[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 57-58]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         CHIEF PHILLIP MARTIN--CHAMPION OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM DeLAY

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 3, 2001

  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to introduce to the Record the 
following editorial that appears in Indian Country Today. As the piece 
points out, Chief Phillip Martin of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw 
Indians has for more than a quarter of a century used the free market 
as a tool to better the lives of his fellow tribe members and 
neighbors.
  Self-reliance and not government dependency is the secret to 
prosperity. But there is no need to tell Chief Martin that fact. He has 
lived his life promoting the economic vitality of his people and they 
have reaped the benefits of his progressive thinking. I salute Chief 
Martin for all he has done to further the cause of freedom--for his 
people and for our nation.

               [From Indian Country Today, Dec. 27, 2000]

           Mississippi Choctaws: The Benefits of Peace Chiefs

       If a people are going to strive to achieve economic 
     prosperity, the reduction of conflict, the acceptance and 
     understanding of peace, is a most useful strategy. Mutual 
     understanding, common cause and unity of action become 
     possible. Little ever improves from virulent conflict and 
     nothing moves forward in war. Leadership with vision often 
     works actively to reduce conflict while putting its major 
     efforts toward the positive building of fair community 
     governance and efficient enterprises. At this moment of 
     shifting political climates, when the future of Native 
     nations is clouded by uncertainties on the national level, it 
     seems proper to salute a consistent peace chief, one who led 
     his own people from severe poverty and obscurity to sustained 
     prosperity and regional political prominence.
       He is Phillip Martin, long-time chief of the Mississippi 
     Band of Choctaw Indians. A man of great perseverance, the 75-
     year-old Martin has led and guided his 6,000-member Choctaw 
     tribe since 1959. Periodically, yet consistently reelected to 
     the tribe's highest office for more than 40 years, Phillip 
     Martin is universally credited for the success of the 
     Choctaw, who are well posed to enter the 21st century as a 
     self-determined people. While other, more conflictive tribes 
     have deepened their economic dependencies and allowed spirals 
     of violence to weaken their body politic, the Mississippi 
     Choctaws have built steadily for more than 30 years. A well-
     entrenched tradition remembers the attitude of historical 
     chief, Pushmataha, who in 1811 reasoned against war with 
     their neighbors while Tecumseh appealed to the Choctaw 
     warriors to join his war parties. While he had been a great 
     warrior as a young man, Pushmataha opted for peace as he aged 
     as a chief.
       While Tecumseh has come down through the history as the 
     greater leader, and Pushmataha is the lesser known. 
     Interestingly, the response of Pushmataha, who coolly 
     analyzed the horrible suffering war would bring, was actually 
     quite sophisticated and just as completely dedicated to the 
     preservation and survival of his people. He pointed out how 
     his own tribe had painstakingly worked out friendly relations 
     with their white neighbors. Their relations were reciprocal 
     and as a result, things were going well.

[[Page 58]]

     To start killing their neighbors with whom they had such 
     relations did not seem a good idea to Pushmataha, who kept 
     his people out of the war and guided them for another 14 
     years.
       Like Pushmataha, Phillip Martin came home from war to 
     embark in a career that would build education and civic 
     action and economic opportunity for his people. He was one of 
     those from what has been called ``the greatest generation.'' 
     A World War II Air Force combat veteran who lost a brother in 
     the war, Martin served in the military until 1955. When he 
     returned home, his people had their pride and their language, 
     but little else. They were among the poorest sharecroppers in 
     a poor state, acutely discriminated against. They were 
     basically just holding on a tribal base, having come through 
     a very dark historical period as a people of color in a 
     racially polarized South. Suffering from 80 percent 
     unemployment, 90 percent lived in proverty and the tribe 
     averaged a sixth-grade education.
       Appreciably, Martin returned home of sound mind and 
     character and applied himself to the betterment of his people 
     through self-sufficient enterprise. Martin led an early fight 
     to construct and operate the first high school on the 
     reservation in 1963, beginning a trend that has seen 
     consistent improvement in the educational level of the 
     reservation population. He began the planning that would lay 
     out a modern community infrastructure with good housing. He 
     pursued and constructed an industrial park and after 10 years 
     of chasing contracts, began a successful 20 years of economic 
     growth. General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Oxford Speakers and 
     other companies have located manufacturing plants in the 
     Choctaw's 80-acre industrial park, which boasts 500,000 
     square feet of manufacturing space.
       By 1994, the year when their enterprises diversified and 
     accelerated with construction of a casino and entertainment 
     center, the nation ran a total payroll topping $84 million. 
     It had sound management and was ready to take on the 
     complexity of gaming. The nation's Chahta Enterprises is now 
     one of the 10 top employers in Mississippi. Its entertainment 
     complex receives more than 2.5 million visitors a year and 
     the tribe has built more than 1,000 new houses, constructed a 
     major hospital, schools, nursing home, shopping center and 
     day care center.
       In what used to be the poorest county in the poorest state 
     in the United States, in one of the most conservative states 
     in the union, the Choctaws led an economic revolution. Today, 
     with nearly universal employment, only 2.7 percent of 
     household income comes from social services and this mostly 
     involves elderly and handicapped. The tribe's manufacturing 
     plants, still going strong, consistently win high qualify 
     awards. They employ some 8,000 people, mostly non-Natives.
       Most interestingly, a stroll down the reservation's main 
     elementary school will reveal a lot of students speaking 
     fluent Choctaw.
       ``Tell the other tribes'' Martin says, ``we can all do 
     this. If you really want to do it, and get your act together, 
     you can do it.'' This is a generous thought, but such 
     progress will also require vision, and political acumen. To 
     Martin's credit, when the political winds turned right in 
     1994, he was positioned to solidify friendships with such 
     Republican powerhouses as Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.
       Hiring quality lobbyists as their new wealth allowed, the 
     Choctaw leader persuaded a good sector of Republicans to the 
     righteousness of the Native nations sovereignty from 
     taxation. In particular, the Choctaw initiative convinced the 
     country's major anti-tax organization--Americans for Tax 
     Reform, whose 500-plus organizations network and 90,000 
     activists supported the Indian case as an anti-tax strategy.
       Politics is the art of achieving your group's self-
     interest, and it certainly makes for diverse bedfellows. But 
     always the proof is in the pudding. The Choctaw strategy, 
     precise and proper for their geopolitical context, is 
     pragmatically brilliant. In the hold of the old South, this 
     Mississippi tribe provides a welcome signal, an example of 
     where visionary leadership can make a huge difference to the 
     future of a people. An appreciation and salutation is due 
     Choctaw chief and statesman, Phillip Martin, visionary, quiet 
     building, steady helm.

     

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