    [Senate Hearing 111-66]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                             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

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    20402-0001

                          COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

                    BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman
                     JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Vice Chairman
    DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii             JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
    KENT CONRAD, North Dakota            LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
    DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii              TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
    TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota            MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
    MARIA CANTWELL, Washington           MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska
    JON TESTER, Montana
    TOM UDALL, New Mexico
    _____, _____
          Allison C. Binney, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
         David A. Mullon Jr., Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel

                                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

                      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.
        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.

                      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 provided 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.
        [The prepared statement of Senator Kyl follows:]

         Prepared Statement of Hon. Jon Kyl, U.S. Senator from Arizona

        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
    unemployment 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 vote-a-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.
        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.
        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\
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ Tribal 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 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
    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.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \2\ This 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.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        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:

       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 irrigation, 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.
    Attachments

        The Chairman. Chairman Lupe, thank you very much.
        Just for information, what is the enrolled membership of
    your tribe?
        Mr. Lupe. Fourteen thousand, presently.
        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.]
        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 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.
        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.
    Attachments

        The Chairman. Finally, Mr. Paul Soto, the Tribal Councilman
    from the Cocopah Tribe in Somerton, Arizona.
        Mr. Soto?

      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 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 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.

       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 reservation-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 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 in-service 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.
        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 long-term 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 referrals, 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 re-submit 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 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 reservation-based 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
    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.
        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. 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 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.
        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
    multi-factoral.
        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.
        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?
        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
    American-focused 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 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 responsibility 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?

                   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.
        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.
        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.]
                                A P P E N D I X

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

                                     ______

           Prepared Statement of Phil Gordon, Mayor, City of Phoenix

                                     ______

      Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Byron L. Dorgan to
                                 Hon. Paul Soto