[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 16 (Monday, April 24, 2000)]
[Pages 862-865]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the People of the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, New Mexico

April 17, 2000

    Let me say ya' at' eeh--[applause]--William Jefferson Clinton 
yinishye--[applause]--Irish nishle. I am profoundly honored to be here 
within the four sacred mountains, especially on Navajo Nation 
Sovereignty Day. I want to thank young Myra Jodie. Didn't she do a 
wonderful job up here? [Applause]
    Thank you, President Kelsey Begaye, for your strong leadership. 
Thank you, Congressman Tom Udall; the vice president, Taylor McKenzie; 
Chief Justice Robert Yazzie; Speaker Edward Begay; members of the Navajo 
Tribal Council; Shiprock Council Mayor William Lee. And we have with us 
today the president of the National Congress of American Indians, Sue 
Masten; thank you for being here.
    To all the honored Governors of pueblos and tribal leaders. And I 
thank the people who have come with me today: the Secretary of Housing 
and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo; the Interior Deputy Secretary, 
David Hayes; the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Carl Whillock; and 
the person most responsible for working with you, Assistant Secretary of 
the Interior Kevin Gover. I thank him for all he has done. Federal 
Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard and Commissioner Gloria 
Tristani.
    And I'd like to thank the people from the White House who are here, 
especially Gene Sperling, who put together this digital divide tour, and 
Lynn Cutler, who is my liaison to Indian country all over the United 
States. I thank them.
    I want to thank four Members of Congress who made a long trip here 
today to express support for our goal: Senator Robert Bennett, who came 
from Utah; Representative Bill Jefferson, who came from New Orleans, 
Louisiana; Silvestre Reyes from El Paso, Texas; and Stephanie Tubbs 
Jones, who came from Cleveland, Ohio.
    I want to thank my friend of more than 20 years now, your former 
Governor, Bruce King, and his wife, Alice, thank them for being here. 
Thank you. I want to thank the renowned basketball star Rebecca Lobo, 
who came with me today. And I thank Reverend Jesse Jackson for coming. I 
thank all the high-tech leaders who are here.
    And there was one young man who meant to come with me today, who 
could not come, a man I admire very much, not only for his success, but 
for the way he has handled adversity, Notah Begay. And I think we ought 
to give him a big hand. [Applause]
    I also want to recognize two young women who are here, because they 
were in the First Lady's gallery at my State of the Union Address, 
members of the Navajo Nation and former volunteers for AmeriCorps, 
Christina and Justina Jones. Thank you for being here. I am very proud 
of them and all the other young Dine people who have served not only the 
Navajo Nation but our Nation as a whole as AmeriCorps volunteers.
    Let me also express my deep gratitude to the Navajo Code Talkers who 
provided our--[applause]. Thank you, gentlemen. And I want to thank 
Senator Jeff Bingaman for working to ensure that you receive the 
national honors you so richly deserve.
    All Americans should know of the exploits of the young Navajo men, 
some as young as 15, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in World War II, 
helped to develop an ingenious code based on your language, and became 
the communications link to and from the frontlines of the Allies in the 
Pacific war. One of our most enduring images of freedom is that of the 
marines hoisting the American flag over Iwo Jima. Well, there are many 
American military commanders from that conflict who will tell you that 
the United States might never have taken Iwo Jima or won countless other 
battles in the Pacific if it weren't for the bravery, the sacrifice, and 
the unbreakability of the code of the Navajo Code Talkers.

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    It is fitting that we begin this day by recalling their 
achievements. After all, there are few people in America who better 
embody the power of communication. In fact, if you think about it, the 
system the Code Talkers used has real similarities to the beginning of 
the worldwide network we call the Internet. Both systems were developed 
for sending information quickly, securely, and reliably during times of 
war. Both had the power to change the course of history. But there is a 
cruel irony here.
    For more than 50 years after the Code Talkers were able to 
communicate with one another, over great distances in the Pacific, it is 
still hard to communicate between many parts of the Navajo Nation 
itself. In much of America, it takes just a modest amount of money and 
time to get someone on the Internet. But here, an astonishing 37 percent 
of the households are without electricity, about 70 percent without 
phone service, more than half without work.
    I am here because I believe the new technologies like the Internet 
and wireless communications can have an enormous, positive impact in the 
Navajo Nation. They can help you to leap-frog over some of the biggest 
hurdles to develop your economic and human potential. They can make 
great distances virtually disappear. They can be a vehicle for job 
growth, for education, for health care, for employment opportunities. 
They can be the greatest equalizers our society has ever known.
    I know the Navajo Nation has already begun to see this potential, as 
President Begaye said. Here in Shiprock, the closest public library is 
more than 30 miles away. Yet, thanks to your new PowerUP partnership, 
children and parents now are able to browse some of the great libraries 
of the world simply by going to the Boys and Girls Club.
    On the western side of the Navajo Nation, rural health clinics are 
now linked through computers to the finest medical specialists at the 
University of Arizona. Your new Navajo Able initiative, funded in part 
by the Department of Education, is providing technologies to help 
children with disabilities write and communicate on computers. At Dine 
College, even rural campuses have state-of-the-art computer labs, where 
students soon will conduct real-time teleconferences with professors all 
around the globe. But this is just the beginning.
    Almost 30 years ago, when I was a young man, still a student with no 
money and no prospect reasonably of becoming President, for sure--
[laughter]--I first drove across New Mexico. I fell in love with the 
land and the people. I had my first opportunity to buy for my mother and 
the girlfriend who became my wife some beautiful Navajo jewelry. Now, 
just imagine if all the remarkable silversmiths and weavers of the 
Navajo Nation could sell their work not only in local markets but in 
national and global markets as well. Just imagine if all remote health 
clinics were connected electronically to major medical centers. Imagine 
if Dine could commute to high-tech, high-paying jobs in large cities 
just by getting on a computer here in Shiprock. Imagine if all your 
children had access to the same world of knowledge at the same instance 
as children in the wealthiest communities in America. The potential is 
staggering, and we have to seize it.
    I am here today to pledge that the National Government will do its 
part in ways that honor your tribal sovereignty. Ever since I have been 
President, we have worked to try to empower the tribes of our Nation. I 
will never forget the day in 1994, when I had the chance to welcome 
leaders of more than 300 American Indian tribes to the White House, the 
first time this had been done since President James Monroe's 
administration, in 1822.
    You know, when I was just a very young boy I used to go to the 
county public library in my hometown, in Arkansas. I can remember 
spending day after day reading histories of Native American tribes and 
biographies of famous chiefs. I remember once I read in the biography of 
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce that incredible statement he made, ``From 
this day, I will fight no more, forever.'' It was a noble, powerful, 
brave thing to do.
    But as we all know, though many of your ancestors gave up fighting 
and gave up land and water and mineral rights in exchange for peace, 
security, health care, and education, the Federal Government did not 
live up to its end of the deal. That was wrong. And I

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have worked hard to change it. There is nothing more important to me 
than getting this government-to-government relationship right, but 
getting it right in a way that will empower you to lift yourselves and 
your children to fulfill your potential and your dreams, not a 
patronizing relationship but an empowering one, not a handout but a hand 
up, a genuine partnership so that your children can live their dreams.
    As Congressman Udall said, I did ask in the State of the Union 
Address for the largest budget increases in history for new and existing 
programs to assist tribal nations. That is why I traveled last year to 
the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the home of the Lakota 
Sioux. That is why I made Indian country an important focus of our new 
markets initiative.
    Let me tell you what that is. I believe the only way to keep this 
economy growing is to bring economic opportunity to the people and the 
places who have been left behind. More businesses, more jobs, more 
incomes means growth without inflation for the rest of America. People 
in New York City and Los Angeles and Seattle and Dallas and Atlanta and 
Miami, they all have a stake in your economic success. And I am here to 
bring that message to you, and through our friends in the media, to 
them.
    I want to give Americans who have money the same incentives to 
invest in underdeveloped areas in America we now give them to invest in 
underdeveloped areas of Latin America or Asia or Africa. I want 
Americans to look first to people here at home who need work and 
education, who need technology and opportunity.
    And there is no better place to begin than by bridging the digital 
divide. Our E-rate initiative, to provide discount rates to schools and 
hospitals and libraries that could not otherwise afford them, an 
initiative pioneered by our Vice President, Al Gore, and championed by 
this administration for years, has helped to equip every classroom in 
the consolidated school district with computers and the wiring to 
connect to the Internet.
    My new budget provides a major new initiative to prepare Native 
Americans for careers in technical fields. It provides $2 billion in tax 
incentives to encourage the private sector to donate computers, sponsor 
community technology centers available to adults as well as children, 
and provide technology training for workers; $150 million to train every 
single new teacher on how to use this technology effectively in the 
classroom; and $100 million to create 1,000 community technology centers 
all across the country, to serve all the people of the community--the 
old, the young, those in between, those with disabilities, and those 
without education, everyone who can benefit from tapping into this new 
technology.
    And I want you to know that I am joined here today by private sector 
leaders who are part of our national call to action. Hundreds of 
organizations, including all 32 tribal colleges, have answered this 
pledge. And I want to highlight just some of the public and private 
commitments being made to benefit the Navajo Nation and Native Americans 
all across our country.
    First, and very important, our Federal Communications Chairman, Bill 
Kennard, is proposing to expand the Lifeline program to ensure that 
every Native American who needs it will be able to get basic phone 
service for as little as $1 a month. In this day and age, when we want 
every American to have access to the Internet, we must first make sure 
that every American has access to a phone, so there will be a line to 
hook into.
    Second, Native American Systems, headed by Robert Rutherford, a 
Choctaw, is committing $100,000 state-of-the-art satellite 
communications to the Red Rock Day School, to provide equipment to 30 
other BIA schools in other parts of Indian country. Tachyon is providing 
satellite Internet access to Dine College and the Lake Valley School. 
Give them a hand. [Applause]
    Compaq will provide $500,000 to spur the TechCorps schools 
partnership, which uses the Internet and TechCorps volunteers to help 
teachers make the best use of technology in the classroom. Four Navajo 
Nation schools participated in the pilot of TechCorps schools. Today I'm 
proud to say that this new commitment will make it available to all 
Navajo Nation schools and all K through 12 schools nationwide for Native

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Americans. Microsoft will provide $2.75 million in software and 
technical support for the American Indian Tribal College program, which 
will directly benefit Dine College. Andersen Consulting has committed 
$100,000 to support small business in Indian country, something we need 
more of. We need access to capital, training, technological support. The 
capacity to grow small businesses in Indian country is far greater than 
anything we have realized to date. Healtheon/WebMD will provide valuable 
Internet sources to the medical professionals at the Indian Health 
Service facility right here in Shiprock. Let's give all these groups a 
big hand. [Applause]
    I began my remarks today by doing my best to introduce myself to you 
in the proper way, telling you my name and my family's clan, in your 
language, as best I could. Well, it's true we are from different clans. 
Your ancestors were here on this continent, here within the four sacred 
mountains, long before my ancestors even knew of the existence of this 
continent and this land we call America. But my friends, we are now all 
part of the same American family. We are all related, and it is time we 
acted like we were all related.
    We have never had a better chance to build the right kind of 
relationship. We have never had a better chance to build new connections 
between people, between cultures, between nations. The Navajo Code 
Talkers gave us one of history's most stirring lessons on the power of 
communications. They showed us in the most concrete way that our 
cultural diversity in America can be our greatest strength. And that is 
why we must do everything in our power to allow all Dine to lend their 
talents and their skills to the great enterprise of building our future 
together.
    Ahe' hee doo hagoane. Thank you, and goodbye.

 Note:  The President spoke at 5:50 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club of 
Shiprock. In his remarks, he referred to Myra Jodie, student, Steamboat 
Navajo Nation, AZ, who introduced the President; President Kelsey A. 
Begaye and Vice President Taylor McKenzie of the Navajo Nation; Chief 
Justice Robert Yazzie, Navajo Nation Supreme Court; Speaker Edward T. 
Begay, Navajo Nation Council; William Lee, chapter president, Shiprock 
local government; Notah Begay III, professional golfer; and Special 
Assistant to the President for Agriculture and Trade Carl S. Whillock, 
board member, Rural Telephone Bank Agency of the United States.