Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: I think there's a feeling across Indian country of cautious optimism. I say that because we know and have faith in Hillary Clinton, because she has experience in Indian law. So I know she's familiar with a lot of the issues, and we're depending on her to carry a lot of this experience and information to her husband.

Second of all, bill Clinton, as people have said, has made a great deal of promises to try to expand and try to firm up the government to government relationship of Indian tribes, to the federal government, which is very important in questions of sovereignty, especially where state governments are concerned and have tried historically to erode the sovereignty of Indian people.

So we do feel a kind of air of optimism. We look forward to trying to get to those advisors and those policy makers that hopefully will be involved in not only appointments of key personnel throughout his administration, but development of various positions on Indigenous and Indian issues.

SPEAKER 2: Did Mr. Clinton make a specific appeal for the Native American vote during the campaign?

SPEAKER 1: Oh Yes, he did. He had several high level staff people that brought together a good cross-section of representatives from Indian country throughout the campaign to develop a position on Indian people. And I think that position, as articulated in several publications, does represent some changes that can be made fairly quickly.

SPEAKER 2: Could you give us some examples, please?

SPEAKER 1: Well, for example, Bill Clinton wants to eliminate anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 jobs in the federal government as a way to reduce the bureaucracy and the cost of government.

We feel that the first place he should start is with the Bureau of Indian affairs, because by their own studies such as the American Indian Policy Review Commission during the '70s under the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, showed that over 80% of the money allocated, the $1.5 billion approximately allocated by Congress to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, over 80% is used in administrative costs.

So what you have is one of the most top heavy, inefficient bureaucracies in Washington. We feel that he could immediately abolish the BIA, that is, to at least within his four-year term of term of office, he could, through a transition of four years, eliminate totally the BIA as one of the top heavy bureaucracies by using an existing system such as block grant system, in which cities and states deal directly with Congress or their agencies in the executive branch to receive their allocations of federal dollars.

Thereby, it would cause an immediate increase in tremendous thousands and thousands of dollars to the people that need it the most on the reservations. Secondly, it would eliminate a heavy, heavy burden on the taxpayer in paying all these bureaucratic positions in the federal civil service system.

So we feel that he could accomplish two goals. Get rid of a top heavy bureaucracy that is a burden to taxpayers, and at the same time, put thousands and millions of extra dollars into the problems that need them most on reservations.

SPEAKER 2: You mentioned earlier that one of the areas you're looking at for a change in federal policy has to do with sovereignty. Can you get specific about that, what you'd like to see a Clinton administration do in that regard?

SPEAKER 1: Well, I think sovereignty begins with treaty rights. And I feel that Bill Clinton has the opportunity, first of all, to change that history by convening a presidential treaty commission so that the modern day not only interpreters of the law, the judicial branch, but the legislative branch, those that make the laws, could be made aware of the legal implications, the legal standing, the history of treaties and what they mean in the United States law.

And that would be a good foundation on which to strengthen areas such as water rights, Indian gaming, treaty rights, environmental protection. I think there's a great future ahead of uniting the environmental forces, which has been his Vice Presidential Al Gore's kind of one of his strong points.

But I think in utilizing treaty rights, bringing those together with non-Indian environmentalists, we can protect and promote the well being of our environment to a great extent throughout the country.

SPEAKER 2: Now you mentioned that you are cautiously optimistic. Realistically, how much do you think Mr. Clinton will be able to do, even if he wants to do it? There still is the bureaucracy. There still is the Congress. There's still our federal policies and federal regulations.

And there still are all the other promises that Mr. Clinton made. How much leeway will you give him and how realistic are you that you're going to actually see some of those changes?

SPEAKER 1: First of all, we think that he needs within the first 100 days to make a strong policy statement as to how he's going to approach the area of Indian government relations and Indian Affairs.

Secondly, I think he has no excuses because he has a democratically controlled House and he has a democratically controlled Senate. So eventually, we will be able to bring his policies to task or to test them because of the fact that there is really no excuse for his inability to get around the gridlock in Congress that has existed in the Bush administration.

SPEAKER 2: And Mr. Means, one other point, if I could. In regard to the Senate, we now have not the first Native American senator, but the first in quite a while in Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who, of course, has been a representative from Colorado. Do you think that will give Native American viewpoints and Native American issues a higher profile in the legislature?

SPEAKER 1: Definitely so. And I think this represents a turning point in the development of Indian policy, because for the first time, we have somebody at the high level of the Senate who has actually experienced and lived the conditions of Indian people throughout the country.

And not only that, he's not as if he's a freshman senator, although realistically, He has been in the House of Representatives for several terms. So he knows the political system. He knows the issues. And we look for great things from Ben Nighthorse Campbell, because he has proven in the House and in the state legislature to stand very strongly for issues that protect Indian land and treaties.