[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[July 7, 1999]
[Pages 1147-1149]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in a Discussion at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota
July 7, 1999

[The discussion is joined in progress.]

    President Harold D. Salway. But we're 
durable people, have a lot of pride, have a lot of dignity.
    President Clinton. How do you stay warm in the winter?
    President Salway. Well, we're 
conditioned. We're conditioned--a lot of buffalo robes, a lot of good, 
hard work, too. This is how a lot of people live, though. This is about 
the average conditions of most homes throughout the reservation, and 
some are really bad yet.
    President Clinton.  Would you say the biggest immediate need you 
have is for better housing?
    President Salway. Housing and what new 
markets is going to do, create jobs. Not enough people working here on 
Pine Ridge, so that causes a lot of potential impacts.
    President Clinton. If there were jobs in the near vicinity, some 
sort of small manufacturing or something like that, do you think all the 
people who could work would do so?
    President Salway. Yes. We have one of 
the highest unemployment rates for--a lot of people going to work, being 
more responsible with their time would uplift the lives of the entire 
family in a lot of ways.
    President Clinton. Where's your tribal college?
    President Salway. Probably about 40 
miles northeast of here, toward the center part of our reservation. Our 
reservation is about 135 by 84, 85, thereabouts. A pretty large 
reservation.
    President Clinton. How close do the jobs have to be in order not to 
be too burdensome to go to and from work?
    President Salway. We don't have a 
transportation system, so most people have to carpool into Pine Ridge. 
Pine Ridge is kind of like the capital of the reservation, if you will. 
Most people transporting in and out, transit to come to work from IGS 
and BIA and tribal government. That's the greatest portion of 
employment. Not too much microenterprises for development.
    Housing is one of the largest employers on the reservation. But the 
need is so high that it naturally is one of the higher employment areas.
    President Clinton. Andrew, why don't you just say what we've been 
talking about, say what you were saying about the housing.
    Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo. As the 
President was saying, one of the greatest needs is housing, just provide 
the basic living conditions where people can improve themselves. And 
then homeownership--very little homeownership on the reservation--and 
homeownership, given the conversation we've had this past week, is 
really the first access to capital strategy, when you think about it. 
Because when you own and you have equity in your home, then you can 
start to get loans, you can start to get financing and start to get 
credit to open a business or pay a tuition, whatever you'd like to do.
    So our efforts are, first, try to improve as much housing as we can. 
We're doing that through the Housing Authority. We've set up a not-for-
profit with the reservation for the first time so the tribe can do 
business as a tribe and also as a not-for-profit organization.
    And then, homeownership, homeownership, homeownership. The people 
who are at the conference today--I was telling the President the numbers 
are up to about 800 people from across the country who come to this 
housing conference, 100 tribal presidents. And we have the

[[Page 1148]]

mainstream homeownership, housing bankers who come to the conference, 
and we're going to start, for the first time ever, in a big way, 
homeownership on the reservation linked to economic development, because 
it's also an empowerment zone. We're going to sign officially the papers 
at the next event.
    So we have the empowerment zone doing the economic development piece 
and housing and the homeownership with the private mortgage market 
coming forward.
    President Clinton. Frank?
    Franklin D. Raines. Well, we're 
trying very hard to bring private capital into the reservation. It's 
been a--working with this reservation, now signing an agreement with one 
of our major lenders and with the tribe to cut through a lot of the 
legal problems that lending--when you've got trust lands involved. And 
we think we can make progress there.
    We think that it's important that, in addition to the HUD programs 
that are so important, that we also get mainstream lenders in the 
conventional lending here. We've done a fair amount. We've bought about 
70 percent of the HUD loans that were made--Fannie Mae has financed on 
this reservation. But we're going to be committing not only to purchase 
new housing but $3 million of venture capital funds to encourage 
production of housing on this reservation. All this is part of a $500 
million initiative that Senator Daschle and Senator Johnson and I 
announced yesterday. That's covering the whole State, but there is a 
portion that is going to be just here, and we're intentionally keeping 
it, without us saying exactly where it's going to go.
    We're going to work with the tribal government to ensure that we can 
either put it in a multifamily or single-family or combinations of 
housing and retail that will make it possible to bring more and more 
private capital onto the reservation.
    Housing is the one part of the private capital system that is really 
working in full speed and is available to come into the toughest areas. 
It's harder to get funding for businesses and things, but we could do 
for housing.
    President Clinton. Let me ask you something. A lot of the people 
here, you said, have more than one family in the home. Now, if they had 
the choice, would you prefer a single-family home for every family that 
was more modern, or more modern but larger where you could have--more 
than one family could live together, but they'd have enough room to have 
their own rooms. Which would be preferable?
    President Salway. Probably single-
family homes because all the families crunched into one house causes a 
lot of other----
    President Clinton. Problems.
    President Salway. ----problems. Yes. 
Social situations.
    Geraldine Blue Bird. Mr. President, 
with regards to that, my house, the square footage of this is really 
short for the amount of people that I have here. So, with all my kids 
and my grandkids, when it comes to the living room area here, they're 
just stepping on them and bumping into them. And my--Philip is in a 
wheelchair, and he wants to have room, and then I have a stool sitting 
in the center--short footage area. And places like this are small.
    President Clinton. How many people live in here with you?
    Ms. Blue Bird. In this house, there 
are 11. And in this house--between the two houses, there's 28. You met 
part of them here.
    President Clinton. So you have 11 
living in here and 17 in the other place.
    Ms. Blue Bird. About like that. Yes. 
Because I've got them sleeping in here in the living room, I've got 
bunks in there. Between these two areas here, I have five bedrooms.
    President Clinton. And 28 people sleep?
    Ms. Blue Bird. And I have five 
bedrooms. So this is what I'm talking about. What you said, with that 
many people in a small area, that does cause problems, like here. My own 
personal opinion is I'd like to see us get jobs, because really to 
have--to get one of the homes that are coming up, you need to have an 
income. But right now we're living on--well, here on this street, I can 
safely say about 85 percent of us, here on this street alone, are living 
on Social Security, SSI, and welfare. That's one income once a month. 
And that's what we use.
    My boys, as you have seen, have applied for jobs. They have 
applications all over. I've even got one boy that went to the service. 
We've been using his veteran's benefits. It's hard to get a job here 
because there isn't one. When you get a job here, you hang onto it, 
because you get an income. Money every 2 weeks is better than money once 
a month.

[[Page 1149]]

    President Salway. And that causes 
problems. Everybody struggles for those very, very minimum jobs you 
have. So it causes a lot of conflicts.
    President Clinton. Over the jobs?
    President Salway. Over the jobs. So 
few.

Note: The discussion began at approximately 10 a.m. outside the home of 
Geraldine Blue Bird during a walking tour of the Igloo Housing 
neighborhood. The discussion participants included President Harold D. 
Salway of the Oglala Sioux Tribe; and Franklin D. Raines, chairman and 
chief executive officer, Fannie Mae. Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 
resident Geraldine Blue Bird referred to her father, Philip Brings Him 
Back. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a partial 
transcript of this discussion. A tape was not available for verification 
of the content of this discussion.