{"id":64434,"date":"2024-12-09T12:21:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T17:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=64434"},"modified":"2024-12-09T12:47:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T17:47:18","slug":"secretary-haaland-opens-white-house-tribal-nations-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/12\/09\/secretary-haaland-opens-white-house-tribal-nations-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary Haaland opens White House Tribal Nations Summit"},"content":{"rendered":" <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/12\/09\/secretary-haaland-opens-white-house-tribal-nations-summit\/screenshot-4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-64435\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2171\" height=\"1628\" data-attachment-id=\"64435\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/12\/09\/secretary-haaland-opens-white-house-tribal-nations-summit\/screenshot-4\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/09\/debhalaand-1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2171,1628\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Screenshot&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Screenshot&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Deb Haaland\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Deb Haaland&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland delivers remarks at the White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. Screenshot from U.S. Department of the interior livestream&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/09\/debhalaand-1.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/09\/debhalaand-1.jpg\" alt=\"Deb Haaland\"  class=\"size-full wp-image-64435\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\"> Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland delivers remarks at the White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. Screenshot from U.S. Department of the interior livestream<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Secretary Haaland opens White House Tribal Nations Summit<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Monday, December 9, 2024<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source\">Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<EM>The following is the text of remarks as prepared for delivery by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland at the White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. <\/em>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nGreetings Tribal leaders, elders, community members, friends, and colleagues \u2013 and happy White House Tribal Nations Summit! \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThank you so much to the Native American Women Warriors Color Guard for the beautiful presentation of colors. Thank you to the Warpaint Drummers out of North Carolina for the songs and for guiding us through this day. And thank you for that opening prayer, David. I\u2019m so honored to have each of you with us for today\u2019s event.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nEarly on in my tenure as secretary \u2013 when this building was unfamiliar and the road ahead packed full \u2013 I knew one thing for sure: that while my role as secretary was new, my intentions for Indian Country were not.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nI knew that it was my job \u2013 our job \u2013 to achieve enduring progress for our people with the time we were given.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nJanuary marks the 50th anniversary of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act \u2013 a seminal law that gave Tribes the right to administer and oversee the implementation of their own federal programs.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n50 years of asserting that Tribes have the right to make decisions about the well-being of our own people. It gave us the power to chart much of our own course and to decide how our people could best thrive after generations of relocation, termination, boarding schools, underfunding, and neglect.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThat Act was written into our country\u2019s lawbooks only after the federal government was swayed to action by gamechangers whose indisputable and unflinching activism spoke, clear and loud and unified: We are still here.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;We are still here&quot;: Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland opens 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C.<br><br>Haaland, from Pueblo of Laguna in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NewMexico?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NewMexico<\/a>, is first Native person to lead <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Interior?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Interior<\/a> and first Native person to serve in a presidential cabinet. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WHTNS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WHTNS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WVhGnh9KVM\">pic.twitter.com\/WVhGnh9KVM<\/a><\/p>&mdash; indianz.com (@indianz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/indianz\/status\/1866147757112676828?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><P><\/P>\r\nWell, my friends and family \u2013 a half-century later, we are still here, charting our own course. And together, with the Biden-Harris administration, we have made extraordinary accomplishments for Indian Country \u2013 progress that would make our trailblazing ancestors proud.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nTransitions are disruptive, regardless of how we might feel about one leader or another. That\u2019s true on Tribal councils, and it\u2019s true in Washington. We don\u2019t know what the future may hold, but what I want to focus on today is the enduring progress we have made \u2013 progress that, no matter what, cannot be taken away, as long as we continue to press our voice and our action forward.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWe\u2019re going to talk a lot today about the damage caused by federal Indian boarding school policies, and \u2013 in spite of the trauma this brings up for so many of us in this room \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nI launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative in my first few months in office. I didn\u2019t know then where it would lead us, but I knew that its purpose was long overdue.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOver the past three years, this Initiative has shed light on this horrific era of our nation\u2019s history, but it also led to our two-part investigative report, which found that the federal government took deliberate and strategic actions through boarding school policies to isolate children from their families and steal from them the languages, cultures, and traditions that are foundational to Native people.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nIt created The Road to Healing, a 12-community journey for Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland, for our dedicated colleagues, and for me. Our visits to Indigenous communities gave survivors and descendants opportunities to share their boarding school experiences and the aftermath those schools left behind.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nIt also led to the creation of our oral history project. So many of you spoke bravely and forthright during The Road to Healing about the horrors you endured, or the trauma that was passed down over generations. Those stories must continue to be told.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThat\u2019s why, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Mellon Foundation, we engaged the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition to help create an oral collection of first-person narratives from boarding school survivors.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nToday, I am so proud to announce new agreements between the Department, the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of American History, and the U.S. Library of Congress that will preserve these survivor stories and experiences and share them through far-reaching resources, such as online, and both traveling and long-term exhibitions.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThat is enduring progress.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAnd because of this work, and because of us, President Biden formally apologized for this brutality. He stood on Tribal land, he listened to our songs, and he honored us with his words.    \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs we heal from our past, we have worked to change the way the federal government engages with Indian Tribes. That includes enhanced involvement in land management decisions.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOver the past four years, our Administration has made co-stewardship of our lands and waters a top priority. While the concept is not new, the Biden-Harris administration is the first to make it a strategic priority for the health of our ecosystems and the durability of Tribal sovereignty.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nToday, our Department is publishing our third Tribal co-stewardship annual report, which outlines the details of 69 new agreements from this year alone.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nYou\u2019ll hear me talk more about this in our afternoon panel, but here\u2019s the number I want to underscore. Between the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce Departments, our Administration has entered into 400 co-stewardship agreements with Tribes that span across our entire country.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nSince time immemorial, ancestral homelands have been central to the social, cultural, spiritual, mental and physical wellbeing of Indigenous peoples.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThrough this unprecedented number of co-stewardship agreements, the Biden-Harris administration demonstrates our commitment to acknowledge and empower Tribes as partners in the management of our nation\u2019s lands and waters. These agreements have become foundational to our work.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;Enduring Progress&quot;: That&#39;s a big message from Secretary Deb Haaland at 2024 White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecDebHaaland?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SecDebHaaland<\/a> cites Indian boarding school investigation, tribal water rights &amp; co-stewardship agreements as Indian Country enters &quot;uncertain&quot; era. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/T30jSdJqne\">pic.twitter.com\/T30jSdJqne<\/a><\/p>&mdash; indianz.com (@indianz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/indianz\/status\/1866150173686063247?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nAdd to that, the Tribally-led conservation efforts that we followed through on and that President Biden supported, like Avi Kwa Ame and Baaj Nwaavjo I\u2019tah Kukveni Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monuments.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThat is enduring progress.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWe\u2019ve also made quick work of delivering historic funding from President Biden\u2019s Investing in America agenda to projects that support Tribes and their access to critical resources. One area that I am deeply proud of is our effort to fulfill settlements of Indian water rights claims, long-promised water resources to Tribes that depend on them for resilience and long-term planning.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nFor those of you who have engaged in these settlement negotiations, you know they are long overdue. But even after the arduous process of negotiation, many Tribes have waited several more years to find financial resolution.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThanks to President Biden\u2019s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, our Department was tasked with implementing an historic 2.5 billion dollars through the Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThis work has never been more important, and today I am excited to announce a nearly 65-million-dollar investment that will help fund nine different settlements. This marks our final Indian water rights settlement allocation \u2013 meaning our team has exhausted every last dollar provided to us from the Law.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThat is enduring progress.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOur expansive investments in Indian Country \u2013 to the tune of 45 billion dollars \u2013 will undeniably build a better future that our kids and grandkids will inherit.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBut to build a better future for Indigenous peoples, we can\u2019t only rely on the federal government doing its job. We need to expand access to capital for Tribes to invest in their people, and on their terms.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWe have talked in previous summits about access to capital. With tools like the Buy Indian Act, our Department has had an outsized impact on improving the funding that Tribes and Native business leaders receive. This past year alone, Interior awarded over 1.4 billion in contracts to Indian-owned and controlled businesses \u2013 up from just 317 million in Fiscal Year 2019.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nNow, it\u2019s time to raise the bar even higher.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nIn partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy and our colleagues at the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, the Small Business Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, today we applaud the launch of the Tribal Community Vision Partnership.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOver the next seven years, the Vision Partnership will raise and deploy 1.2 billion dollars in impact for Tribal communities \u2013 a historic effort that will support priorities like community development, new clean energy opportunities, and support for Native small businesses. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nNow more than ever, these types of partnerships and allyship will be needed. By working together with partners in the philanthropic and private sector, I know we can support the advancements that have been made over the last four years to support Tribes&#8217; self-determination and their right to govern and grow on their own terms.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThat is enduring progress.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Standing ovation for Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland at the fourth and final White House Tribal Nations Summit of President Joe Biden&#39;s administration. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WHTNS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WHTNS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ji8GDcsFIA\">pic.twitter.com\/ji8GDcsFIA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; indianz.com (@indianz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/indianz\/status\/1866150627144802748?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 9, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><P><\/P>\r\nIf you take nothing else from my remarks today, let me say again: the Biden-Harris administration has ushered in a level of enduring progress that no one can take away.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThis is my last year to address this audience as Secretary of the Interior, and I want you to know that I leave here inspired. I leave empowered by all that we have accomplished together.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWhen I was a young kid \u2013 moving from city to city and coast to coast with my family for my dad\u2019s military career \u2013 our people were demanding something simple: a seat at the table; a voice in the decisions that affected us; our self-determination.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAnd because our people spoke up, stayed engaged, and remained unwilling to accept the status quo, we are here and finishing up a monumental Administration where Indian Tribes had a true seat at the table.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nEverything that we accomplished was real and tangible. A transition was inevitable and even though some of the future seems uncertain at this point \u2013 one thing is certain: we\u2019re not going anywhere!  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBut it\u2019s on each of us to stay here, to stay engaged, to refuse to let anyone threaten the enduring progress we have worked so hard to accomplish.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nLike our ancestors who made previously unimaginable feats possible, we must never back down.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nSo \u2013 to my friends and family from far and wide here today and online \u2013 thank you for joining in what has been the most incredible journey of my life. Indian Country is better because of each of you.   \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nDawaa\u2019e \u2013 Thank you all so much for welcoming me here today. 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