Indian Nations President Says 'Quiet Crisis' Grows Louder
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 1/28/2004
While the president of the United States delivered his State of the Union address on January 20, National Congress of American Indians President Tex G. Hall was preparing for his own. Hall delivered the State of Indian Nations Address on January 21, exploring the issues surrounding sovereignty in Native American and Alaskan Native tribal communities.
"One of the most important things to understand about American Indian tribes is the simple fact that tribes are governments-- not non-profit organizations, not interest groups, not an ethnic minority," Hall told the crowd.
Discussing the federal government's reluctance to accept its responsibility to Native communities across the country, Hall alluded to a recent report by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission that blasts several federal agencies for not aggressively fighting a backlog of poor services for American Indians.
The report, "A Quiet Crisis: Federal Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian Country," found that due to under-funding of federal trust funds to Native communities, tribes are less able to be self sufficient, which in turn perpetuates high poverty and unemployment rates, low secondary education graduation rates, a shorter life expectancy, and higher rates of sickness and disease for native peoples.
"Commitment, the 'trust responsibility'-- is not a hand-out, but a contract," Hall said. "And that contract has been broken time and again by the federal government."
After identifying areas of concern within the Indian Nation, Hall presented solutions, including law enforcement and public safety on reservations. He praised the Gila River Indian Community for its outstanding tribally-controlled police department. Because the Gila River community has invested tribal money into expanding its law enforcement staff, Hall said, public safety on the reservation has improved dramatically. He believes that with adequate federal funding and improved "clarity" of tribal jurisdiction within their boundaries, tribes can play a much-needed part in the public safety network.
To tackle the problem of under-funded education, Hall suggests a renewed commitment to bring the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) school funding up to that of other public schools, and to support the distinctive needs of the native students. One of the problems that causes low graduation rates, Hall said, is that the BIA is allotted only $3,000 a year for each student, which is half of what most public schools receive for their students.
In an effort to offer a solution to health and social service issues, Hall called upon Congress to increase its Indian Health Service funding so that tribes can fight diabetes, alcoholism, and other diseases affecting the Native communities. He emphasized that the life expectancy for Native Americans and Alaskan Natives is five years less than all other races in the United States. Today, American Indian medical service is less than one-third that of an individual who has Medicaid assistance.
Hall believes that it is crucial for Indian Nations to be involved in the reauthorization of federal funding, which creates a safe infrastructure critical to the governance of the communities.
"Sovereignty is one of the primary development resources tribes can have, and the reinforcement of tribal sovereignty through self-determination should be the central thrust of public policy," he said.
Calling upon the Department of the Interior to work with tribes and reorganize their system to be more responsive to local needs, Hall explained that the federal government has mismanaged money in trust accounts for individual Indians, as well as tribes. In fact, one independent source has estimated that billions of Indian dollars have been mishandled and lost by the self-appointed resource manager.
"[The Indian Nation is] in a midst of a quiet crisis that grows louder with each passing year," he said. "[Sovereignty] means the opening of possibility that our democratic faith can be made whole again."
