"And the State of Indian Country is…
Good morning, I’m Elizabeth Wynne Johnson; this is Power Breakfast from Capitol News Connection.
Today the President of the National Congress of American Indians will deliver the annual State of Indian Nations address. Jefferson Keel is also Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. The purpose of the speech is to stake out priorities for the federal government in 2011. For a bit of background: on the eve of the recent White House Tribal Nations Summit, Keel had good things to say about the Commander in Chief. Things that matched the impression Keel got when he heard then-candidate Obama speak about relations with tribal nations.
KEEL It seemed that, here’s a person who really gets it, who really understands the relationship, and what sovereignty really means. And in those pledges that he made to the tribal nations, he’s keeping his word.
At the time, Keel cited the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The settlements of long-standing disputes over federal mismanagement of American Indian agricultural and water rights. And passage of the Tribal Law & Order Act.
KEEL It’s been signed into law. But there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure the jurisdictional problems that we’ve had in the past are truly recognized, and that there’s funding and resources to handle all those cases. So, we still have a lot of work to do. "
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And The State of Indian Country Is...
(Capitol News Connection 1/27)
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