them to go to medical school because they're more likely to come back and serve their communities.
▶ 3:12:58And I noticed that we're starting to do more in that we've got, we had, uh, some testimony, uh, a couple of weeks ago and we had, uh, the, the education director, I guess, you know, the chairman of the tribal school in, on the blackfoot reservation. Uh, and it is, I think that's the way to go. That takes time, but it is. We've got to invest more in education.
▶ 3:13:25Uh, it's amazing that when I sat in the state legislature for years, we were always told, you know, if you really want to address poverty stuff, education is what you got. Why would that not be true with tribes? It is true with tribes. And we've got to invest in education much more than than we have in the past. So I'm on board with you on that now. This is the challenge. And you bring up the challenge and that is the water settlements. Uh, I will tell you, we've got to find a way to fund these water settlements. And I'm not disagreeing with settlements.
▶ 3:13:55I'm just saying we've got to find a way to fund them. Because when you look at our budget and we're trying to do indian health services, not, uh, and not cut those trying to increase funding for health services or education or for indian law enforcement and all those kinds of things. All of a sudden now you throw water settlements on top of those and their multitude of them across. I think the ones on the on the the fort belknap reservation in montana totaled about $1 billion. So and I know the coeur d'alenes just did the one with the state of idaho.
▶ 3:14:24It's about 600 million, right. That's going to eat this budget alive. If we don't find a way to fund them. I don't have the answer to that yet, but I'm looking for a way to fund it. I don't know why it doesn't come out of the judgment fund like every other judgment does, uh, against the against the federal government and stuff. But that's more complicated to get get done than, than you would think. But it's something that we're working on.
▶ 3:14:46But any help you can give us on a way to get this done, uh, if we actually funded the water settlements as we should, we'd probably have to double the. The interior appropriation. I don't know if that's an accurate number or not, but it would be substantial. So I agree with what you're saying. We got to find a way to do it. But on the the colorado river, I've I've done some reading and research on the colorado river.
▶ 3:15:14And the problem is we've over appropriated that basin for I mean, you know, years ago when they decided that they were going to be. There's going to be an upper basin and the lower basin of states. And they decided at the time that there was 18.5 million acre feet of water went down the river every year. And people told them at the time, no, you're looking at the good water years. You're not taking into account the bad water years. Actually, it's about 14.5, half million acre feet to go down the river every year. That means it's over.
▶ 3:15:43Appropriated about 400 or about 4 million acre feet every year. And somehow that's going to be a problem for years and years to come. Uh, until we until we get in and do it properly and stuff. But it's a challenge, a real challenge. Uh, so I appreciate your testimony and what you're saying, and I want to work with you and see if we can find a way to address these, these issues. >> most definitely. Thank you, chairman, and thank you. The to the committee. And it's once again good to see both of you. >> you bet.
▶ 3:16:14>> Mr. pingree. >> sure. >> the chair covered it pretty well, but I would hate to see us, um, you know, back down on that water system. And I know how important it is to you. And, um, happy to continue to work on ways to find that level of funding and also understand that there are challenges with the amount of water in the river. But thank you for being here to remind us and continue this important struggle. >> so and whatever ways possible, come and visit, come out, visit each of the reservations. Yes, definitely come out and visit us. >> yeah. >> want to do that?
▶ 3:16:44We were just talking. Uh, I was talking to some of my personal staff, not the staff on this committee yet, but about doing a cordell out west and visiting some of the tribes. >> looking forward to that. >> yeah. >> anyway, I yeah, it is, it's always I think it's important for community members to get out and see what's happening on the ground in the real world. Uh, this is important that we hear your testimony and that kind of stuff. What's really important to us is to get out and see what's happening and stuff. Uh, and so I've always enjoyed those trips when we got out, uh, and seeing this.
▶ 3:17:14So we'll, uh, if we can get something scheduled, we'll let you know and, and get it done. >> most definitely. >> but thank you for being here today and thank you for your testimony. Thanks for all you do, both for your communities. >> and you're going to remember today because not only do you have two dwayne's here all start with the name d. So have a great afternoon. >> thank you. I will tell you the thing I like about these hearings, other than the information that we get, is, uh, I love to sit and look at the beadwork that everybody brings.
▶ 3:17:43Most beautiful beadwork you ever see in the world comes comes into this committee. >> it's all. >> a blessing for the next few days. So it's very good. Thank you. >> okay. >> thank you chairman. I think that, um, if you ever want to have a field hearing out in arizona, I think we would love to host you out in arizona. And anytime you want to come out to the grand canyon state. Love to have you guys there. Thank you. >> geez, we could go visit the grand canyon too, couldn't we? Yeah. >> looking forward to that. >> thank you all. >> see you soon. >> thank you.
▶ 3:18:12Thank you again to all the witnesses for being with us to discuss the issues that are important in indian country. And as a reminder, we will reconvene at 1 p.m. For the subcommittee to continue taking testimony. With that committee. Stands adjourned. >> okay. >> good to see you. Thanks, guys. Good to see you. Appreciate it.