Speaker 1 (00:00):
20 years ago, I would never have believed that I would be standing here addressing you as the Secretary of the Interior talking about, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Talking about the historic progress we have made for Indian country. President Biden has been the best president for Indian country in my lifetime. This is a president and an administration that truly sees indigenous people and has worked tirelessly to address the issues in Indian country that have long been underfunded or outright ignored. From infrastructure to education to the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous peoples, President Joe Biden has directed historic resources into the hands of tribal leaders who know best how to strengthen their communities. Across the investing in America agenda, historic $45 billion more than 15 years worth of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, annual budget has gone into Indian country through this administration. With that comes enduring and transformational change.
(01:29)
It means electrifying homes on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona that have never had it, protecting cultural resources like salmon, which Pacific Northwest tribes have stewarded for thousands of years. Building new transportation infrastructure for the Mescalero Apache Nation in New Mexico that will provide a safer travel route and boost the tribe's local economy. Addressing toxic legacy pollution and abandoned oil and gas infrastructure that pollutes air and water for the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. And providing clean drinking water for Fort Peck in Montana. I could go on. This is a once in a generation funding that is empowering tribes and making up for significant and systemic underfunding of tribal communities. Of course, we know that the need in our communities is still incredibly high. We know that many priorities still need adequate funding and resources. That's what decades of lack of investments look like. But what we have done will have lasting and enduring results for the generations that have counted on us to show up.
(02:48)
It means that our kids and grandkids have a better shot at living lives where their needs are met, where their futures are bright, and where the pains and ills of the past no longer dictate who they can become. That progress is on us and it's thanks to President Biden for making this administration and our cabinet firm and unwavering partners in Indian country. Now, like any good tribal council, our cabinet has not always been unified in every decision. We're passionate people, united in service to the American people, but also unique in our perspectives. But every single day I have felt heard, I have felt respected, and I have felt secure that my advocacy on behalf of Indian country has been acknowledged and seen by The White House.
(03:49)
20 years ago I would never have thought I'd be standing here. I would never have thought I'd be welcoming the President of the United States to come on stage and greet my relatives, friends and colleagues from across the nation. Yet here we are. So please give a warm welcome to someone I am so honored to call our friend, President Joe Biden. So if you'll bear with us for a moment before the president gives his remarks. Assistant Secretary Nuland and I wanted to acknowledge the wonderful leadership by President Biden. He has been a champion for Indian country over these past four years, and I felt the best way for us to acknowledge that was with a blanket.
Joe Biden (05:18):
Cover me.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
This is an eighth-generation blanket from a tribally-owned business, and I've had it embroidered. Secretary assistant, it says, "Joe Biden, champion for Indian Country 2021 to 2024."
Joe Biden (05:48):
All right.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Love you, Uncle Joe.
Joe Biden (05:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
I think they want us to look over there. We're all…
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe.
Joe Biden (05:57):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Thank you, Joe.
Joe Biden (06:06):
Can I go up?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yes, but let's take this off. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
[inaudible 00:06:12]
Joe Biden (06:17):
I could have used that blanket when I was lighting that Christmas tree. Both of us were freezing, the secretary. Thank you, Secretary Haaland, this is Secretary Nuland. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's the honor of my life to be a partner of the tribes throughout my presidency. I'm going to cherish this moment, and I was raised by a guy politically when I got here as a 29-year-old kid as a senator. I was raised by a guy named, Danny Inouye, and I once used the phrase, "Tribes," he said, "No, Joe. Nations. Nations." I want to thank Secretary Haaland for the introduction for your historic leadership of the Department of Interior. And this has been historic. It's been historic. I've worked with a lot of cabinet secretaries. I've appointed a bunch over my 59, 500 year career.
(07:08)
But I tell you what, I've never met with the cabinet secretary, more devoted to their obligation than the job she's taken on. I really mean it. And thanks to all the tribal leaders who traveled across the country representing your tribal nations. Folks, I came to office and I relaunched, The White House Tribal Nations Summit to bring us all together again. To talk about the needs of your communities to set goals, to listen, because I recognize that respect is the core of nation-to-nation relationships. We have a lot to be proud of, I think. We've gotten a lot done. From day one, my administration, we've worked to include indigenous voices in everything we do. Not only the first Native American cabinet secretary in history, but more than 80 Native Americans now serve in senior roles across my administration.
(08:12)
I mean this sincerely. With their help, we've shaped our approach to Indian country with respect and matched our words with action. I'm proud to have reestablished The White House Council on Native American Affairs and taking historic steps to improve tribal consultation. For example, you shared with me that too many federal programs treat tribes like their subsidiaries of the government, like cities or counties rather than tribal nations. Nations, not subsidiaries. That's who you are. You're nations. So at last year's summit, I sound a great groundbreaking executive order. I recognize that you should be treated as tribal nations with respect to your decision-making power. That executive order requires federal agency to streamline grant applications, to co-manage federal programs, to eliminate heavy-handed reporting requirements. Try and do that across the board by the way. We're also investing in historic $45 billion, $45 billion directly into Indian country. More is needed, but it's more than ever happened before.
(09:22)
This includes helping tribes and tribal communities get through the pandemic with vaccines and arms, and checks and pockets. We're helping tribes build new roads, bridges, deliver affordable high-speed internet and clean water across tribal communities. As a nation, we're making the biggest investment ever, ever, ever in fighting climate change ever anywhere in history of the world, which helps tribal communities to lead in transition to clean energy and ease the impact of droughts and wildfires, and rising sea levels that threaten native lives and precious homelands. I secured the first-ever advanced funding for the Indian Health Service. Where I come from, we call that a big deal.
(10:18)
Indian Health Service, the tribal hospitals can plan ahead, order supplies, hire doctors, knowing the money will be there, not having to wonder. All told in four years, we've created 200,000 jobs for Native Americans, a record low unemployment for native communities. There's been an historic eight-billion-dollar increase in federal contracts awarded to native businesses, and I'm proud. I'm proud. That's important, I think. I'm proud to have helped cut child poverty and tribal communities by more than one-third or more to do. Folks, at the same time, we're also doing what we should have done long time ago, preserving ancestral tribal homelands. It really is important. It really is important. One example is restoring salmon fishing, which historically been very important to native communities. I think it's very important that we memorialize native culture and history by restoring and designing multiple national monuments that honor tribal nations and protect their homelands. From Bears Ears to Spirit Mountain, which comprise nearly 2 million acres combined, will be preserved for perpetuity forever, ever, ever.
(11:41)
I remember a young woman came up to me, a young girl comes to me and said, I bent down. She said, "Can I talk to you?" I said, "Sure." She said, "Can you take care of Bear's Ears?" I said, "I beg your pardon?" "Can you take care of Bear's Ears?" I thought she wanted me to capture a bear, and we signed the bill. I gave her the pen. Look, it's sacred, it's magnificent. And this year my administration designated the first native marine sanctuary proposed by indigenous communities, which is off the coast of California, which occupies 4,500 square miles. That's off limits.
(12:30)
These efforts are totally consistent with my commitment when I came to office to preserve 30% of all America's lands and waters permanently by the year 2030. And we're well on our way because of the help of you've given me, and we're doing all this with respect for the stewardship practices that tribes developed over the centuries known as indigenous knowledge. I believe tribes should have a say in how these sacred lands are managed. To this day, they should have a say. And last year alone, we doubled the number of co-stewardship agreements totaling 400 with tribal nations. All this is a stark cry from the fail policies of the past. In October, I saw many of you in Arizona. Today, I'll never forget on behalf of the American people, I felt it was really important for President of the United States to stand up and right a wrong that had been ignored for a long time and apologize, apologize for… We're not about erasing history.
(13:48)
We're about a recognized history, the good, bad, and the ugly. I apologize for the federal Indian Boarding School era, a dark chapter that spanned 150 years from the 18th to 1960, in which entire generations of native children were literally stolen from their families and tribes and sent away to boarding school. The official policy and the federal government designed to sever ties between children and their tribal families, their language and their culture. Today we act to continue that healing process. I'm proud to announce we're establishing the historic Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Pennsylvania as a new national monument. I want everyone to know. I don't want people forgetting 10, 20, 30, 50 years when I pretended it didn't happen. The Carlisle Indian School was the first off-reservation in federal Indian boarding school for native children that were taken to, the first one.
(14:58)
About 7,800 children for more than 140 tribes were sent to Carlisle, stolen from their families, their tribes and their homelands. It was wrong. In making the Carlisle Indian School of National Monument, we make clear that what great nations do, we don't erase history. We acknowledge it, we learn from it and remember, so we never repeat it again. We remember so we can heal. That's the purpose of memory. Now, part of the tragedy of Indian boarding schools is that they deliberately tried to erase the culture of tribes by ensuring that children lost their language and their traditions. That's why the next chapter of healing requires revitalizing native languages.
(15:56)
My wife, Jill, to her, this is something our first lady cares deeply about. She's an educator. In her first trip with Secretary Holland, she visited the language immersion program, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Jill saw Native children light up, light up as they said it, words their ancestors once spoke, over three quarters of the remaining native languages are in danger of being lost, being lost forever. That's why today my administration is moving ahead on a ten-year plan to revive native languages in a serious effort.
(16:43)
It's a vision that works with tribes and support teachers, schools, communities, organizations, in order to save native language from disappearing. This matters. It's part of our heritage. It's part of who we are as a nation. It's how we got to be who we are. We also heard loud and clear that public safety is a stop concern of native communities. That's why when I was a vice president, when we reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, which my daughter says, I wrote with my own paw. I wrote it 30 years ago, one of the proudest things they ever did. We also reaffirmed tribal sovereignty and expanded tribal jurisdiction to cover case for outside predators, harm members of Indian nations in Indian country, and decided there. I also signed an executive order to prove public safety and criminal justice, to address the crisis of missing or murdering indigenous people.
(17:45)
These efforts and all of our efforts are a matter of restoring dignity that was taken away from tribal nations. Dignity. My dad used to say, "Joey," and I mean it sincerely. "Everyone, everyone, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity." A word most often used in my family by my dad, dignity. That's the foundation of our nation-to-nation partnership. Let me close with this. This is my final White House Tribal Nations Summit as your president. It's been an overwhelming honor, and I mean sincerely, an honor of a lifetime to usher in a new era of tribal sovereignty and self-determination. A new era grounded in dignity and respect that I've seen and experienced in many ways. In October, I had the honor to bestow one of our nation's highest medals, the National Medal of Humanity Zone, Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve this nation as Poet Laureate.
(18:53)
She once wrote, and I quote, "You are a story fed by generations. You carry songs of grief, triumph, and loss. Feel their power as they ascend with you, as you walk, run swiftly, even fly into infinite possibilities," end of quote. To all the tribal nations I say, thank you and I mean it sincerely. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you for your trust in me. But most of all, thank you for your friendship and always believe in it as I do, that the possibilities of our nation are limitless. I was once asked, when I spent more time with Xi Jinping of China than any other world leader has over 108 hours alone with him. I was in a Tibetan plateau with him in China, and he looked at me. He said, "Can you define America for me?" And this is on the record. I said, "Yes, one word." he looked at me through translator. I said, "Possibilities. In America, we believe anything is possible if we do it together." And that's what we've done, damn it. We're going to continue doing it. Thank you. [inaudible 00:27:58]