    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 15 (Monday, April 17, 2000)]
    [Pages 816-817]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner

    April 13, 2000

        Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Torricelli, Senator Inouye,
    Senator Akaka, Senator Johnson, ladies and gentlemen. I think I would
    like to begin by thanking Jane for that beautiful prayer and for
    agreeing to serve on the Indian Arts Board recently; thank you very
    much. And I would like to thank all of you for your presence here and
    your support for our Senators and our Senate candidates.
        I don't know whether Bob Torricelli is right about what other people
    will remember as defining moments of my administration, but I certainly
    will remember my trip to Pine Ridge, and I'm very much looking forward
    to being at Ship Rock on Monday afternoon with Kelsey Begaye. Thank you
    for being there with us in continuing our efforts to bring empowerment
    and opportunity to Native Americans. We will be there Monday to talk
    about closing the digital divide, how to bring the power of the computer
    to lift people up rather than keep them down, in education and economic
    development and health care and so many other ways.
        I have to tell you that my association with the Native American
    tribes of our country has been one of the most important aspects of my
    Presidency, to me. I always thought that the United States had
    something--to put it politely--less than a nation-to-nation
    relationship, and that sometimes, that the existence of that
    relationship had been used by the United States to run from our own
    responsibilities for the health, the welfare, the future of the Native
    American children and the people of our country.
        And for 7 years and 3 months now, I've done everything I knew how to
    do to increase economic opportunity, to increase the quality of health
    care, to increase the support for the educational institutions, and,
    particularly in the last couple of years, to try to increase not only
    the voice and the respect for the tribal people and your leaders in our
    National

    [[Page 817]]

    Government's decisions and the right to make your own decisions but
    especially to try to bring more economic opportunity. And I will
    continue to do that for as long as I am in this office, and then when
    I'm not President anymore, I will have more time to work on fewer
    things.
        And one of the things I intend to work on when I'm not President
    anymore is the economic empowerment of people who had been left behind
    in this country and around the world. I believe in the potential of all
    people. I believe that intelligence is equally apportioned among all
    races and ethnic groups. But opportunity isn't. And I believe that we
    have done a lot of things over the last 120 years that, at least I for
    one, wish we could go back and undo in our relations with the Native
    Americans. But I'm proud of what--not only of what our administration
    has done but what our party has tried to do. I'm proud of the leadership
    of Senator Inouye and Senator Johnson, Senator Akaka. I'm proud that
    Senator Torricelli is leading this group and that you have joined us.
        But the last thing I would like to say is that in the end, the most
    important thing of all is empowerment and respect, and I have tried to
    have a Bureau of Indian Affairs that would move beyond where it had
    traditionally been on that score. I have tried to see that a lot of
    other decisions were made differently. But your participation in this
    endeavor and in others like it as citizens is also a form of
    empowerment, and for that I am profoundly grateful. I'm glad for the
    progress we've made. I'm glad for the things we've been able to do. I
    think this year we'll have a good year on education, on health care. I
    think we'll pass this new markets effort that will help get more
    investment in to all the people and places that have been left behind in
    this remarkable recovery.
        But the most important thing for me is that I hope when I leave
    office there will have been a fundamental seismic shift in the
    relationship between the United States Government and our tribes and our
    tribal governments throughout the country and a dramatic increase in the
    level of respect and independence and cooperation and partnership that
    you feel from your Government. I hope it will never, ever be the same.
    And if that is true, then in large measure, my service will have been
    justified. And again, if it hadn't been for you, it would not have been
    possible.
        So I ask you to keep it up, keep going, and give me every chance I
    can to be helpful, not only for the next 9\1/2\ months but for the rest
    of my life.
        Thank you very much. Thank you all. Senators, thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:10 p.m. in the Georgian Room at the
    Phoenix Park Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Senator Robert G.
    Torricelli, chair, Democratic Senator Campaign Committee; Jane Fawcett,
    who gave the invocation; and Kelsey Begaye, President of the Navajo
    Nation.