U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800

Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001

51–274 PDF 2009

S. HRG. 111–66 

S. 313, S. 443, S. 633, AND H.R. 326 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

ON

S. 313, WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE TRIBE WATER RIGHTS 

QUANTIFICATION ACT OF 2009 

S. 443, HOH INDIAN TRIBE SAFE HOMELANDS ACT 

S. 633, TRIBAL HEALTH PROMOTION AND TRIBAL COLLEGES AND 

UNIVERSITIES ADVANCEMENT ACT OF 2009 

H.R. 326, COCOPAH LANDS ACT 

APRIL 2, 2009 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs 

( 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Vice Chairman 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

KENT CONRAD, North Dakota 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TOM UDALL, New Mexico 

lllll, lllll 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska 

TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska 

ALLISON C. BINNEY, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

DAVID A. MULLON JR., Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on April 2, 2009 ................................................................................ 1 

Statement of Senator Barrasso ............................................................................... 2 

Statement of Senator Cantwell .............................................................................. 53 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 54 

Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 1 

Statement of Senator Kyl ........................................................................................ 3 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 4 

Statement of Senator Tester ................................................................................... 5 

Statement of Senator Udall .................................................................................... 51 

WITNESSES

Lupe, Hon. Ronnie, Tribal Chairman, White Mountain Apache Tribe ............... 6 

Prepared statement with attachments ........................................................... 8 

Reyes, Hon. Jonette, Vice Chairperson, Hoh Indian Tribe .................................. 14 

Prepared statement with attachments ........................................................... 15 

Soto, Hon. Paul, Tribal Council Member, Cocopah Indian Tribe ........................ 35 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 36 

Taylor, Linda D., Dean of Nursing, College of Menominee Nation ..................... 38 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39 

APPENDIX

Gordon, Phil, Mayor, City of Phoenix, prepared statement ................................. 60 

Jackson Sr., Mike, President, Quechan Tribe, Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, 

prepared statement .............................................................................................. 57 

Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Byron L. Dorgan to 

Hon. Paul Soto ...................................................................................................... 62 

S. 313 support letters submitted by: 

Anger, William H., Attorney, Engelman/Berger, P.C. ................................... 75 

Berman, Steven M., Mayor, Town of Gilbert, Arizona .................................. 77 

Brown and Brown Law Offices, P.C. ............................................................... 79 

Brown, Marshall P., General Manager, Water Resources Department, 

City of Scottsdale, Arizona ........................................................................... 81 

City of Tempe, Arizona .................................................................................... 76 

Garfield, William M., President, Arizona Water Company ........................... 84 

Smith, Scott, Mayor, City of Mesa, Arizona ................................................... 78 

Smith, Susan Bitter, President, Board of Directors, Central Arizona 

Project ............................................................................................................ 82 

Williams, Jr., John M., President, Salt River Project ................................... 73 

(1) 

S. 313, S. 443, S. 633, AND H.R. 326 

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009 

U.S. SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o’clock a.m. in 

room 628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan, 

Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA 

The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will come to order. 

This is a hearing of the Indian Affairs Committee in the United 

States Senate. 

This morning, the Committee will hold a hearing on four pieces 

of legislation dealing with lands, water and health education. 

These issues are vital to the long-term development of tribes as 

self-sufficient governments, and the two lands bills we will consider 

today would be instrumental in allowing the tribes to meet the infrastructure needs of their tribal memberships. 

The PATH Act is intended to strengthen the ability of tribal colleges and universities in their capacity to help native communities 

achieve greater health opportunities and more stable and secure 

families and greater economic competitiveness. 

The water settlement bill would ensure the tribes access to the 

water sources necessary to sustain the needs of the tribal community. 

Two of these bills, the PATH Act and the Cocopah Lands Act 

were introduced in the prior Congress. The Committee held a hearing on the PATH Act in the last Congress and has also addressed 

Indian lands and water settlement issues in the last Congress. 

So today we will hear from the tribes and organizations impacted 

by the legislation that we are considering. I want to mention that 

although the Administration is not a witness at today’s hearing, we 

will seek their formal views on each of the bills before we consider 

them at a business meeting. 

The four bills are S. 313, the White Mountain Apache Tribe 

Water Rights Quantification Act. This bill would settle pending 

water claims filed by the United States on behalf of the Tribe in 

water rights adjudications in the Gila River and Little Colorado 

River basins in the State of Arizona. 

2 

S. 443, the Hoh Indian Tribe Safe Homelands Act. This bill 

would direct the Secretary of the Interior to acquire certain National Park Service lands into trust for the benefit of the tribe. 

S. 663, the Tribal Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and Universities Advancement Act. This bill, which I have cosponsored 

along with Senators Tester and Johnson on the Committee, would 

authorize a number of new programs for tribal colleges dealing 

with health promotion, wellness, disease prevention, economic development initiatives, and related research programs. 

And finally, H.R. 326, the Cocopah Lands Act. This bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to acquire certain parcels of land 

in trust for the tribe as a part of the tribe’s reservation. 

I will encourage interested parties to submit written comments 

to the Committee. The hearing record will remain open for two 

weeks from today. We will have witnesses provide testimony shortly. 

I want to note that Senator Kyl is here and wishes to make a 

comment at the start with respect to one of the bills. I believe Senator McCain was going to be here, but may not be able to be here 

because of business on the floor of the Senate. 

So I will call on the Vice Chairman. 

Senator Kyl, I will call on you following any comments, unless 

they wish to defer comments, but I will call on Vice Chairman Barrasso at this point. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for 

holding this important hearing. I will be very brief. 

I want to welcome all the witnesses. You traveled great distances 

to be here and I appreciate you coming. 

I also welcome our good friend and colleague from Arizona, Senator Jon Kyl. Senator Kyl, as you know, authored one of these bills, 

the White Mountain Apache Tribal Water Rights Quantification 

Act. His bill would confirm a complex agreement reached after 

years of negotiations among various water user groups, districts 

and agencies, several Arizona municipalities, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe. 

I admire the hard work that Senator Kyl has put into this settlement. Water negotiations require a consistent and sustained effort 

by all parties to reach a successful conclusion. Settlement of water 

issues may take time, but the process brings certainty so no one 

is unduly burdened with risk. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to hearing the testimony. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester? 

Senator TESTER. I will pass, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Let us go to Senator Kyl, and then I will call on 

Senator Tester for his opening statement. 

Senator Kyl, welcome to the Committee. 

3 

STATEMENT OF HON. JON KYL, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA 

Senator KYL. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. There is a 

markup in Judiciary which I need to get to, so I very much appreciate your courtesy and the other Members of the Committee as 

well. 

This White Mountain Apache Tribe settlement stands out because ordinarily Indian water rights settlements are very difficult, 

time consuming, hard to put together, costly and they just are difficult. 

Because of the goodwill of all the parties here, and to some extent the relative simplicity of the issues, this water settlement 

came together quite quickly and I think is in very good shape. Here 

is just the outline. My statement for the record will provide the details. 

Eastern Arizona has some beautiful mountains called the White 

Mountains. They get almost up to 12,000 feet. The White Mountain 

Apache Tribe has a good share of that country, and because of a 

lot of snowfall and quite a bit of rain, there is a lot of water that 

runs off of those mountains. But in the past, the tribe has not had 

the ability to capture and use that water, and didn’t have the need 

for it at the time, so under Arizona water law most of that water 

was claimed by the cities in the central part of the State because 

it ran all the way down to them. 

The tribe, backed by the United States Government, has made 

claims now to those tributaries, and this settlement settles all of 

those claims, provides the White Mountain Apache Tribe with just 

under 100,000 acre feet of water, and resolves all of the claims so 

that there is certainty now with the cities as to how much they 

have. 

The remaining problem for the tribe, though, was a critical people problem. They are running out of drinking water, and this settlement translates their water right on paper to a drinking water 

project that serves the bulk of the community. 

We got a head start on that last year, passing the bill that pro- vided a loan of about $9 million to begin that project so that we 

could save something like $20 million or $30 million by getting 

started on it quickly. So we have already started it, and what the 

project does is to divert water from one of these tributaries. There 

is a small reservoir that will created, and then water treatment facilities and related piping to the various communities. 

So it is a great settlement, and I attribute, Mr. Chairman, a lot 

of the success of this to the Tribal Council led by Ronnie Lupe, who 

is the Tribal Chairman, who is here. The entire Council attended 

every one of the meetings, which is, you know, ordinarily you have 

the lawyer here. Well, in this case while they have a fine lawyer, 

the lawyer sat in the second row and the Council did the horse 

trading, as the Chairman likes to put it, and because of their 

strong commitment to this, the settlement came together very well. 

So I really appreciate the Committee’s holding this hearing 

today, and want to commend the testimony of Chairman Ronnie 

Lupe, who has really led these negotiations to the successful conclusion that has come about. 

And I thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

4 

[The prepared statement of Senator Kyl follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. JON KYL, U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA


402a1.eps
5 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Kyl, thank you very much. 

I would observe that this Committee, as you know, passed the 

legislation last year for the loan that you described, and also 

worked with our House counterparts in order to get that done. We 

are pleased to have done that. I think that is an important first 

step on the journey to trying to resolve this issue. 

Thank you for being here. 

Senator Tester? 

STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA 

Senator TESTER. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I will save my comments for Senate bill 633, which is the PATH 

Act. We all know the unacceptable levels of poverty and unemployVerDate Nov 24 2008 13:17 Nov 18, 2009 Jkt 051274 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\51274.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF

402a2.eps
6 

ment in Indian Country. What this bill will aim to do is also address another challenge in Indian Country, and that is the challenge of appropriate health care. 

By empowering our tribal colleges to train Indian people to meet 

the needs of Indian people in Indian Country, I think the PATH 

Act will be a giant step forward, using education as the key to opportunity, training health care professionals that will be able to 

work anywhere they choose, but hopefully most of them will be 

able to work in Indian Country addressing the issues that revolve 

around the challenges with health care in Indian Country. 

So Mr. Chairman, I just want to thank you for the opportunity 

to have this hearing. Again in this Congress, I look forward to 

working to get this bill through the process. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester, thank you very much. 

We have four witnesses today at our hearing. And as is usually 

the case, what happens to us is the schedule in the Senate is not 

very accommodating. We are going to begin what is called a votea-thon. That is, we will have 20 or 30 or perhaps even more votes 

today, beginning in about one hour. 

Some had suggested that perhaps we should cancel committee 

hearings this morning. I wanted to go ahead and have this hearing 

because people have traveled to come to attend this hearing and 

testify, and these are important pieces of legislation to the tribes 

that are involved. And so we will by necessity perhaps have to limit 

the hearing to an hour. 

But we appreciate very much the time all of you have taken to 

come and explain your perspective about the various pieces of legislation. 

We are joined today by the Honorable Ronnie Lupe, the Tribal 

Chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Whiteriver, Arizona. 

Mr. Lupe, we are pleased that you are here. 

We are joined also by the Honorable Jonette Reyes, Vice Chairperson of the Hoh Indian Tribe in Forks, Washington. 

We are very pleased that you have come to the Committee today. 

The Honorable Paul Soto, the Tribal Councilman of the Cocopah 

Tribe in Somerton, Arizona. 

Mr. Soto, welcome. 

And Ms. Linda Taylor, the Dean of Nursing at the College of the 

Menominee Nation in Keshena, Wisconsin. 

Ms. Taylor, we welcome you. 

We will begin, Mr. Lupe, with you. 

Your entire statement, I would say to all four witnesses, will be 

made a part of the permanent record of this Committee. We would 

encourage you to summarize, and we very much appreciate your 

being here, so you may begin. 

STATEMENT OF HON. RONNIE LUPE, TRIBAL CHAIRMAN, 

WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE TRIBE 

Mr. LUPE. Chairman Dorgan, Vice Chairman Barrasso, Committee Members, thank you for the opportunity to testify in support 

of S. 313, Senate bill 313, the White Mountain Apache Water 

Rights Quantification Act of 2009. 

7 

My name is Ronnie Lupe. I am the Tribal Chairman of the White 

Mountain Apache Tribe. We live on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in the White Mountains about 200 miles northeast of 

Phoenix. We have lived there since time immemorial. Our reservation has over 1.6 million acres of trust land. 

The headwaters of the Salt River system are on our reservation. 

One-third of the cold water streams in the State of Arizona are on 

our land. We have Indian reserve rights to that water. 

Our reservation streams merge and become the Salt River, which 

flows downstream to Phoenix metropolitan area and to the 3.5 million people who live there. Thirty years ago, lawsuits were filed in 

the Arizona State courts to determine everyone’s water rights to 

the Gila River, Salt River, the Little Colorado River and their tributaries. These lawsuits have cost millions of dollars with no end in 

sight and create uncertainty for everyone about their water rights. 

We have a drinking water problem crisis on our reservation. Although we have hundreds of miles of streams, we do not have sufficient safe, clean and reliable drinking water for our people, schools, 

hospitals, and reservation residents. The reason is mother nature. 

We are 100 percent dependent on a well field that was built in 

1999, and 14,000 people on our reservation depend on it, almost 

our entire population. 

The well field is failing fast. Production is down to half of what 

it was in 1999. There is no recharge. There is natural arsenic in 

the groundwater. We have to blend it to meet EPA standards. 

Drinking water must be hauled by hand in one community and 

piped into another. Drilling more wells will not help. 

Tribal, Federal and Salt River experts agreed that our groundwater aquifers discharge into our springs and rivers, and that our 

drinking water needs can only be met by surface water, and then 

only by building a reservoir on the north fork of the White River. 

Years ago when we came to Washington, D.C. to ask for help to 

build a reservoir, treatment plant and pipeline, we were politely 

told that we had to quantify and settle our Indian reserve water 

rights if we hoped to obtain congressional and State support to 

fund it. They called it a global settlement. The trustee of the 

United States said the same thing. 

Although the litigation, hostility and natural suspicion existed 

between us and our Trustee, the United States, the SRP and other 

downstream water users, we realized that we had to change in 

order to progress. In 2004, we asked the Secretary of the Interior 

to appoint a Federal negotiation team to help us quantify and settle our reserve water rights. 

At the same time, we ended almost 50 years of hostility between 

us and the Salt River Project. We invited the SRP, the Phoenix negotiators to come visit our sacred springs. There, I reminded them 

that our springs had built many skyscrapers in the Phoenix Valley. 

They came and listened. We listened and respect replaced hostility. 

We talked to them about reaching a dignified, honorable and equitable settlement of our trust reserve water rights. 

A lot of horse trading went on, went on. We finally approved a 

water rights settlement agreement in January, 2009 with downstream State parties. It has been approved by our tribe, the governing bodies, and the Boards of Directorship of the State parties. 

8 

1Tribal waivers of potential water related breach of trust claims against the United States 

far exceed the authorization in S. 313 for approximately $166 million in federal appropriations 

for (1) the OM&R Trust Fund for the Miner Flat Project; (2) existing lakes infrastructure enhancement; (3) fish hatchery repair, rehabilitation and expansion; (4) fisheries Center; (5) repair 

of existing irrigation systems; (6) forest management study and Sawmill retooling to accommodate smaller diameter trees; (7) snowmaking infrastructure; and (8) future lake development. 

The cornerstone of our settlement agreement and the S. 313 is 

a reservation-wide drinking water system. We call it the Miner 

Flat Project. The project will require a dam and small reservoir of 

about 6,000 acre feet active storage on the north fork of the White 

River. The maps attached to my written testimony show the location of the proposed Miner Flat Reservoir, treatment plant, and a 

pipeline to serve several communities all the way to Cibecue, about 

50 miles away. The reservoir will meet our drinking water needs 

for decades to come. 

That is my statement for the time, five minutes time now, and 

I am ready for the questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Lupe follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. RONNIE LUPE, TRIBAL CHAIRMAN, WHITE MOUNTAIN

APACHE TRIBE

Chairman Dorgan, Vice Chairman Barrasso and members of the Committee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of S. 313, the White Mountain 

Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act of 2009. My name is Ronnie Lupe. 

I am the Tribal Chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. We live on the Fort 

Apache Indian Reservation upon aboriginal lands which we have occupied since 

time immemorial. Our Reservation is located about 200 miles Northeast of Phoenix 

in the White Mountain Region of East Central Arizona as illustrated in the attached 

map. 

S. 313 will quantify, preserve, recognize, and settle the reserved water rights of 

the White Mountain Apache Tribe in perpetuity, provide Tribal waivers and releases 

of claims regarding all State law water users in the Gila River and Little Colorado 

River basins and against United States (except for the United States acting as trustee on behalf of other Indian Tribes). 1

The White Mountain Apache Tribe holds full beneficial title to 1.66 million acres 

of trust land in the east central highlands of the State of Arizona. The Tribe’s Fort 

Apache Indian Reservation was established by Executive Order in 1871. We have 

retained actual, exclusive, use and occupancy of our aboriginal lands within the 

boundaries designated by the Executive Orders dated November 9, 1871 and December 14, 1872, without exception, reservation, or limitation since time immemorial. 

The Tribe’s vested property rights, including its aboriginal and other federal reserved rights to the use of water, often referred to as Winters Doctrine Water 

Rights, that underlie, border and traverse its lands, have never been extinguished 

by the United States and are prior and paramount to all rights to the use of water 

in the Gila River drainage, of which the Salt River is a major source. 

Except for a small portion of the Reservation that drains to the Little Colorado 

River Basin, virtually the entire Reservation drains to the Salt River. The headwaters and tributaries of the Salt River arise on our Reservation and are the principal sources of water for the Tribe, the downstream Cities of Avondale, Chandler, 

Gilbert, Glendale, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe; the Salt River Reclamation Project and the Roosevelt Water Conservation District, among other parties to the Gila River and Little Colorado Adjudication Proceedings. 

In 1985, the United States in its capacity as the Tribe’s Trustee, filed a substantial reserved water rights claim in the name of the White Mountain Apache Tribe 

to the Salt River as part of the Gila River Adjudication Proceedings still pending 

in the Maricopa County Superior Court, State of Arizona. It also filed claims for the 

Tribe in its capacity as trustee in the Little Colorado River Adjudication Proceedings 

also still pending in the Apache County Superior Court, State of Arizona. 

At the urging of the Tribe, the United States amended its water rights filings for 

the Tribe in the Little Colorado River and the Gila River General Stream Adjudications in September 2000, to assert the Tribe’s prior and paramount, aboriginal and 

federal reserved rights to the transbasin aquifer sources that sustain the base flow 

of the Tribe’s Reservation springs and streams. The amended claim filed by the 

9 

2This Paper, outlining the potential liability of the United States for breach of trust for water 

related damage claims, will be filed with the Secretary of the Interior. 

United States in its capacity as trustee for the Tribe, specifically recognizes the 

Tribe’s unbroken chain of aboriginal title and time immemorial priority rights to the 

base flow of the springs and streams, and the contribution to those surface waters 

by rainfall and snowmelt runoff on the Tribe’s Reservation. 

For decades, the White Mountain Apache Tribe has asserted its rights to preserve, 

protect, use and develop its aboriginal and federally reserved water rights. As late 

as the 1950s, a physical confrontation became imminent between the Tribe and 

downstream water claimants when the Tribe began to develop outdoor recreation 

lakes on its Reservation trust lands by diverting water from Reservation streams. 

This activity was considered a threat to water supplies in the Salt River system by 

downstream water users in the Phoenix Metropolitan area and was vigorously opposed. A litany of water right controversies involving the White Mountain Apache 

Tribe, the United States in its role as the Tribe’s conflicted trustee, and the Salt 

River Valley Reclamation Project has predominated throughout the 20th century, all 

of which will be resolved by S. 313. 

Since the appointment of a Federal Negotiating Team by the Secretary of the Interior in 2004, we have met and negotiated in good faith with the downstream water 

users and claimants in both the Gila River and Little Colorado River Adjudication 

Proceedings to reach an honorable, dignified and equitable quantification and settlement of our Tribe’s reserved water rights. 

The White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Agreement, which 

was respectfully negotiated amongst all parties, has been concluded and has been 

formally approved by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and by the majority of the 

downstream parties’ respective governing bodies in the greater Phoenix Metropolitan area, including the Board of Directors of the Salt River Project and the Central 

Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD). The remaining City approvals are 

only a matter of formality and scheduling, and will be completed by the end of April 

2009. 

The Tribe’s sizable and senior water rights claims in the pending Gila River and 

Little Colorado River Adjudication Proceedings have generated considerable uncertainty regarding the availability of Salt River water supplies currently used by the 

downstream Salt River Project, which serves the greater Phoenix Metropolitan area. 

As many as 3.5 million people depend in large part upon the water sources that 

arise on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation to which the White Mountain Apache 

Tribe claims sufficient water to meet its present and future needs. The WMAT 

Water Rights Quantification Act of 2009, which will authorize and confirm the Parties’ Settlement Agreement will resolve uncertainties among all of the parties and 

claimants in both the Gila River and Little Colorado River Basins. 

S. 313 will also resolve potential claims by the White Mountain Apache Tribe 

against the United States for water related breach of trust damage claims that 

could potentially result in liability far in excess of the funding authorized by S. 313. 

Specifically, beginning with the completion of Roosevelt Dam for the Salt River Reclamation Project in 1911, the trustee United States, acting by and through its principal agent, the Secretary of the Interior, has as a matter of policy, suppressed, neglected, ignored, and opposed the reserved water use rights of the White Mountain 

Apache Tribe. These policies, fostered by an inherent conflict of interest on the part 

of the Secretary, favored development of the non-Indian Salt River Project at the 

expense of the welfare of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. 

For example, as set forth in greater detail in the Tribe’s Paper 2 on the liability 

of the United States for water related, breach of trust damage claims, the Secretary 

of the Interior in the 1960s intentionally destroyed thousands of Cottonwood trees 

and other riparian vegetation along the Tribe’s streams to increase water runoff to 

the Salt River Valley and Roosevelt Reservoir. The Secretary also cleared thousands 

of acres of Juniper trees under the auspices of rangeland restoration for the purpose 

of increasing runoff. The ecosystem damage from this action continues and is ongoing. The cost of riparian restoration is in the millions of dollars. 

Another example of a water related, breach of trust damage claim that will be 

waived by the Tribe in S. 313, are damages to water rights resulting from the doubling of the annual allowable cut of the Tribe’s commercial forests by the Secretary 

for the purpose of increasing water runoff from the Tribe’s Reservation to Roosevelt 

Reservoir. 

Other potential water related, breach of trust damage claims, inter alia, which are 

discussed in the Liability Paper and that will be waived by S. 313, will be claims 

arising from: 

10 

• an historic failure to maintain approximately 90 miles of irrigation ditches on 

the Reservation (waived after funding received to repair) 

• failure to support future OM&R expenses for the Miner Flat Dam Project Rural 

Water System (waived after OM&R Trust Fund established) 

• an historic failure to meet the trust obligation to provide a safe drinking water 

supply for the Tribe, 

• suppression of agricultural irrigation to date, 

• expense of litigating the Tribe’s reserved water rights claims, 

• failure of the Secretary to reserve Tribe’s water from contracts issued downstream for storage after Roosevelt Dam was originally built in 1911, 

• failure of the Secretary to set aside New Conservation Storage (NCS), for the 

White Mountain Apache Tribe in the 1995–1996 enlargement of Roosevelt Reservoir (result is that Tribe compelled to obtain 25,000 acre-feet of CAP instead 

of Salt River Water valued by SRP at $6,000 per acre-ft.), 

• failure of the United States to assert the reserved water rights of the White 

Mountain Apache Tribe in the EIS for the reallocation of CAP water, and 

• holding the trustee United States harmless by the Tribe relinquishing 26,000 

acre-feet diversion annually for the Reservation’s Bonito Prairie area. 

The Tribe and Reservation residents are in urgent need of a long-term solution 

for their drinking water needs. Currently the Tribe is served by the Miner Flat Well 

Field. Well production has fallen sharply and is in irreversible decline. Over the last 

8 years, well production has fallen by 50%, and temporary replacement wells draw 

from the same source aquifer that is being exhausted. The Tribe experiences chronic 

summer drinking water shortages. There is no prospect for groundwater recovery. 

The quality of the existing water sources threatens the health of our membership 

and other Reservation residents, including the IHS Regional Hospital and State and 

BIA schools. The only viable solution is replacement of failing groundwater with 

surface water from the North Fork of the White River. A small water division system along the White River (North Fork Diversion Project) will help the Tribe’s short 

term drinking water needs, but this is only a temporary measure to replace the 

quickly failing well field. 

Without reservoir storage behind Miner Flat Dam, a feature authorized by S. 313, 

the stream flows of the North Fork of the White River, supplemented by short-term 

capacity of the Miner Flat Well Field, are together inadequate to meet community 

demands of the White Mountain Apache Tribe for the Greater Whiteriver Area, 

Cedar Creek, Carrizo and Cibecue and to maintain a minimum flow in the North 

Fork of the White River. The demands of the Tribe for its Rural Water System as 

proposed in H.R. 1065 and S. 313 will dry up the North Fork of the White River 

before 2020, even in combination with a supplemental supply from the Miner Flat 

Well Field. Therefore, Miner Flat Dam is necessary to store 6,000 acre feet of water 

during runoff periods for release and enhancement of the North Fork of the White 

River to meet demands of the Reservation rural water system and maintain a minimum flow for aquatic in riparian habitat preservation and enhancement. 

The WMAT Rural Water System, including the Miner Flat Dam Storage Facility, 

water treatment plant, and pipeline to deliver drinking water to Reservation communities is the cornerstone of the WMAT Water Rights Quantification Act of 2009 

and the Settlement Agreement. The Quantification Act and Settlement Agreement 

will confirm the Tribe’s and other settling parties’ water rights without prolonged, 

protracted and expensive litigation that began in 1979, and could last for decades 

more. The Miner Flat Project will replace the failing groundwater well system and 

enable the Tribe to construct a secure, safe and reliable drinking water supply for 

the current 15,000 White Mountain Apache Tribal members and residents living on 

our Reservation and will meet the increasing drinking water needs of the Reservation for a future population of nearly 40,000 persons in the decades to come. See 

attached Miner Flat Reservoir and Pipeline Location Map. 

Last year, on September 11, 2008, I testified in support of S. 3128, the White 

Mountain Apache Tribe Rural Water System Loan Authorization Act, which became 

law on October 10, 2008 (Pub. L. 110–390). The $9.8 million authorized by that law 

will allow the Tribe to complete within the next two to three years, the design, engineering, planning, and federal environmental compliance for the proposed Miner 

Flat Dam drinking water system thereby saving millions of dollars in construction 

costs that inflation will generate with delay in the design and construction of our 

project. 

In settlement negotiations, the White Mountain Apache Tribe agreed to relinquish 

its water rights claims on Bonito Prairie, totaling 26,000 acre feet annually for irriVerDate Nov 24 2008 13:17 Nov 18, 2009 Jkt 051274 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\51274.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
11 

gation, and opted instead for rehabilitation of existing recreation lakes, development 

of new recreation lakes, forest management and timber manufacturing improvements, snowmaking at our ski area and other economic development features embraced by S. 313. These provisions in S. 313 are essential to our future and were 

a significant factor in reaching the settlement agreement, now before Congress for 

approval, with the downstream parties. 

Conclusion 

The White Mountain Apache Tribe appreciates the opportunity to appear before 

the Committee, the co-sponsorship of S. 313 by Arizona Senators Jon Kyl and John 

McCain, and unanimous support of S. 313 by the settling State parties to the White 

Mountain Apache Water Rights Quantification Agreement. 

12 

Attachments 


402a4.eps
13 

The CHAIRMAN. Chairman Lupe, thank you very much. 

Just for information, what is the enrolled membership of your 

tribe? 

Mr. LUPE. Fourteen thousand, presently. 


402a3.eps
14 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 

Next, we will hear from the Honorable Jonette Reyes, Vice 

Chairperson of the Hoh Indian Tribe in Forks, Washington. 

Ms. Reyes, thank you very much. You may proceed. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JONETTE REYES, VICE CHAIRPERSON, 

HOH INDIAN TRIBE 

Ms. REYES. Good morning. My name is Jonette Reyes. I am the 

Vice Chairperson for the Hoh Indian Tribe. Good morning, Chairman Dorgan, Vice Chairman Barrasso, Mr. Tester. 

Our bill was introduced by Maria Cantwell. The purpose of the 

bill, it is called the Hoh Tribe Safe Homelands Act, bill S. 443. 

Here, you will see our reservation is fairly small. We live in the 

flood zone. We live in the western Jefferson County. It is a rural 

part of the county that is separated by Clallam County. And we 

live in tsunami territory. 

We have acquired some land within the last couple of years to 

try to move our tribe out of flood zone. The bill is basically to transfer 37 acres of Olympic National Park into trust in order to make 

our land contiguous. We have another, I think we have another 

poster, that will show parcels. We have acquired parcels. On our 

own, we purchased Rainier property which is on 101, and the 

Rainier property is, you know, basically the property that we started out with, other than our land we have already acquired. 

Okay, there is Rainier property, other property that we purchased from homesteaders that live around the reservation. And 

then we got some land from the Department of Natural Resources 

transferred to the Hoh Tribe. The only thing that is keeping land 

contiguous is the 37 acres of Olympic National Park. 

As I say, we live in flood zone, tsunami territory. We have flooding every year for as long as I can remember. I am 30-plus years 

old, and we always deal with flooding. There were times when we 

had river boats picking us up at our front doors to deliver us to 

higher ground, which is now in the flood zone, and we have to 

move even higher. 

So we are not asking for any land other than the 37 acres of park 

which was, you know, in discussion with the park, they are not certain how they acquired the land themselves. And we have had discussion at local level and we have also started out our main discussions here. 

With whatever directive that we were given here, with the parks, 

and with Natural Resources, we have gone back and followed 

through with every directive that they have given. 

We have worked recently with Jefferson County to reopen Fire 

District 7. We don’t have a fire district that serves our county. And 

like I said, we are the rural part of western Jefferson County. We 

are not located within the county area itself. We are like about 

three hours away, so we don’t get the services of the county. 

So when there are storms and floods, you know, it is kind of, the 

resources are hard to find. We usually use our, you know, our 

money that we have, no other county resources which we should 

be available to because we are in a tsunami zone. 

I am drawing a blank. 

[Laughter.] 

15 

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Reyes, let me ask you a question. I understand that your reservation as it was originally established is one 

square mile in size. 

Ms. REYES. Right, but we have purchased more land. The only 

thing that is keeping, you know, the transfer from happening of the 

land into trust is the 37 acres of the park land that we are asking 

for. 

The CHAIRMAN. And would the 37 acres connect your reservation 

to the other part? 

Ms. REYES. It would be contiguous all the way up to the land 

that we have acquired. And then, you know, we are not eligible 

right now to get any, you know, new housing. Our houses, you 

know, the people who live on our reservation, the families are like 

two- and three-family households within one house. And we are not 

eligible to apply for any other grants because we are in flood territory. 

The CHAIRMAN. I understand. Most of the reservation is in a 

flood zone. 

Ms. REYES. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. How many enrolled members in your tribe? 

Ms. REYES. Three hundred plus. 

The CHAIRMAN. All right. 

Ms. REYES. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. All right. Well, I think we have the picture. It 

is a pretty significant issue. You need to be able to acquire this 

land, the park land, in order to connect to other property that you 

have acquired in a Federal flood zone. All right. 

Ms. REYES. And on a regular basis, like this spring, the snow is 

melting and everything, and we have flooding. We are actually expecting a storm by the time we get home, so will most likely have 

flooding. And we sandbag regularly with members of the OCC, I 

mean, Olympic Correctional people. 

[Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. All right. Thank you. 

Ms. REYES. So. 

The CHAIRMAN. Those of us from North Dakota know about flooding and sandbagging these days. 

Ms. REYES. Right. 

[Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. It’s a very difficult time. 

Thank you very much for telling us the story of the need. I think 

it is compelling. Senator Cantwell may be joining us before we complete this hearing, and we will of course ask her to comment as 

well, but we appreciate your being here. 

Ms. REYES. Thank you for the time. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Reyes follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. JONETTE REYES, VICE CHAIRPERSON, HOH INDIAN

TRIBE

Chairman Dorgan, Vice Chair Barrasso, Senator Cantwell, and other Members of 

the Committee, I am Jonette Reyes, Vice Chair of the Hoh Indian Tribe from Washington State on the Olympic Peninsula. Accompanying me today from the Hoh Tribe 

are Chairman Walter Ward, his wife and tribal member Katherine Ward, Council 

Member Marie Riebe, Council Member Dawn Gomez, and Tribal Administrator 

16 

Alexis Barry. It is a great honor for me to testify before you on behalf of my people 

and in support of this bill. 

I would like to begin by thanking Senator Cantwell and Senator Murray for introducing S. 443, the ‘‘Hoh Indian Tribe Safe Homelands Act.’’ Their support for this 

bill means a great deal to us. Along with Congressman Norm Dicks on the House 

side, they and their staffs have been wonderful in working with us to solve the serious land and water problems we face. We would also like to thank our representatives in the Washington legislature, Senator Jim Hargrove, Representative Lynn 

Kessler, and Representative Kevin Van De Wege for their strong support and commitment to this legislation. 

Today’s hearing is an important step toward realizing our dream: a safer place 

to live. It has been a very long journey for us, and we would not have made it this 

far were it not for the steadfast dedication, perseverance, and vision of our Council 

and our tribal members. Our hope is that this legislation will help the Hoh Tribe 

to grow and prosper on lands safe for our children and elders. 

For as long as anyone can remember, the Hoh people have lived near the mouth 

of the Hoh River where it flows into the Pacific Ocean. The Blue Glacier and other 

smaller glaciers on Mount Olympus in the Olympic National Park feed the Hoh 

River. Our traditional history teaches us that ‘‘the Upside Down People,’’ as we call 

ourselves, were created here and blessed with plentiful smelt in the waters to fish. 

We also traveled inland into the coast range of the Olympic Mountains and by canoe 

in the Pacific Ocean north into Canada and south to Quinault. 

Our lives were changed, however, when the 1856 Quinault Treaty preserved our 

rights to fish, hunt, and gather roots and berries in parts of our ancestral territory 

but greatly diminished our land base. In 1893, 37 years after the Quinault Treaty 

was signed, President Grover Cleveland set aside 640 acres of land, one square mile, 

bordered by the Hoh River and the Pacific Ocean. This is our current homeland, the 

Hoh Indian Reservation. We are still living along the Ocean and the Hoh River, but 

we cannot move upland like we once could. 

The Hoh Indian Reservation is located 30 miles south of the town of Forks, Washington, where the closest grocery store is located. While we are rich in culture, our 

230 tribal members face serious educational, health care, and housing challenges. 

Although our tribal education programs are making a positive difference for our people, about half of our tribal members who are 25 years or older have not received 

a high school diploma or GED. It takes an ambulance about 45 minutes to respond 

to a call at our remote location, and about 45 minutes to get the patient to the hospital in Forks. Jobs are scarce, so about 70% of the 130 tribal members who reside 

on the Reservation are unemployed. We are blessed with many children and grandchildren, 60% of our population is under 18 years of age, but our baby boom makes 

housing and child care an issue for Hoh families. 

The waters that provide for us also pose the threat of danger from floods and 

tsunamis to our people and our lands. The Ocean and the River have slowly claimed 

our lands through erosion and changes in tide and river course. In fact, the 640 

acres of the original Reservation land base now includes only 443 acres of dry land, 

more than a 30% decrease. The exact causes of this encroachment are not clear, but 

we believe that climate change is impacting us. The glaciers on Mount Olympus are 

melting and feeding more water to the River than we have seen in the past. Also, 

the Army Corps of Engineers stopped dredging the River years ago, so that may be 

a contributing cause as well. 

Ninety% of the Hoh Reservation is now located within a 100 year flood plain, and 

100% is located within a tsunami zone. Winter and spring floods now regularly impact Reservation homes, government facilities, and utility structures. Flooding restricts further development and causes ongoing problems with existing structures. 

In addition to the flooding danger, all of the Reservation facilities and homes are 

at or below 40 feet elevation and within inundation zones if a major tsunami were 

to strike. 

Mr. Chairman, we empathize with the people of Fargo, North Dakota, and the 

surrounding areas who have seen the Red River swell to historic highs. In 2006, we 

purchased and filled 6,000 sand bags to protect homes and tribal buildings. Inmates 

from the Olympic Correctional Center helped our community members in making 

and placing the sand bags, which we greatly appreciate. Unfortunately, flooding still 

destroyed or severely damaged many buildings, our waste water treatment system, 

and other utility structures, causing critical environmental and safety hazards. 

Sand bags now create a permanent grass-covered berm around our Tribal Center 

that FEMA tells us is a health hazard. 

We have turned to federal agencies such as the BIA, HUD, and FEMA for assistance, but these agencies are limited in what they can do to help because of the dangerous and unsustainable location of the Reservation. 

17 

A recent survey indicates that there are less than 73 acres of lands within the 

443 acres of dry land of the Reservation that may be suitable for building. Flood 

plain, wetlands, buffers, slopes, and cultural exclusion areas all impact the land 

area available for the future needs of the Tribe. Most of the 73 acres is in areas 

that are at the extreme southern edge of the Reservation and not practical for development due to ocean cliffs, potential erosion, wetlands, and protected habitat. There 

are 11 acres of land that have been surveyed for development of housing above the 

flood plain, but this land is still within the area of danger from tsunami, prohibiting 

HUD from providing us funding to build in this area. Of the 30 homes located on 

the Reservation, many of them are in serious disrepair and approximately 20 of 

them have two or more families living in them. No new home has been built on the 

Reservation in 20 years. There is an immediate need to build 20 to 30 homes and 

growth projections are for at least 60 additional homes within 40 years. 

We do not come to this Committee without having taken significant steps to help 

ourselves. Over the past year and a half, we have purchased two parcels of land 

near the Reservation to the East, upland from the Ocean. The ‘‘HOH INDIAN 

TRIBE SAFE HOMELANDS ACT LAND ACQUISITION MAP’’ shows the two 

tracts we have purchased: the Fletcher Tree Farm parcel, approximately 195 acres, 

and the Rayonier parcel, approximately 65 acres. We do not have gaming on our 

Reservation because of its remote location, so the decision to purchase these lands 

demonstrates our commitment to move our people to a safer area. 

The fee lands described above are separated from our current Reservation by a 

37-acre parcel of non-pristine land owned by the National Park Service, and the 

only road to the Reservation crosses this parcel. Based upon extensive collaboration 

with the Olympic National Park, the National Park Service Pacific West Region, 

and other National Park Service personnel, the legislation would place the 37-acre 

National Park Service parcel into trust for the benefit of the Tribe. The legislation 

sets forth restrictions on the use of the National Park Service land being transferred 

by prohibiting the placement of any buildings or other structures on the land and 

banning any major improvements or road construction. Further, logging and hunting would be prohibited on the land. The legislation contains provisions for cooperative efforts between the Tribe and the National Park Service to enter into mutual 

aid agreements for emergency fire response, agreements on the development of hiking trails from Highway 101 to the Pacific Ocean, and agreements on programs for 

the public to learn about the culture and traditions of the Tribe. 

Also providing enormous support to this effort, the Washington State Legislature 

and Governor Gregoire authorized the transfer of a 160-acre parcel of State Department of Natural Resources land to the Hoh Tribe. This land is a short distance and 

upland from our current Reservation. 

This bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to take the lands purchased 

by the Tribe, the lands transferred to the Tribe by the State, and the National Park 

Service lands into trust for the Hoh Tribe, adding a contiguous, upland area to the 

Hoh Reservation. It would prohibit gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory 

Act on any of these lands. 

We thank you for the opportunity to offer this testimony. This legislation represents new hope for the Hoh people, and we look forward to working with you on 

its passage. 

18 

Attachments 


402b1.eps
19 


402b2.eps
20 


402b3.eps
21 


402b4.eps
22 


402b5.eps
23 


402b6.eps
24 


402b7.eps
25 


402b8.eps
26 


402b9.eps
27 


402b10.eps
28 


402b11.eps
29 


402b12.eps
30 


402b13.eps
31 


402b14.eps
32 


402b15.eps
33 


402b16.eps
34 

The CHAIRMAN. Finally, Mr. Paul Soto, the Tribal Councilman 

from the Cocopah Tribe in Somerton, Arizona. 

Mr. Soto? 


402b17.eps
35 

STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL SOTO, TRIBAL COUNCIL MEMBER, 

COCOPAH INDIAN TRIBE 

Mr. SOTO. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank 

you for the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the 

Cocopah Indian Tribe to discuss the Cocopah Lands Act, H.R. 326. 

My name is Paul Soto. I am a member of the Cocopah Indian 

Tribe. I have served intermittently for 36 years in various capacities in the Cocopah Tribal Government and have served 20 years 

as a Tribal council member. I am currently serving as the Tribal 

Resource Planner and Acting Tribal Council Secretary. 

In the early part of this decade, the Cocopah Indian Tribe requested fee-to-trust service of the Fort Yuma Bureau of Indian Affairs office in facilitating the process to convert tribally-owned fee 

land to trust land. Due to limited resources, the Fort Yuma office 

was not equipped to provide such service. 

The tribe was directed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs regional 

office. However, the regional office at that time directed the process 

back to the local Fort Yuma office. Because this appeared to be the 

start of an ongoing unsolvable dialogue, the tribe was advised by 

the Fort Yuma office to initiate a more direct approach. 

After five years of working with U.S. Representative Pastor and 

U.S. Representative Grijalva, this direct approach has brought me 

before you today. In 2002, Representative Pastor first introduced 

the Cocopah Lands Act, H.R. 5000, during the 107th Congress. The 

bill was introduced on June 22, 2002, sent to the House Committee 

on Natural Resources, where it stayed without further development. 

At that time, the second port of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border near San Luis, Arizona, was introduced and became a priority 

for Representative Pastor and the Cocopah Indian Tribe. Since the 

first introduction of this very important legislation, Representative 

Grijalva has replaced Representative Pastor as representative of 

our district. 

The Tribal Council requested the support of Representative Grijalva in sponsoring the reintroduction of the Cocopah Lands Act, 

which he fully supported, and took up efforts on behalf of the tribe. 

Representative Grijalva introduced the bill in 2006 during the 

109th Congress and again on January 24th, 2007 during the 110th 

Congress. 

The tribe is requesting congressional support to place five properties that are divided into seven individual parcels into trust to 

be included as part of the reservation. The five properties would increase the total size of the currently 6,500 acre reservation by 422 

acres, with the majority of the acreage being used as agricultural 

land. 

Currently, the Cocopah Reservation consists of three non-contiguous reservations called the North, West and East Reservations. 

Our community members reside in all three reservations and much 

of that land is leased as agricultural land. 

As stated by the Cocopah Tribal Chairwoman Sherry Cordova, 

when we purchased the different parcels in the 1980s and 1990s, 

it was the only way we could secure the land to continue in our 

efforts to expand much-needed infrastructure for the people. If we 

are able to get these lands into trust, it would be a great thing for 

36 

our tribe, to be able to make decisions, plan and build knowing 

that we can now consider this part of our reservation. 

To have these lands in trust will give our tribal governments the 

authority to govern in its true intent. 

In summary, I would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee for the opportunity to address you and speak 

on behalf of the Cocopah Indian Tribe. The tribe graciously asks for 

your support in placing the additional 423 acres of tribally owned 

land into trust for the betterment of our community and infrastructure, for enhanced economic opportunities for our future generations, and for the authority for our tribal government to govern to 

its true intent. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Soto follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL SOTO, TRIBAL COUNCIL MEMBER, COCOPAH

INDIAN TRIBE

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to 

appear before you today on behalf of the Cocopah Indian Tribe to discuss ‘‘The 

Cocopah Lands Act’’ (H.R. 326). My name is Paul Soto, and I am a member of the 

Cocopah Indian Tribe. I have served intermittently for 36 years in various capacities 

in the Cocopah Tribal Government and have served 20 years as a Tribal Council 

member. I am currently serving as the Tribal Resource Planner and Acting Tribal 

Council Secretary. 

In the early part of this decade, the Cocopah Indian Tribe requested fee to trust 

service of the Fort Yuma Bureau of Indian Affairs Office in facilitating the process 

to convert tribally-owned fee land to trust land. Due to limited resources the Fort 

Yuma Office was not equipped to provide such service, the tribe was directed to the 

Bureau of Indian Affairs Regional Office. However, the Regional Offices at that time 

directed the process back to the local Fort Yuma Office. Because this appeared to 

be the start of an on-going unsolvable dialogue, the Tribe was advised by the Fort 

Yuma Office to initiate a more direct approach. After five years of working with U.S. 

Representative Pastor and U.S. Representative Grijalva, this direct approach has 

brought me before you today. 

In 2002, Representative Pastor-D first introduced ‘‘The Cocopah Lands Act’’ (H.R. 

5000) during the 107th Congress. The bill was introduced on June 21, 2002 and sent 

to the House Committee on Natural Resources where it stayed without further development. At that time the second Port of Entry along the U.S.-Mexico Border near 

San Luis, Arizona, was introduced and became a priority for Representative Pastor 

and the Cocopah Indian Tribe. 

Since the first introduction of this very important legislation, Representative Grijalva-D replaced Representative Pastor as representative of our district. The Tribal 

Council requested the support of Representative Grijalva in sponsoring the re-introduction of ‘‘The Cocopah Lands Act,’’ which he fully supported and took up efforts 

on behalf of the Tribe. Representative Grijalva introduced the bill in 2006 during 

the 109th Congress and again on January 24, 2007 during the 110th Congress. 

The Tribe is requesting Congressional support to place five properties that are divided into seven individual parcels into trust to be included as part of the reservation. The five properties would increase the total size of the currently 6,500-acre reservation by 423 acres with the majority of the acreage being used as agricultural 

land. Currently the Cocopah Reservation consists of three non-contiguous reservations, called the North, West and East Reservations. Our community members reside on all three reservations and much of that land is leased as agricultural land. 

As stated by The Cocopah Tribal Chairwoman Sherry Cordova: ‘‘When we purchased the different parcels in the 80s and 90s, it was the only way we could secure 

the land to continue in our efforts to expand much needed infrastructure for the 

people. If we are able to get these lands into trust, it would be a great thing for 

our tribe—to be able to make decisions, plan and build, knowing that we can now 

consider it as a part of our reservation. To have these lands in trust will give our 

tribal government the authority to govern in its true intent.’’ 

In summary, I would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to address you and speak on behalf of the Cocopah Indian Tribe. The Tribe graciously asks for your support in placing the additional 423 

37 

acres of tribally-owned land into trust for the betterment of our community and infrastructure, for enhanced economic opportunities for our future generations, and for 

the authority for our tribal government to govern to its true intent. 

The CHAIRMAN. Councilman, thank you very much for being 

here. 

And finally we will hear from Ms. Linda Taylor, the Dean of 

Nursing at the College of Menominee Nation in Keshena, Wisconsin. 

Ms. Taylor, you may proceed. 


402b18.eps
38 

STATEMENT OF LINDA D. TAYLOR, DEAN OF NURSING, 

COLLEGE OF MENOMINEE NATION 

Ms. TAYLOR. Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the 

Committee, on behalf of my institution, the College of Menominee 

Nation and the other 35 tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) 

that compose the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, 

thank you for inviting us to testify on S. 633, the Tribal Health 

Promotion and Tribal Colleges and Universities Advancement Act 

of 2009. 

My name is Linda Taylor. I am a member of the Oneida Nation 

and the Dean or Nursing at the College of Menominee Nation in 

Keshena, Wisconsin. We are grateful to have the opportunity to 

thank you in person, Mr. Chairman, for your tremendous work on 

behalf of all native people. 

This morning, I will just highlight some of the important programs that are included and that we would like to see restored in 

S. 633. I ask that my full written statement submitted to the Committee be included in the hearing record. 

Mr. Chairman, S. 633, modeled after our successful 1994 land 

grant legislation, includes authorizations for, (1) community-based 

outreach programs; (2) education and workforce development programs; (3) an endowment to be held by the U.S. Treasury. 

This legislation wisely targets health promotion strategies to address both the immediate and long-term health and wellness challenges that are threatening the very survival of Native people. 

Some of the opportunities proposed in the legislation include annual TCU health fair outreach grants and competitive grants to 

allow tribal colleges, in partnership with tribal governments, to develop and implement long-term community-based strategies to address health promotion and disease prevention. 

The need for tribal college-specific grant programs is critically 

needed and long overdue, a fact that was illustrated last week by 

a tribal college president when he said, ‘‘We applied for suicide prevention funding three times from SAMHSA. We thought we had a 

very competitive proposal, but it was never funded. They kept encouraging us to resubmit the proposal ‘next year’, and meanwhile 

our people are still killing themselves.’’ 

S. 633 authorizes an American Indian Health Professions and 

Research Program. Tribal colleges are the ideal places to prepare 

the future American Indian health care workforce. At College of 

Menominee Nation, we have established a nursing career ladder 

program beginning with personal care workers, then progressing to 

a certified nursing assistant program, the licensed practical nursing program, and then the registered nurse program. 

The need is great. Every year more tribal governments are asking their local tribal college to establish some type of allied health 

professions program. College of Menominee Nation, for example, 

admitted our first students last fall, and already we are receiving 

requests from other tribal nations to expand our health care programs. 

As important as the program on health promotion, disease prevention, and health workforce development, S. 633 also contains 

provisions aimed at strengthening partnerships between tribal governments and tribal colleges that will develop and expand reservaVerDate Nov 24 2008 13:17 Nov 18, 2009 Jkt 051274 PO 00000 Frm 00042 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\51274.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
39 

tion-based economies and communities. The key to our success lies 

in our ability to create strong partnerships to tell our success story 

effectively and to stay focused on our collective vision of building 

stronger tribal nations through tribal higher education. 

In closing, as truly engaged institutions, tribal colleges are preparing an American Indian health workforce, improving the health 

and wellness of students and their families, combating substance 

abuse, including alcohol and methamphetamine use, vitalizing native cultures and language, and creating economic development opportunities in some of the Nation’s poorest communities. 

In its original form, this legislation addressed all of these areas. 

However, for various reasons during the 110th Congress, some provisions were removed that are critical to the legislation’s goal and 

to the future of Native America. 

I respectfully request that Senator Tester and Members of this 

Committee work with AIHEC to ensure that the bill exemplifies its 

original intent—the creation of a comprehensive strategy through 

which tribal colleges are full partners with Federal agencies, working together to help build, strengthen, and sustain thriving tribal 

communities. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to share our 

story, our successes, and our needs with you today, and we thank 

Senator Tester and the cosponsors of S. 633 for their commitment 

to and trust in tribal colleges and universities. 

We look forward to working with all of you to achieve enactment 

of S. 633, the Tribal Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and 

Universities Advancement Act of 2009. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Taylor follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF LINDA D. TAYLOR, DEAN OF NURSING, COLLEGE OF

MENOMINEE NATION

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, on behalf of my institution, the College of Menominee Nation in Keshena, Wisconsin, and the 35 other 

Tribal Colleges and Universities that compose the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, thank you for inviting us to be here today to testify regarding 

S. 633, the Tribal Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and Universities Advancement Act of 2009. 

My name is Linda Taylor. I am Dean of Nursing at the College of Menominee Nation in Keshena Wisconsin, and it is an honor to speak with the members of this 

Committee about Tribal Colleges and the work we are doing to transform Indian 

Country. We are also grateful to have the opportunity to thank you in person, Mr. 

Chairman, for your tremendous work on behalf of all Native people. I would also 

like to thank Senator Tester for his leadership in sponsoring S. 633, the Tribal 

Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and Universities Advancement Act of 2009. 

We are pleased that he has taken the initiative to introduce this legislation so early 

in the 111th Congress and that the Committee has so expeditiously scheduled a 

hearing. 

This afternoon, I will speak briefly on three topics: The Tribal College Movement; 

the need for enactment of S. 633; and finally, additional provisions that we hope 

can be included in S. 633 to accomplish the original intent of Senator Tester’s legislation. I ask that my written statement be included in the Hearing Record. 

Background: The Tribal College Movement 

Mr. Chairman, you and the members of this Committee are well acquainted with 

Tribal Colleges and Universities. Perhaps no one other than the Tribal College 

presidents and students knows better of our near daily struggles to survive as the 

most poorly funded institutions of higher education in the country. You also know 

of our tremendous successes, from our work to build self esteem and change the life 

and future of a student through a nurturing educational environment that is culturally-based and relevant to that student, to our efforts to build stronger and more 

40 

prosperous Tribal nations through the restoration of our languages, applied research 

on issues relevant to our land and our people, workforce training in fields critical 

to our reservation communities, and community-centered economic development and 

entrepreneurial programs. 

American Indian tribally controlled colleges and universities are young, geographically isolated, poor, and almost unknown to mainstream America. They are 

also amazingly bright catalysts for revitalization and change—so much so that Tribal Colleges are often called ‘‘higher education’s best kept secret.’’ 

Located in some of the most rural and impoverished regions of this country, Tribal 

Colleges are planting resilient seeds of hope for the future; nurturing and sustaining 

languages, cultures, and traditions; and helping to build stronger tribal economies 

and governments. Yet, the oldest Tribal College is younger than many of the people 

in this room. Our oldest institution, Dine ́ College on the Navajo Nation, just turned 

40 last year. 

The Tribal College philosophy is simple: to succeed, American Indian higher education needed to be locally and culturally based, holistic, and supportive. The education system needed to address the whole person: mind, body, spirit, and family. 

Today, the nation’s 36 tribal colleges are located throughout Indian Country: all 

seven tribes in Montana and all five in North Dakota have colleges. Tribal Colleges 

are also located in the Southwest, the Great Lakes, and the upper Northwest. We 

are expanding in all regions, including Wyoming, Alaska and Oklahoma, and 

through distance education programs, our colleges reach all of ‘‘Indian Country.’’ 

In only four short decades, Tribal Colleges have achieved tremendous results. For 

example, in Montana, before Salish Kootenai College was established in 1976, less 

than 30 members of the Salish and Kootenai tribes had earned a college degree. Between 1976 and 1994, SKC alone graduated more than 400 tribal members. Today, 

Salish Kootenai College offers several bachelor’s degree programs, including Bachelor’s degree programs in Computer Engineering, Elementary Education, and Nursing, among others. 

Tribal Colleges are first and foremost academic institutions, but because of the 

number of challenges facing Indian Country—high unemployment, poorly developed 

economies, poor health status, and lack of stable community infrastructures, Tribal 

Colleges are called upon to do much more than provide higher education services. 

Tribal Colleges often run entrepreneurial and business development centers. Many 

TCUs are the primary GED and Adult Basic Education provider on their reservations, and all TCUs provide a variety of evening, weekend training and para-professional programs for tribal employees, BIA and IHS staff, K–12 schools, tribal courts 

and justice system staff, and many others. TCUs run day care centers, health promotion and nutrition programs, community gardens, and often, the community library and tribal museum or archives. Tribal Colleges have strong partnerships and 

linkages with the local K–12 education system, offering Saturday and summer 

‘‘bridge’’ programs for high school students, running summer camps for youth, and 

providing after-hours gymnasiums and computer labs for young people. 

In terms of agriculture and land-based programs, Tribal Colleges are working diligently to protect our environments and sustain our lands and waters. My college, 

the College of Menominee Nation, has developed the ‘‘Sustainable Development Institute,’’ founded on the principles of sustainability and Menominee values. Prompted by Menominee’s long tradition of sustainable forestry practices, tribal leaders created the Sustainable Development Institute to encourage and build upon Menominee approaches to sustainable development. 

Perhaps most important, like the College of Menominee Nation, all Tribal Colleges are actively and aggressively working to preserve and sustain their own tribal 

languages and cultures. All TCUs offer Native language courses, and in fact, passing a language course is a condition of graduation from a TCU. In some cases, the 

tribal language would have been completely lost if not for the Tribal College. Turtle 

Mountain Community College in Belcourt, North Dakota, was established primarily 

for this purpose, and over the years, its success in writing and revitalizing the Turtle Mountain Chippewa language has been tremendous. Fort Belknap College in 

Montana runs a K–6 language immersion school, right on campus. At the White 

Clay Immersion School, children learn the White Clay language and culture in addition to subjects they would normally study at any other school. 

Many TCUs offer unique associate and bachelor degree programs, as well as inservice training, in elementary education. At the TCUs, teacher education programs 

follow cultural protocols and stress the use of Native language in everyday instruction. Well over 90 percent of teachers who graduate from a TCU teacher education 

program receive jobs on the reservation shortly after graduation, providing positive 

role models to Indian children. 

41 

Finally, Tribal Colleges are accountable institutions, always striving to be more 

accountable to our funders, our students, and our communities. Several years ago, 

AIHEC launched an ambitious and landmark effort called ‘‘AIHEC AIMS,’’ which 

is a comprehensive data collection system for TCUs, created by Tribal College faculty and presidents, community members, funders, students, and accrediting agencies, aimed at improving our ability to measure and report our successes and challenges to our key stakeholders. Today, each Tribal College reports annually on a 

comprehensive set of 116 qualitative and quantitative indicators that allows us, for 

the first time, to share the true story of our success with funders, and most important, with our communities. 

Tribal Colleges have made tremendous strides since we first began four decades 

ago, but many challenges remain. Tribal Colleges are poor institutions. In fact, Tribal Colleges are the most poorly funded institutions of higher education in the country: 

(1) Tribal Colleges are not state institutions, and consequently, we receive little 

or no state funding. In fact, very few states provide support for the non-Indian 

students attending TCUs, which account for about 20 percent of all tribal college students. However, if these students attended a state institution, the state 

would be required to provide the institution with operational support for them. 

This is something we are trying to rectify through education and public policy 

change at the state and local level. 

(2) The tribal governments that have chartered Tribal Colleges are not the 

small handful of wealthy gaming tribes located near major urban areas. Rather, 

they are some of the poorest governments in the nation. In fact, three of the 

ten poorest counties in America are home to Tribal Colleges. 

(3) The Federal Government, despite its trust responsibility and treaty obligations, has never fully-funded our primary institutional operations source, the 

Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities Act. Today, the Act is appropriated at about $5,490 per full time Indian Student, which is less than half 

the level that most states fund their institutions. 

To continue to thrive and expand as community-based educational institutions, 

Tribal Colleges must stabilize, sustain, and increase our basic operational funding. 

Through tools such as AIHEC AIMS, we hope to better educate the public, lawmakers, and federal officials about the cost-effective success of our institutions. 

Through opportunities such as this, we hope to share with the Congress and others 

how we are helping to meet the challenges facing our tribal nations. 

S. 633, The Tribal Health Promotion and TCU Advancement Act 

Mr. Chairman, S. 633, the Tribal Health Promotion and TCU Advancement Act, 

is a critical component of our strategic efforts to help address the needs of our tribal 

communities and build stronger and more prosperous tribal nations. By maximizing 

TCU participation in a set of key programs within the U.S. Departments of Health 

and Human Services and Labor, this legislation will strengthen and sustain TCU 

capacity to help Native communities achieve healthier, longer, and more prosperous 

lives; more stable and secure families; and greater economic competitiveness. 

This legislation is modeled after our successful 1994 land grant legislation, which 

established a partnership between Tribal Colleges and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that benefits all of Indian Country. Like the Educational Equity in Land 

Grant Status Act, this legislation includes authorizations for: (1) community-based 

outreach programs; (2) education and workforce development programs; and (3) an 

endowment, to be held by the U.S. Treasury, with the interest being used by TCUs 

for activities consistent with the goals of the legislation. 

Key provisions of the legislation include: 

Title I: Health Promotion and Health Workforce Training (Dept. of Health 

and Human Services) 

1. Community-based Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Partnerships with 

Tribes 

This section of the Act focuses on strategies to address the immediate and longterm health and wellness challenges that are threatening the very survival of Native people. 

Health Fair-Outreach Formula Grants 

The bill proposes very modest ($15,000 per TCU annually) formula grants to help 

us conduct annual, community-based, and culturally relevant health and wellness 

fairs at TCUs, building on existing but unfunded outreach programs at our institutions. This funding will help us bring more elders in for health screening and referVerDate Nov 24 2008 13:17 Nov 18, 2009 Jkt 051274 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\51274.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
42 

rals, conduct diabetes screening for our Indian youth, who are contracting this deadly disease at rates far higher than any other group in the United States, and it will 

help us raise awareness about the warning signs of diseases that are literally killing 

our people—from children to Elders—every single day: alcohol and substance abuse, 

domestic violence, and depression and other behavior health issues. 

Competitive Capacity Building Grant Program 

The bill proposes a competitive grant program to help tribes and Tribal Colleges 

and Universities build the capacity to develop and implement long-term and community-based strategies in health promotion and disease prevention. Through five-year 

collaborations with tribal governments, Tribal Colleges could address targeted 

health promotion and disease prevention areas, including: 

• Education Programs in Diabetes Prevention and Care, Obesity, and Nutrition; • Injury Prevention; • HIV–AIDS Prevention; • Substance Abuse, including methamphetamine abuse; and • Depression and other behavior health issues. 

This program is critically needed and long overdue. Each day that ends before this 

legislation is enacted represents the loss of more of our precious young people. The 

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Fiscal Year 2010 budget recommendations from this Committee prioritize funding for the Indian Health Service 

and include increased funding to address substance abuse and other challenges facing our communities. We greatly appreciate those efforts, but it is not enough. It 

will never be enough until Tribal Colleges and Universities—the very institutions 

that serve as nurturing and safe families for our youth—are included as strategic 

partners in these efforts. Today, unfortunately, we are not partners. 

This fact was illustrated last week by one of the Tribal College presidents. He 

said: ‘‘We applied for funding three times from SAMHSA. We thought we had a very 

competitive proposal, but we were never funded. They kept encouraging us to resubmit the proposal next year; and meanwhile, our people are still killing themselves.’’ 

Another Tribal College president recently cited an alarming—but all too common—statistic from his institution: a recent survey revealed that 75 percent of all 

students had suicidal thoughts in the past year. ‘‘With statistics like that,’’ he said, 

‘‘we can’t just have one prevention counselor on campus. Everyone on campus, 

whether he is an instructor, a counselor, a janitor, or a student, needs to know how 

to intervene. It’s an epidemic.’’ 

Funding sources to address these issues are practically non-existent for our institutions, and the Indian Health Service, even if its leaders want to help us, focuses 

more on tertiary, rather than preventive, care. Tribal Colleges can help pick up the 

slack: we know how to teach, we know how to conduct community based activities, 

and we know how to reach young people, older people, and families. We have 

them—young, old, families, individuals, friends, and relatives—on our campuses 

every day. We simply lack the funding needed to establish and sustain programs 

that will address individual needs and ultimately, turn our communities around. 

Through the competitive grant program established under this legislation, we will 

have access to some of the resources we need. 

2. American Indian Health Professions and Research Programs: Health Resources 

and Services Administration (HRSA) and the National Institutes of Health 

(NIH) 

Health Professions Training Programs and Endowment: HRSA 

In addition to providing community-based health promotion and disease prevention outreach, Tribal Colleges and Universities are the ideal places to prepare the 

future American Indian health care workforce. I can make that statement confidently because I know first-hand that we are doing it now at the few Tribal Colleges that have been able to establish nursing, social work, and allied health programs. At the College of Menominee Nation, we have established a nursing career 

ladder program, beginning with Personal Care Workshops, and then progressing to 

the Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) program, the Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) 

program, and then to the Registered Nursing (RN) program. 

Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota provides 

another example: Twenty years ago, only 10 percent of the workforce at the local 

Indian Health Service hospital was American Indian. Today, 80 percent or more of 

the nursing staff at the local IHS hospitals and clinics were educated and trained 

at Oglala Lakota College. Likewise, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in 

Albuquerque trains virtually all of the optical technicians trained in the State of 

43 

New Mexico. Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Indian Reservation is the regional testing site for radiology technicians, not just for the American Indians entering this profession, but for all radiology technicians in that region of Montana. 

I believe that Tribal Colleges are making a bigger impact in training the American Indian health care work force than any other institutions of higher education, 

but a tremendous need exists for more registered nurses, Community Health Representatives, and other allied health professionals. Every year, more tribal governments are approaching their Tribal College, asking the college to establish some 

type of allied health professions program. College of Menominee Nation, for example, established our LPN/RN programs just two years ago, and already, we are receiving requests from other tribes in Wisconsin to expand the program. Fort 

Belknap College in Montana was asked by its tribal government to establish a Certified Nursing Assistant program a few years ago, and already it has trained 50 

CNAs, 90 percent of whom have become certified and are working today. 

To help Tribal Colleges develop and expand programs such as these, S. 633 authorizes a competitive grant program specifically for TCUs and establishes a Federal 

Treasury Endowment Account to help TCUs sustain and equip such degree programs. An endowment program is essential to these types of programs due to the 

high cost of nursing and other health professions programs. Programs like these, 

targeted specifically to Tribal Colleges are necessary because few programs currently exist that are accessible to TCUs. In fact, many of the programs administered 

by the Department of Health and Human Services effectively prohibit TCU participation due to strict requirements regarding the qualifications of the Principal Investigator (such as mandating that he or she hold a Ph.D.) or other prohibitive practices. Similar to programs that the Congress has funded at the National Science 

Foundation and Department of Education, a program specifically established for 

Tribal Colleges and Universities would help ensure that the Indian Health Service 

and tribal health programs have trained health professions to help them meet the 

many health-related challenges facing our people. 

Public Health Research and Capacity Building Program: NIH 

To help ensure that tribes, Tribal Colleges, and our health educators can effectively meet the unique needs of Indian people living in rural or remote areas with 

depressed economies, inferior infrastructures, and limited access to services, our 

Tribal Colleges must have the resources needed to conduct applied research in our 

communities, particularly research involving epidemiology. Likewise, to better address the evolving needs and challenges facing our youth, research and information 

sharing on effective outreach and prevention strategies is essential. However, faculties at Tribal Colleges currently have limited access to federal research funding, 

for reasons similar to those outlined above. Specifically, because many TCU faculty 

members do not have Ph.D.s and must spend more time in the classroom than faculty at mainstream universities and research institutions, Tribal College research 

proposals are not scored competitively by federal agencies and their review panels. 

A research program specifically targeted to faculty at Tribal Colleges and Universities, particularly one that allows for research experiences for TCU students, ultimately could significantly improve the health status of American Indians and others 

in rural America. 

S. 633 would establish such a program for TCUs, similar to the USDA’s 1994 land 

grant research program, which funds applied research projects at Tribal Colleges. 

Over the past several years, TCUs have used this program to conduct vitally needed 

research on issues particularly relevant to their communities and tribes. Salish 

Kootenai College in Montana and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College 

in Wisconsin are conducting vitally needed research—research that no one else is 

doing—on invasive plants that threaten tribal lakes and lands. Fort Belknap College in Montana is assessing the impacts of mining activities on soil microbes at a 

cyanide-leach mine site, and it, like many other TCUs, is involved in reservationbased water quality testing and research. 

All of these research activities involve students and are helping to build a future 

science workforce throughout Indian Country. 

Title II: Advancing Tribes Through TCUS (Department of Labor) 

Economic Development to Address Generational Unemployment and Economic Development Capacity Building 

In addition to its focus on health promotion/disease prevention and health workforce development, S. 633 also contains important provisions aimed at strengthening 

partnerships between tribal governments and Tribal Colleges that will help develop 

and expand reservation-based economies and communities. Specifically, the bill 

would establish a competitive grant program to fund TCU-tribal partnerships that 

44 

encourage micro-enterprise development, entrepreneurship, business degree programs, municipality planning, and leadership development. 

With very little and extremely competitive resources, Tribal Colleges are working 

to strengthen tribal governments and build thriving economies and communities. 

Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota, offers small business incubators 

to the community, with training in business plan development and marketing. Chief 

Dull Knife College in Lame Deer, Montana, recently helped create a community development corporation and provides workshops in e-commerce, financial literacy, 

and youth entrepreneurship. These are just two examples of efforts currently underway that could be replicated at other Tribal Colleges if resources were available. 

In addition to implementing strategies to encourage entrepreneurship, Tribal Colleges also serve as key infrastructure providers on their reservations. For example, 

Salish Kootenai College has served as a local ISP (Internet Service Provider) in its 

area, bringing broadband Internet access into peoples’ homes. Sitting Bull College 

runs a nationally recognized reservation-wide bus service, taking thousands of residents to doctors’ appointments, classes, and community functions. Some TCUs run 

building trades programs that partner with the tribe to build vitally needed housing 

for their communities, and a number of TCUs have student dorms, often including 

married-student and family housing. 

Tribal Colleges are economic drivers on their reservations and in their communities. For example: A study conducted by United Tribes Technical College in North 

Dakota revealed that UTTC contributes $46.7 million in direct and secondary benefits to State’s economy in one year. Oglala Lakota College employs 300 people, runs 

the tribal day care and Head Start programs, and as I mentioned above, trains 80 

percent of the local Nursing force. Tribal Colleges throughout the nation are educating and training K–12 teachers, tribal leaders, and Native scientists. 

The keys to our success lie in our ability to create strong partnerships, to tell our 

story of success effectively, and to stay focused on our collective vision of building 

stronger Tribal Nations through Tribal Higher Education. 

We look forward to working with Senator Tester and the co-sponsors of S.633 to 

achieve this vision, and thank them for their commitment to and trust in Tribal Colleges and Universities. 

Expansion of S. 633, to Achieve the Original Goals of Comprehensive Legislation 

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I respectfully request that Senator Tester and the 

members of this Committee work with us to better achieve the original intent of the 

legislation: the creation of a comprehensive strategy through which Tribal Colleges 

are full partners with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, working 

together to help build, strengthen, and sustain thriving tribal communities. 

As truly engaged institutions, Tribal Colleges are the catalysts for change in Indian Country. Although our institutions are the most poorly funded institutions of 

higher education in the U.S., I have tried to demonstrate today how TCUs are addressing many of the economic and social challenges facing Native communities. We 

are: 

• Preparing an American Indian health workforce; 

• Improving the health and wellness of students and their families; 

• Combating substance abuse, including alcohol and methamphetamine use; 

• Vitalizing Native cultures and languages; and 

• Creating economic development opportunities in the Nation’s poorest communities. 

In its original form, this legislation addressed all of these areas, strengthening 

and sustaining TCU capacity to help our underserved Native communities achieve 

healthier, longer, and more prosperous lives; more stable and secure families; and 

greater economic competitiveness through access to vitally needed new and existing 

programs, resources, and partnerships within the U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services. 

However, for various reasons during the 110th Congress, the legislation was 

changed before being reported by the Committee to the full Senate and some provisions were deleted that are critical to the legislation’s goal and to the future of Native America. 

Native Language Research and Programs 

As originally introduced by Senator Tester in the 110th Congress, this legislation 

included a modest provision authorizing $12 million in funding for Native language 

vitalization and training at Tribal Colleges. However, this provision was removed, 

and AIHEC began pursuing and alternative strategy in this area. 

45 

Due to the extreme lack of funding available in this area and the urgent need 

for action, we respectfully request that the Committee thoughtfully revisit this 

issue. As you know, the ‘‘Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation 

Act’’ currently provides only $3.5 million per year, to be awarded competitively 

among potentially hundreds of American Indian and Alaska Native language 

projects. Quite simply, we must set our goals higher, both in terms of funding and 

activities: we need to significantly increase resources, and we must move beyond 

‘‘preservation’’ to the vitalization of our Native languages. These are the goals of 

Tribal Colleges and Universities. 

Mr. Chairman, nothing is more central to the core function of Tribal Colleges and 

Universities than the restoration and vitalization of tribal languages and cultures. 

In fact, it is the mission of every Tribal College in this country because we realize 

that without our language, our very identity will be lost. 

Language restoration and vitalization is our mission and our life’s work. It is not, 

however, the mission of state public schools, which educate 90 percent of all American Indian children; nor is it in the mission of North Dakota State University, the 

University of Montana, or any other state university. More so than any other group 

of institutions, Tribal Colleges are actively and aggressively working to preserve, 

sustain, and vitalize our own tribal languages and cultures, as I mentioned earlier. 

In some cases, the tribal language would have been completely lost if not for the 

Tribal College. Turtle Mountain Community College in Belcourt, North Dakota, was 

established primarily for this purpose, and over the years, its success in writing and 

revitalizing the Turtle Mountain Chippewa language has been tremendous. 

All TCUs offer Native language courses, and passing a language course is a condition of graduation from a TCU; and Tribal Colleges are responsible for the vast majority of the 50 or so Native language immersion programs in the U.S. Fort Belknap 

College in Montana runs a K–6 language immersion school, right on campus. At the 

White Clay Immersion School, children learn the White Clay language and culture 

in addition to subjects they would normally study in public school. 

Mr. Chairman, of the 155 Indigenous languages still being spoken in the United 

States, 135 or more are spoken only by elders. We do not believe that a modest $12 

million program will threaten any other program—the need is so great, and the current resources are so pitifully small. We simply must work together to do more. We 

urge you to include authorization for a TCU Native language program, similar to 

the provisions of Senator Tester’s original legislation. Such a program could be located within the Department of Health and Human Services, as originally proposed, 

or perhaps within the Department of Education or the Interior. 

TCU Health and Wellness Centers 

Likewise, we urge the Committee to consider including Senator Tester’s original 

provisions regarding health and wellness centers at Tribal Colleges. These provisions were deleted because some individuals stated that authorization for funding 

of health and wellness centers at Tribal Colleges would: (1) potentially take funding 

away from vitally needed funding for Indian Health Service hospitals and clinics 

and tribal health facilities; and (2) that health and wellness centers at TCUs would 

compete with tribal health care delivery services. 

Mr. Chairman, we believe that over the past few months, the situation regarding 

IHS and tribal health facilities construction has changed so dramatically as to remove any fear anyone could have over a modest authorization for a TCU health and 

wellness facilities program. Specifically, both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and this Committee’s Fiscal Year 2010 priorities should put that fear to 

rest. Further, we believe that attempts to prohibit Tribal Colleges from establishing 

health and wellness centers, particularly when the establishment of such facilities 

is at the request of and in partnership with their respective tribal governments, restricts the exercise of tribal sovereignty and should not be tolerated. Already, several Tribal Colleges, at the request of their tribal governments and governing 

boards, have established health and wellness centers or student health clinics. 

Other requests are currently pending. For example, the Salish and Kootenai tribes 

have asked Salish Kootenai College to establish a student health clinic. 

Community-based Social Science Research 

We urge the Committee to ensure that the bill exemplifies Senator Tester’s original intent regarding joint Tribal College-Tribal Government Economic and Community Development Research, including provisions authorizing funding for workforce 

inventories and industrial analysis, community development through coordinated 

planning, and multi-stakeholder partnership models. As outlined above, Tribal Colleges are economic drivers on our reservations and we should be working closely 

with our tribal governments to strengthen our tribal economies and communities. 

46 

Dedicated funding for social science research at Tribal Colleges, in consultation with 

tribal governments is essential for good and data driven decision making. We ask 

that social science research provisions be included in the legislation. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to share our story, our successes, 

and our needs with you today. We look forward to working with you to achieve enactment of S. 633, the Tribal Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and Universities 

Advancement Act of 2009. 

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Taylor, thank you very much. We appreciate 

your testimony. 

A couple of questions. 

Mr. Lupe, Mr. Chairman, the bill that is before us, will that permanently settle the tribe’s water rights claims in the Salt River 

watershed? In other words, is this a permanent settlement that is 

all encompassing? 

Mr. LUPE. Yes, this is a permanent settlement. Yes. 

The CHAIRMAN. Okay. Is there opposition that you know of to 

this quantification agreement? 

Mr. LUPE. None that I am aware of. All parties are agreed to it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Will the project to build the Miner Flat Dam that 

you describe in your testimony, will that be in compliance with 

Federal environmental laws, and has the environmental analysis 

been done on that? 

Mr. LUPE. Oh, definitely. We always comply with all the laws, 

the various environmentally. You name it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Ms. Reyes, I neglected to mention I believe Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell are cosponsors. I think the legislation was introduced by Senator Murray in the Senate. The Supreme Court recently issued its decision in the Carcieri case, decided the Secretary of the Interior did not have the authority to 

place land into trust for tribes not under Federal jurisdiction at the 

time the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934. We are 

going to do a hearing on that. I think this has a pretty substantial 

impact on a lot of tribes. 

Have you or the attorneys for your tribe taken a look at that? 

Do you anticipate that has an impact for you? 

Ms. REYES. Well, of course, anything that has to do with transferring land into trust is going to impact us, especially when our 

whole reservation is located in a flood zone. It is actually holding 

up any progress of working with the county that, you know, we already have plans working with the county for the fire district, to 

reopen Fire District 7. And also, we neighbor the park, the national 

park, and we are working on the local level to—it was actually 

written into the bill—to work together to build a visitor cultural 

center with West Trails, that we have already had meetings about 

and are really excited about. But this is one of the things that is 

stopping anything from going forward. 

The CHAIRMAN. Has the tribe made the efforts to obtain the support of the BIA or the National Park Service, HUD? Have you had 

any outreach to them? 

Ms. REYES. Oh, they are supporting us with this whole bill. 

The CHAIRMAN. Good. That is very helpful. You make a strong 

case for the bill and I think that certainly we will work with our 

colleagues on it. 

Mr. Soto, the efforts that you describe, you have had some acquisitions in the past and the seven parcels that you are talking about 

47 

here, have you abandoned your effort to acquire them through the 

existing process in the Department of the Interior? Is that the reason that there is Federal legislation required? 

Mr. SOTO. No, we haven’t abandoned that process. It was just on 

their advice that we proceed in a different manner, and that is 

what we are doing. 

The CHAIRMAN. And whose advice was that? 

Mr. SOTO. The BIA. 

The CHAIRMAN. I see. Okay. All right. 

Ms. Taylor, just quickly, the PATH Act would require partnerships with various levels of government and various agencies. And 

yet in your testimony, you suggest cooperation hasn’t always been 

what you would expect. What would lead us to believe that if we 

passed this legislation, which I support and am a cosponsor of, that 

we will have a better experience? 

Ms. TAYLOR. Well, the end product of this bill is to decrease 

health disparities in Native communities. And part of doing that is 

to enable tribal colleges to provide health care workforce for native 

peoples within their own lands and their own native culture. 

Health care is highly regulated through out the United States 

and those regulations are all necessary as we look to build health 

care promotions. Those regulatory agencies will need to become 

partners with us as we develop those kind of networks. If that answers your question? 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Senator Barrasso? 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman Lupe, if I could, I am wondering whether the advancement of this Act will help economic development as well? 

Mr. LUPE. Oh, yes, definitely. 

Senator BARRASSO. Will you tell us a little about that? 

Mr. LUPE. Economic development is in dire need on our reservation, and we have included a separate agreement between the parties which we all agree on as a need, and along with the reservoir, 

there will be built a Miner Flat Dam. Yes. We have utter inclusion 

in the area of Sunrise Ski and several lakes improvement, and the 

sawmill, and just the reforestation and so forth, so environmentally. And also the economic development stretches all the way 

across our reservation. There is a dire need for environmental, excuse me, economic development, yes. 

Senator BARRASSO. Ms. Reyes, Vice Chairman Reyes, the same 

question to you, about economic development opportunities if this 

goes through 

Ms. REYES. Yes, as I mentioned, we are working with Jefferson 

County currently to reopen Fire District 7. We have no fire district 

within our area because we are a rural community, and we need 

to actually relocate all of our homes out of the flood zone. 

During our last flood, we had FEMA come down and meet with 

us, and they were willing to relocate us, but the only thing that 

stopped that from happening was we had nowhere to relocate anything because everything is the flood zone right now. 

Senator BARRASSO. Okay. 

Chairman Soto, same question about economic development opportunities. 

48 

Mr. SOTO. Right. Four of the parcels are currently being utilized 

as farmland. Three of the parcels are being considered as recreational-themed development in the very near future. 

Senator BARRASSO. What about law enforcement, if I could ask 

about that? Will that be provided by the tribe or by the Bureau of 

Indian Affairs? Or how are you going to handle the issue of law enforcement? 

Mr. SOTO. The local jurisdiction is annexing all around and about 

us. They have indicated to us that they would be willing to provide 

law enforcement if necessary, but we do have our own police department and they are also charged with that. So we have dual jurisdictions on that property currently. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you. 

And Ms. Taylor, could you talk a little bit about recruitment and 

retention of health care professionals? I know in Wyoming, we have 

a real challenge of recruiting and retaining, and I think that educating at home is a helpful way to do that, for it is more likely that 

someone is willing to stay there than move elsewhere. 

Are there specific pieces of the legislation that additionally help 

with recruiting or retaining, or any kind of bonuses or any kind of 

pay for, you know, a year for your service if you get the education? 

We have been experimenting with certain things in Wyoming to try 

to get local folks educated and then keep them there, so they don’t 

just get the education that we invest in and then they move elsewhere. 

Could you visit a little bit about that? 

Ms. TAYLOR. Okay, it seems that your question is a little multifactoral. 

Senator BARRASSO. Yes. 

Ms. TAYLOR. One of the things that existed before we initiated 

our program at the tribal college, there was an agreement between 

the college and the university to make sure that we cold train Native people at the university. And that program was not very successful because native people tend to want to stay near home and 

near family and near community. By putting health care and 

health careers in the tribal colleges, that will facilitate that, instead of sending people away to work at the universities. 

Nurses notoriously like to work at the place where they were 

trained. And so if you send a student away to work at a university, 

they will tend to want to stay in that particular area. 

And so by having the programs themselves on the reservation for 

the Native people that facilitates them staying on the reservation 

and taking care of their own people. 

Senator BARRASSO. Are there any additional incentives in terms 

of either financial incentives or scholarships or the forgiveness of 

loans for staying so many years and serving in that community? 

Because it seems the ones that even start working there, and then 

become more and more involved, that then it is more likely they 

would stay as well. 

Ms. TAYLOR. I do not have the answer to that question. In my 

read-through, I did not see any specific monies for that, but I can 

get that answer back to you. 

Senator BARRASSO. I would appreciate that. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

49 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Barrasso, thank you very much. 

Senator Tester? 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding the hearing once again. 

Mr. Lupe, Senator Barrasso asked you about economic development. What are your current unemployment levels on the reservation right now? 

Mr. LUPE. What now? 

Senator TESTER. Your unemployment levels, what are they at? 

Mr. LUPE. I would say it is right in the area of 80 percent. 

Senator TESTER. Eighty percent? 

Mr. LUPE. Yes. 

Senator TESTER. And what this water compact bill is about $293 

million associated with it also. Correct? And is that for building 

and maintaining, basically, the drinking water system? Is that 

mainly what that money is for, or is it for other uses there too? 

Mr. LUPE. Yes. We have also included in there the sawmill retooling. We have a mainstay economy. We have a high stand of 

timber. 

Senator TESTER. Yes. 

Mr. LUPE. And we had a terrible burn not too long ago which 

devastated our economy. So we are redefining our machines so we 

can go into the smaller diameter trees. That will take quite a bit 

of money in reinvestment so we can put people back to work again. 

And there are other areas, like snow-making for the Sunrise Ski 

Resort and also the recreation lakes development. 

Senator TESTER. Good. And that is all part of the $293 million? 

Mr. LUPE. Yes. 

Senator TESTER. Okay, good. 

My geography isn’t the best. Where does the Salt River go? It 

leaves your place and it goes to central Arizona? And then is the 

water used up at that point in time? Or does it go into New Mexico 

or another State? Give me an idea. 

Mr. LUPE. The headwaters of our reservation all stems from 

springs and streams from our reservation which forms the Salt 

River, which flows into Phoenix. 

Senator TESTER. Yes. And is that the end of it? They use it all 

there? 

Mr. LUPE. It starts from our reservation. We don’t go into another State at all. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. And I just want to make sure, as Senator 

Kyl said, the urban folks are okay with all this? They have been 

part of the negotiations and they are okay, too. Right? 

Mr. LUPE. Oh, yes. All parties in the Phoenix Valley have signed. 

They have agreed to our bill. 

Senator TESTER. Good. Okay. 

Jonette, you talked about the park, 37-acre national park. Is that 

the whole park, or is that a portion of the park? 

Ms. REYES. It is a small portion of the park. 

Senator TESTER. It is a small portion of the park. 

Ms. REYES. Yes, as I mentioned before, they weren’t even certain 

how they acquired that land. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. Is the Park Service, what has been their 

comment about this bill? 

50 

Ms. REYES. They are actually pretty supportive. 

Senator TESTER. Good. 

Ms. REYES. You know, we meet with them regularly. They know 

what our need is to relocate. They are just very supportive. We 

have had support with pretty much everybody that we met with in 

regards to this bill. 

Senator TESTER. That is good to know. Okay, thank you. 

Mr. Soto, there are seven parcels of land that you have acquired 

that you want to put into trust. 

Mr. SOTO. Yes. 

Senator TESTER. And it also talks about 360 acres. Those seven 

parcels and 360 acres are the same? Or is there more than that in 

the seven parcels? 

Mr. SOTO. I think there is 423 in total. 

Senator TESTER. So why isn’t it all being transferred at this point 

in time? 

Mr. SOTO. I believe they are. 

Senator TESTER. Oh, they are? Okay. That is good to know. 

Thank you. 

And is there anybody that is non-supportive of this happening at 

the local level? 

Mr. SOTO. No, none to this point. 

Senator TESTER. Okay, good. Thank you. 

Ms. Taylor, I just kind of want to get an idea. You are in Wisconsin. You run a nursing program there at a tribal college in Indian Country. What are the needs as far as workforce needs where 

you are at? And what percentage of them are you able to supply 

right now? 

Ms. TAYLOR. First of all, I would like to thank you, Senator 

Tester, for sponsoring this bill. It is very important to the tribal 

colleges. 

One of the sad things about reported data on the American nursing workforce is that only 0.5 percent of the nursing workforce, and 

yet there is a shortage, is declared American Indian-Native Alaskan. 

One of the things that I realized as I was looking at the potential 

of starting this program, that Native people like to stay near home 

and community and comfort areas, and take care of their own, and 

do a lot of those kind of things. 

So the workforce I am trying to develop is a workforce to care 

for our own, to hopefully stay on the reservation, take care of the 

needs of our elderly. Many of the students that are in my certified 

nursing assistant course are not looking to get jobs. They are actually looking to take care of their elders at home, which is significant in understanding the mind set. 

So yes, we are definitely developing hopefully a Native Americanfocused workforce to address the needs of the area. But we have 

shortages of nurses that cycle periodically, and so we are hoping 

to be able to help meet some of the needs in the area for Native 

nurses and culturally appropriate care. 

Senator TESTER. Is the demand for your program, and it is going 

to vary throughout the U.S. depending on where you are at and 

which reservation you are on, but is the demand for your program, 

I am talking about the people who want to go to school there. Can 

51 

you supply them with the educational opportunity? Or do you need 

to ramp up your program in order to meet the needs of the folks 

who want to come? 

Ms. TAYLOR. Well, the program is sound, I can tell you that. 

Senator TESTER. Yes. 

Ms. TAYLOR. But what we are trying to do is we are trying to 

make an educational career ladder so that we can get people slowly 

into the rigors of a nursing program. A lot of people, everybody, you 

know, all over the Nation, don’t realize how rigorous a nursing program is. 

Senator TESTER. Right. 

Ms. TAYLOR. And so sometimes they think because we are a tribal college, we are less rigorous, and that is not the case. So we are 

building our student base, remediating them before they come into 

the program. 

Senator TESTER. Good. And I think you made this point, but I 

am going to repeat it. The intent of this bill is to train Native 

Americans in Indian Country so that they will stay there and give 

the treatment, because I know, at least in Montana, and I think 

it is true throughout the Country, they want to stay at home. They 

don’t want to leave and get a job off-reservation. 

So I appreciate your testimony. 

Senator Udall? 

STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO 

Senator UDALL. Thank you very much. 

Senator Tester, I want to compliment you on this piece of legislation, S. 633, the Tribal Health Promotion and Tribal Colleges and 

Universities Act. 

And Linda, I want to focus on one thing on the Act to see what 

it is that could really make a difference in Indian Country. I mean, 

you are a nurse. You are very aware of the epidemic we have of 

diabetes in Indian Country. We have it severely in New Mexico on 

many of our reservations. And we all know that it is prevention 

and really getting out in front of these kinds of issues that could 

make a real difference. 

I at one point had an experience on the Navajo Reservation 

where several Navajo women, elderly women that knew the traditional Navajo diet, which is much different than, as they would describe, they called the white man’s diet the biliganna diet. They 

said stay away from the biliganna diet and focus on the traditional 

native diet, which was high in complex carbohydrates and protein 

and things like that. 

And what they did is they had a fair in their community, and 

they cooked the traditional diet, because many people didn’t know 

what the diet was, and then brought in the young people and had 

them sample it and see how good it was, with the idea of also having health people there that could talk about the health benefits of 

it. 

And I am wondering in this legislation, do you think health fairs 

like that, those kinds of events where tribal communities take control of their health, that you know, there is a personal responsiVerDate Nov 24 2008 13:17 Nov 18, 2009 Jkt 051274 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\51274.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
52 

bility element. They step up to the plate like you are probably 

doing in your community. 

Is that allowed under this bill? Is this something that would be 

encouraged? 

Ms. TAYLOR. Very much encouraged under this bill. Health and 

Wellness Fairs are an integral piece of this particular bill. So yes, 

and I agree with you that having wellness fairs are very, very important, but I also want to reiterate, just like the rest of us when 

we go to the physician and he tells us we need to adjust our diet, 

we do so for a month, and then we are kind of like looking at the 

Twinkies and we are going, oh, let’s go back to that. 

So it needs to be redone on a regular basis. So we need to hit 

it often with looking at changing diet. That kind of behavioral 

modification isn’t done with one single wellness fair. It needs to be 

done on a regular basis to get people talking about it, sharing recipes, and looking at different ways of preventing health disparities. 

Senator UDALL. My sense is what this legislation is trying to do 

is grow those capabilities and capacities at the tribal level, as you 

are doing at your tribe where you are a nurse, and build that to 

move forward with these kinds of preventive agendas. 

Ms. TAYLOR. Correct. Prevention, if we can get them young, if we 

can get them to think about their health and the choices that they 

make on a regular basis, it would definitely be beneficial to the 

overall health and wellness of the people. 

Senator UDALL. And isn’t it much better to start earlier and get 

those habits early than it is to have to try to break bad habits 

later? That’s the idea of focusing on young people and focusing on 

a prevention agenda. 

Ms. TAYLOR. Right. And the more you can get the elders and the 

children to interact, the better off the generations will be. 

Senator UDALL. In your statement, you say perhaps no other 

tribal college presidents and students know better of our nearly 

daily struggle to survive as the most poorly funded institutions of 

higher education in the Country. Can you speak to that and to how 

you think this piece of legislation would make a difference on that 

front? 

Ms. TAYLOR. We are entirely grant funded, so that makes it very 

difficult. The tuition that we charge is about the same as the State 

community colleges in the area, but we get no State funding the 

way the community colleges do. And so that makes it necessary to 

apply for grants on a regular basis. 

Legislation like this will facilitate some of that, to know that 

there are some monies out there to help us as we definitely address 

the wellness needs of our communities in multi-factoral ways. And 

as a tribal college, I think we need to become the center of that 

health initiative. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you very much. 

I also thank the other witnesses for their testimony today, and 

very much appreciate Chairman Dorgan bringing these important 

pieces of legislation before the Committee. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 

Senator Cantwell? 

53 

STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I, too, want to thank you for holding this important hearing, in 

particular having Senate bill 443 on the docket today. 

I welcome Ms. Jonette Reyes to Washington. Thank you for traveling all this way to give testimony to this Senate bill on safe 

homelands. I was looking for the right word, safe homelands. 

Ms. Reyes, I don’t think that someone could probably travel further in the continental United States to get to Washington, D.C. 

How far is the Hoh Reservation from the Pacific Ocean? 

Ms. REYES. Right out our back door and sometimes outside our 

office window. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CANTWELL. Which is part of the problem. 

Ms. REYES. Definitely. 

Senator CANTWELL. And what is the closest city to you? 

Ms. REYES. Well, it is not necessarily a city. It is the town of 

Forks. 

Senator CANTWELL. And how large is Forks? 

Ms. REYES. If you blink during the drive through, there is one 

stoplight. If you blink, you might miss it and there are some people 

that do. But it is not very large. There is like one grocery store and 

the nearest shopping place after that is probably about an hour 

and a half away in both directions. So it has maybe 3,000 and a 

couple of vampires. I don’t know if you have heard. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes, that movie is very popular. I am glad 

to know that Forks has made it to international fame in that particular movie that has caught everyone’s attention. 

So to say that you are in a remote location doesn’t even quite do 

it justice, does it? 

Ms. REYES. No, not really. I think Forks is remote, but we are 

even more so. 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes, and so having the ability to use whatever available land on your reservation for your own tribal economic sustainability is critical? 

Ms. REYES. Yes, definitely. And you know, we already have an 

emergency management plan in the works with the county, as I 

had mentioned numerous times. And we are going to be serving not 

only our own tribal community, but the whole community of the 

west end Jefferson County. Because like I mentioned before, we 

work with the Olympic Correctional Center. We do sandbagging 

with the inmates. And you know, they have no fire protection as 

well as ourselves, and there is also in Olympic National Park like 

resort, Kalaloch Lodge. There is no fire protection for them as well. 

Senator CANTWELL. So how much of the tribal acreage is 

buildable land? 

Ms. REYES. Right now? 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes. 

Ms. REYES. Well, we are in the flood zone, so the land that we 

purchased right now, we are just kind of hoping for all that to get 

into trust. We need the one little 37-acre piece of Olympic National 

Park for that to happen. 

54 

Senator CANTWELL. So that you could actually have some—— 

Ms. REYES. Contiguous land all the way to the other land that 

we purchased. 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes. But the purchase of that property had 

been to give the reservation some sustainable development land. Is 

that correct? 

Ms. REYES. Correct, to move us out of the flood zone. 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes. 

Ms. REYES. We haven’t been able to build anything because we 

are in a flood zone and we are not eligible to apply for any 184 

loans for home grants or anything. As I mentioned before, our 

households have two to three families per household. 

Senator CANTWELL. So I know that you mentioned in your written testimony that you expressed your condolences to the people of 

North Dakota on the Red River who have basically faced this same 

challenge you are facing. 

Ms. REYES. Yes, we are familiar with it. Actually, we have three 

storms coming in on Sunday. We are going back home Saturday 

night, so maybe the next day we can help sandbagging. 

Senator CANTWELL. Yes. 

Ms. REYES. So we completely understand when it comes to flooding. 

Senator CANTWELL. So Mr. Chairman, I think this legislation 

truly is important to helping these individuals really sustain their 

current site and reservation and to provide some opportunity for 

economic development. I think it has been well thought out, well 

discussed with the various partners in the region. I very much appreciate Ms. Reyes traveling all of this way to be here to give testimony to it, and again for you holding the hearing on it. I hope we 

can move the legislation. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Cantwell follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL, U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON

Mr. Chairman, thank you for moving to consider the Hoh Indian Tribe Safe 

Homelands Act so quickly. 

The situation facing the Hoh Tribe is dangerous and desperate, so it is important 

that we move as fast as we can on this bill. 

I also want to thank the Vice Chair of the Hoh Tribe, Jonette Reyes (Jone-ette 

Rays) for making the long trip from the other Washington, and for her willingness 

to testify on such short notice about this important piece of legislation. 

It is vital to hear directly from the Tribe about the conditions they face. 

Since 1893, The Hoh Tribe has occupied a one-square-mile reservation on the 

banks of the Hoh River where it meets the Pacific Ocean in Washington state. 

While this location may sound picturesque, the fact is that the reservation is bordered by: 

• An ever-changing river 

• The unpredictable Pacific Ocean; and 

• The Olympic National Park 

This severely limits the Tribe’s ability to get out of harm’s way if necessary. 

Due to repeated storms, heavy rain, and the movement of the Hoh River by a half 

of a mile, the Tribe’s village is continually threatened with flooding during the winter months. 

In fact, areas near the reservation can receive over 100 inches of rain a year. 

Ninety percent of the reservation now sits in a flood plain and 100 percent of their 

land sits within a tsunami zone. 

Many of the buildings located on the existing reservation are permanently sandbagged due to the threat of flooding. And, many houses have been lost to the river 

over the last 10 years. 

55 

Year after year, the Hoh Tribe must battle Mother Nature as ocean waters threaten to wash away their homes and tribal buildings. 

These native peoples deserve to live in a place where sandbags aren’t the norm, 

and it is our trust responsibility to take action. 

Transferring the ownership of a 36 acre piece of federal land should never be 

taken lightly, but in this unique situation, we are in the position to help these people rest a little easier. 

By transferring this land to the Tribe and taking land the Tribe already owns into 

trust, the Tribe will be able to move out of danger... and breathe a much-needed 

sigh of relief. 

Over 20 individuals and groups are supporting this legislation including: 

• The Governor of Washington, Christine Gregoire; 

• All of the local House and Senate office holders; 

• The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians; and 

• The National Congress of American Indians. 

I look forward to working with you to schedule a quick markup for this legislation, so we can help this group of people that we have a responsibility to help. 

Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Cantwell, thank you very much. 

It is a long trip for, was it 37 acres? 

Ms. REYES. Yes. 

[Laughter.] 

The CHAIRMAN. But you make a compelling case, and I will work 

with Senator Cantwell and Senator Murray. 

Ms. REYES. But everything lays on the transfer of those 37 acres. 

The CHAIRMAN. I understand. 

Ms. REYES. Not only for us, but for our surrounding communities 

as well. 

The CHAIRMAN. You make a very compelling case. 

Let me thank all four witnesses who have come to us today. We 

wanted to hold this hearing. We will, as I said, begin a series of 

votes in the Senate very shortly. We appreciate your traveling long 

distances to make the case. 

Chairman Lupe and Ms. Reyes, Councilman Soto, Ms. Taylor, 

thank you very much. 

And we will obviously consider the testimony and begin working 

on this legislation, and we will also keep the hearing record open 

for those who may wish to submit testimony to be part of the permanent record. We will hold this record open for two weeks if there 

are those who wish to submit supplemental testimony. 

This hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:04 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 

(57) 

A P P E N D I X 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MIKE JACKSON SR., PRESIDENT, QUECHAN TRIBE, FORT

YUMA INDIAN RESERVATION


402d3.eps
58 


402d4.eps
59 


402d5.eps
60 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF PHIL GORDON, MAYOR, CITY OF PHOENIX


402d1.eps
61 


402d2.eps
62 

RESPONSE TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. BYRON L. DORGAN TO

HON. PAUL SOTO


402c1.eps
63 


402c2.eps
64 


402c3.eps
65 


402c4.eps
66 


402c5.eps
67 


402c6.eps
68 


402c7.eps
69 


402c8.eps
70 


402c9.eps
71 


402c10.eps
72 


402c11.eps
73 


402e1.eps
74 


402e2.eps
75 


402e3.eps
76 


402e4.eps
77 


402e5.eps
78 


402e6.eps
79 


402e7.eps
80 


402e8.eps
81 


402e9.eps
82 


402e13.eps 402e10.eps
83 


402e11.eps
84 

Æ 


402e12.eps