{"id":21091,"date":"2022-02-16T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T18:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=21091"},"modified":"2022-02-16T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T18:12:10","slug":"im-not-gonna-give-up-on-any-natives-key-lawmakers-urge-unity-on-indian-country-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/02\/16\/im-not-gonna-give-up-on-any-natives-key-lawmakers-urge-unity-on-indian-country-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI’m not gonna give up on any Natives\u201d: Key lawmakers urge unity on Indian Country priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin) discuss efforts to reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act,…<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Indianz.Com Video: \u201cI\u2019m not gonna give up on any Natives\u201d #NCAIECWS2022<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
\u201cI’m not gonna give up on any Natives\u201d<\/div>\r\n
Key lawmakers urge unity on Indian Country priorities<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, February 16, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C. —\r\nKey members of Congress are urging Indian Country to stay united as they look to break through a long-standing and controversial impasse on Capitol Hill.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nDuring a meeting of the National Congress of American Indians<\/a> on Monday, Rep. Don Young<\/a> (R-Alaska) and Rep. Gwen Moore<\/a> (D-Wisconsin) discussed efforts to reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act<\/a>. The law, commonly known as NAHASDA, expired in 2013 and Congress has yet to reauthorize it.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nIn their Congressional Fireside Chat<\/a>, Young and Moore explained one of the reasons for the near decade-long holdup. They said some lawmakers are trying to exclude Native Hawaiians from NAHASDA.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThey wanted me to give up on the Hawaiian Natives,\u201d Young said in reference to those lawmakers’ efforts.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nYoung said he has refused to go along with the effort to remove Native Hawaiians from NAHASDA, which helps Native communities exercise their self-determination when it comes to housing funds.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI’m not gonna give up on any Natives,\u201d he said, warning that it could lead to further efforts to diminish the trust and treaty responsibilities of the U.S. government.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cOnce you throw one group under the bus, they’ll throw another group under the bus,\u201d Young added.\r\n

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Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) address the National Congress of American Indians on February 14, 2022.In the Congressional Fires…<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nMoore, who also has been working to reauthorize NAHASDA, offered additional context to the long-running debate. She said Republicans are behind the attempts to exclude Native Hawaiians from updates to the law.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cWe are not separating Native peoples and allowing other people to define who’s Native and who’s not,\u201d said Moore, who credited Young with fending off the Republican effort.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI think that’s the importance of bipartisanship,\u201d Moore added.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThough the pair did not name any names on Monday, Moore in the past has singled out one Republican<\/a> for holding up NAHASDA. And so has NCAI<\/a>, which is the largest inter-tribal advocacy organization in the United States.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAccording to Moore, NCAI and other Indian policy experts in the nation’s capital, Sen. Mike Lee<\/a> (R-Utah) has been trying to exclude Native Hawaiians from NAHSDA. His effort goes as far back as 2016, based on publicly available documents that chronicle the behind-the-scenes drama<\/a..\r\n

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Senate Republicans who have been obstructing NAHASDA include Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who once bragged to a group of Indian people that he took a DNA test & it showed he had a "Native" ancestor.

Then there is Donald Trump, who falsely said Indian housing is "race" based program.<\/p>— indianz.com (@indianz) January 8, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>