[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 27 (Monday, July 12, 1999)]
[Pages 1298-1302]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Community at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

July 7, 1999

    Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank 
you to all of you here from Pine Ridge and all the other tribal leaders 
who are here for HUD's Shared Vision Conference. I am profoundly honored 
to be in Pine Ridge and in the Lakota Nation. In fact, to try to 
demonstrate my appreciation and respect, I would like to try--to try to 
say something in Lakota. Mitakuye oyasin. My neighbors, my friends, we 
are all related.
    Consider those who have come here today to join hands with you, 
along with Secretary Cuomo, Secretary Glickman, your great congressional 
delegation, our Democratic leader Tom Daschle in the United States 
Senate and Senator Johnson, Congressman Thune. You don't know this, but 
we have Members of Congress from all over America who have some here to 
express their support and their commitment to join you in building a 
better tomorrow: Congressman Ed Pastor from Arizona; Congressman Dale 
Kildee from the State of Michigan; Congressman Jim Clyburn from South 
Carolina; and Congressman Paul Kanjorski from Pennsylvania, he has come 
all the way from Pennsylvania to be here.
    I want to thank the other people from the administration, especially 
Assistant Secretary of the Interior Kevin Gover and Lynn Cutler in the 
White House, who work with all of

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our Native American leaders around America, for what they do. I want to 
thank the CEO of Fannie Mae, Frank Raines; the CEO of Norwest, Mark 
Oman; the PMI President, Roger Haughton; Mortgage Bankers Association 
President, Don Lange; Champion Homes CEO, Walter Young--for all the work 
that they are prepared to do in building a better future, and they're 
here today.
    I want to thank my good friend Jesse Jackson, for never letting us 
forget our common obligations. I thank the other members of our 
delegation today--Bart Harvey from Enterprise; Al From from the 
Democratic Leadership Council. I'd like to thank the young AmeriCorps 
volunteers who are here today for all the work they do.
    I would like to finally say a word of appreciation to all the people 
who live here on this reservation, who welcomed me into their homes, who 
talked to me today as I walked down their streets. I thank especially 
Geraldine Blue Bird, who Secretary Cuomo mentioned--she let me sit on 
her porch, and she told me how she tries to make ends meet for the 28 
people that share her small home and the housetrailer adjoining.
    I thank the children who stopped their playing and shook hands with 
me and listened to me while I encouraged them to stay in school and to 
go on to college and to live out their dreams. I want to bring you 
greetings from two people who are not here--first, from Vice President 
Gore, who has headed our empowerment zone effort that Pine Ridge became 
a part of today. And, second, just a little over an hour ago, I talked 
to the First Lady, and Hillary has spent more time in Indian country 
than any First Lady in history. She is intensely committed to this 
effort, and she asked me to say hello to you.
    President Salway said today I was the only President ever to come to 
an Indian reservation for a nation-to-nation business meeting. I 
remember back in 1994, I invited all the tribal leaders in America to 
the White House, and it was the first such gathering since the 
presidency of James Monroe in the 1820's. Now, I know that Calvin 
Coolidge came to Pine Ridge in the 1920's, and that President Roosevelt 
visited another Native American reservation, but no American President 
has been anywhere in Indian country since Franklin Roosevelt was 
President. That is wrong, and we're trying to fix it today.
    I was profoundly moved by the pipe ceremony, just as I was when your 
congressional delegation took me last night not only to Mount Rushmore 
but to the Crazy Horse Memorial, and to the museum that is there with 
it.
    But I ask you today, even as we remember the past, to think more 
about the future. We know well what the failings of the present and the 
past are. We know well the imperfect relationship that the United States 
and its Government has enjoyed with the tribal nations.
    But I have seen today not only poverty, but promise. And I have seen 
enormous courage. I came here today for three reasons. First of all, to 
celebrate the empowerment zone and the housing projects that are going 
on here now. Second, to talk about my new markets initiative and what 
else we can do. But, third, with the business leaders who are here--and 
I've already introduced them, but I'd like to ask the business leaders I 
just mentioned to stand up. We want to send a message to America that 
this is a good place to invest. Good people live here. Good people live 
in Indian country, they deserve a chance to go to work. [Applause] Thank 
you. Thank you.
    You've already heard President Salway and Secretary Cuomo recite the 
statistics. It's a hot day out here, and I know you're suffering in the 
Sun. But I want to send a message to America. So I just want to say a 
few things, and I want you to think about this. Think about the irony of 
this. We are in the longest period of economic growth in peacetime in 
our history. We have in America almost 19 million new jobs. We have the 
lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for African-Americans and 
Hispanics. For over 2 years our country has had an unemployment rate 
below 5 percent. But here on this reservation, the unemployment rate is 
nearly 75 percent. That is wrong, and we have to do something to change 
it, and do it now.
    When we are on the verge of a new century and a new millennium where 
people are celebrating the miracles of technology, and the world growing 
closer and closer together, and our ability to learn from and with each

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other and make business partnerships with each other all across our 
globe, and there are still reservations with few phones and no banks, 
when still three or four families are forced to share two simple rooms, 
where communities where Native Americans live have deadly disease and 
infant mortality rates at many times the national rate, when these 
things still persist, we cannot rest until we do better. And trying is 
not enough; we have to have results. We can do better.
    Our Nation will never have a better chance. When will we ever have 
this kind of opportunity where unemployment is low, inflation is low, 
there's a lot of money in our country, the value of the stock market has 
tripled and then some? Business people are looking for new places to 
invest, and people who have done well feel a moral obligation to try to 
help those who are less fortunate, who have not fully participated.
    And we see it from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to the inner 
cities of our country to the Native American communities. If we can't do 
this now, we will never get around to doing it. So let us give ourselves 
a gift for the 21st century--an America where no one is left behind and 
everyone has a chance.
    We will do our part. You have suffered from neglect, and you know 
that doesn't work. You have also suffered from the tyranny of 
patronizing, inadequately funded Government programs, and you know that 
doesn't work. We have tried to have a more respectful, more proper 
relationship with the tribal governments of this country to promote more 
genuine independence, but also to give more genuine support. And the 
empowerment zone program, as the Vice President and I designed it 6 
years ago, is designed to treat all communities that way. We're not 
coming from Washington to tell you exactly what to do and how to do it, 
we're coming from Washington to ask you what you want to do, and tell 
you we will give you the tools and the support to get done what you want 
to do for your children and their future.
    President Salway and a number of tribal leaders came to me at the 
White House a couple of months ago. You may have heard in the national 
press that I repeatedly referred to this profoundly emotional meeting. I 
have given a great deal of thought to what was said then and what I 
heard now. We can do better. I would like to mention just a few specific 
things, for you have all heard years of pretty words.
    There is no more crucial building block for a strong community and a 
promising future than a solid home. Today I want to talk about a number 
of things the Government and the private sector are going to do to 
increase homeownership. Our whole team visited those new homes that are 
being built not far from here. We talked to the families that are moving 
into those homes. I had a little boy take me through every room in the 
home, tell me exactly where every closet was, tell me what his sister's 
room had that he didn't have, and why it was all right, because she was 
older and she needed such things. This is important.
    So what are we going to do? Private lenders, like Bank of America, 
Norwest, Bank One, Washington Mutual, are going to work with the 
Mortgage Bankers Association and HUD, to more than double the number of 
government-insured or guaranteed home mortgages in Indian country in 
each of the next 3 years.
    Right here in Pine Ridge, Fannie Mae, under Frank Raines' 
leadership, has set aside millions of dollars to help you buy those 
homes at below market rates. And they are spending hundreds of millions 
of dollars all across this country to help people just like you become 
homeowners for the first time. And Secretary Cuomo's Partnership for 
Housing is giving financial incentives and counseling to help families 
figure out how to actually get this done, how to buy their own homes and 
pay for them.
    But, as I heard over and over today, even if we went in and tried to 
repair or rebuild or build new homes for every family here, and in every 
Indian community throughout the United States, we must have jobs if we 
want these communities to work. Adults need to have something to look 
forward to every morning when they get up. And if they want their kids 
to stay in school, and stay out of trouble, and look to tomorrow, their 
lives have to be evidence that looking to tomorrow pays off. It is 
appalling that we have

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the highest growth rate in peacetime in our history, that we have an 
unemployment rate below 5 percent for 2 years, and the unemployment rate 
on this hallowed reservation is almost 75 percent. That is appalling, 
and we can do better.
    No community in America can grow, however, without basic blocks. No 
community in America should be without safe running water and sewer 
systems. So the Department of Agriculture will put nearly $16 million in 
water projects throughout Indian country, including two right here in 
Pine Ridge, that will also help you get jobs, as well as improve the 
quality of life.
    As you can see, in this Big Sky country, it is rather warm and it 
gets windy from time to time, as the natives will attest. The Department 
of Energy will help you harness the power and profits of wind and solar 
energy, to save money and make money. Owens Corning and North American 
Steel Framing Alliance will provide skills training and the promise of 
quality jobs. And Citibank and Gateway Computer Company will work with 
Oglala Lakota College and other schools to help Native American students 
get the computer skills that will allow them to get 21st century jobs. 
And our Federal Communications Commission will work with you to improve 
telephone service throughout Indian country, an absolute prerequisite 
for getting any new business in here.
    And let me just say that one of the things that we have learned is 
that the computer and the Internet make it possible for many people to 
do many kinds of work in any community, anywhere in the United States, 
indeed, increasingly, anywhere in the world. The fact that this 
reservation is a long way from an urban center would have been an 
absolute prohibitive barrier to a lot of economic development just 10 or 
15 years ago.
    The explosion of computer technology and the Internet, if you know 
how to use it and you know how to deliver for others with it, has 
literally made the distance barrier almost insignificant for many kinds 
of economic activity. So I want to implore you to use your tribal 
college and work with these companies and make the most of the skills 
they are offering, and we can get the jobs to come here once you can do 
them.
    Finally, we must seize the vast potential of tourism right here in 
Pine Ridge by building a Lakota Sioux heritage cultural center. Every 
year, millions of families travel long, long distances to see Mount 
Rushmore--2.7 million last year. The Crazy Horse Memorial, about a 
million and a half, even though only the head has been finished. The 
Crazy Horse Memorial last year had a million and a half visitors--only 
the head has been finished. I went there late last night; and the 
Badlands National Park.
    Now, if you look at that, you have to ask yourself: How can you 
have--how many people, if you did everything right down here, if we 
built this cultural center, of all the people that go to see Crazy 
Horse, of all the people that go to see Mount Rushmore, of all the 
people that go to Badlands National Park, how many would come here? I'll 
tell you--a whole lot. An enormous percentage, if you give them 
something to come and see. That is nothing more than the simple, 
profound, powerful story of your eloquent past and your present, of your 
skills and your heritage and your culture and your faith.
    These commitments that we are making today are just the beginning. 
Thirty-one years ago this spring, Senator Robert Kennedy came to Pine 
Ridge. Many of you probably still remember that visit. Senator Kennedy, 
seeking medical care for his child, lying sick in the back of an 
abandoned car, refusing to sit and begin an important meeting until all 
of the tribal leaders had their proper seats.
    You may remember his message of hope. Let me say that all across 
America, people were watching that. I have to say, on a purely personal 
note, one of the most touching things about this day for me is that the 
wife of our HUD Secretary is Robert Kennedy's daughter, and she is here 
today and this is a proud day. I'd like to ask her to stand. Kerry, 
please stand. Thank you. Give her a hand. [Applause] Thank you.
    We lost all those years. There were a lot of reasons, and a lot of 
things are better than they were 30 years ago. But this is the first 
time since the early 1960's when we had this kind of strong American 
economy, and we have no excuse for walking away from our 
responsibilities to the new markets of America.

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    I have asked the Members of Congress to go back and pass legislation 
that will give major tax breaks and government-guaranteed loans to 
people who will put their money in Indian country, to lower the risk of 
taking this chance. We are going to do everything we can to make your 
empowerment zone work. But remember, there is nothing that we can do 
except to help you to realize your own dreams.
    So I say to every tribal leader here: The name of the conference you 
are attending is Shared Visions. We must share the vision, and it must 
be, fundamentally, yours--for your children and their future. If you 
will give us that vision and work with us, we will achieve it.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 12 noon on the field at the Oglala 
Community School. In his remarks, he referred to President Harold D. 
Salway, Oglala Sioux Tribe; civil rights leader Jesse Jackson; Bart 
Harvey, chairman and chief executive officer, The Enterprise Foundation; 
Al From, president, Democratic Leadership Council; and Geraldine Blue 
Bird, resident, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.