Jon Tester: Supporting Tribal Sovereignty and Fighting for Fair Funding and Economic Self-Determination
Senate President Jon Tester believes in a government-to-government relationship with all Indian tribes.
He also understands that increased economic development in Indian Country is a critical component for overall tribal self-determination.
As Senate President in the 2005 Legislature, Jon employed Gwen Lankford, a Gros Ventre Tribal Member who also has strong ties to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In this capacity, Lankford worked on communications and media management for the Senate Majority, and more importantly worked to increase outreach into Montana’s tribal communities.
Working with Gwen, Jon asked tribal cultural and community leaders from all the tribes in Montana to open Montana Senate floor sessions during the course of the 90-day Legislature. In addition to his open door policy for all tribal leaders, Jon also formally invited tribal chairs and tribal council members to meet during the legislative session. This outreach provided Jon the opportunity to listen firsthand to concerns of tribal leaders, while also providing for more informed decision-making throughout the session on issues that were important to tribal communities.
Jon also worked with the eight elected Indian lawmakers to help promote their agendas. As Senate President, Jon fought for and helped obtain historic funding for the Indian Education for All Act in order to educate all citizens about Montana’s residents.
Since the Indian Education for All Act was passed as part of the Montana Constitution in 1972, there have been many unsuccessful attempts in each legislative session to bring to life the constitutional mandate.
In 2005, with Jon Tester as Senate President, Indian Education for All was meaningfully funded for the first time in our state’s history, with more than $15 million provided to Indian Education for All programs as well as Montana’s Tribal colleges.
In 2005, $800,000 was provided by Jon and lawmakers to support non-beneficiary students enrolled in courses at Tribal Colleges for which credit is transferable to another Montana college or university.
“Learning about the rich cultures, history and contemporary issues of Montana’s First Nations is a unique and critical part of quality education in Montana,” Tester said. “Indian Education for All must include all students and all schools for the benefit of all Montanans.”
As a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and Senator, Jon’s platform for Indian Country includes:
- Respecting sovereignty and government-to-government relationships
- Funding the Indian Health Service
- Funding Indian housing to improve the quality of life and investments in tribal communities
- Supporting Tribal Tax Incentives and business initiatives for reservation economies to spark more jobs
- Supporting funding for Indian education, including job training programs, and funding for tribal colleges
- Aggressively pursuing Hi-Line water projects—St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Program, Fort Peck -Dry Prairie Regional Water System and Rocky Boy’s-North Central Regional Water System.
- Settling the Cobell Lawsuit on fair and equitable terms
Fund the Indian Health Service
The Bush administration has proposed cuts in the Indian Health Service, including five urban Indian clinics in Montana.
Bush’s budget proposes to cut $33 million beginning October 1 from the Indian Health Service budget.
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/04/28/news/state/45-cuts.txt
Cuts would significantly hurt 34 urban Indian clinics across the country, including five in Montana:
- $1.4 million from the Indian Health Board of Billings
- $612,474 from the North American Indian Alliance of Butte
- $862,094 from the Indian Family Health Clinic of Great Falls
- $690,706 from the Helena Indian Alliance
- $623,430 from the Missoula Indian Center
These cuts would leave thousands without critical medical care, and would result in job cuts to the programs. In March 2006, Senator Conrad Burns voted against an amendment proposed by Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota that, among other things, would have provided $40 million to the Urban Indian Health Program.
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/04/14/news/state/35-clinics.txt
“Access to affordable, quality health care is a priority and I will fight to restore funding to the Indian Health Service,” Tester said. “Montana’s first citizens deserve better.”
Fund Indian Housing
Safe, affordable, decent housing is a necessity and a building block of life.
That is why Jon Tester supports funding Indian housing programs through the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act (NAHSDA).
Funding levels must be adequate to reduce overcrowding, cut waiting lists and build new housing that will ultimately stimulate Indian economies and create jobs.
Congress last year said that Indians experience some of the worst housing conditions in the country, with:
- 33 percent of American Indian homes overcrowded
- 33 percent lacking adequate solid waste management systems
- 8 percent lacking a safe indoor water supply
- And 90,000 American Indian families were homeless or underhoused
Tester opposes federal budget cuts to the NAHSDA, and fully supports federal programs to not only maintain current units, but to allow tribes to build safe, affordable and decent housing. Jobs and housing benefits tribal members, Tribes and communities both on and off Montana’s seven reservations.
Aggressively Support Economic Development on Indian Reservations
Jon will work to renew the Tribal Tax Incentives now set to expire in 2006, which afford tax credits to employers who hire Indians (or their spouses) and provide for accelerated depreciation for businesses that locate in Indian country.
Jon will fight recent attempts to attack tribal provisions in SBA’s 8(a) program that reflect the special status of tribal governments.
Jon supports increased funding for job training and education of the reservation workforce to create jobs in Montana’s tribal communities.
Jon supports increased funding for tribal colleges, recognizing that education is the key to unlocking today’s global economy.
Jon will work with tribal leaders, the private sector and other political leaders (including the Schweitzer Administration) on collaborative and creative business initiatives tailored to specific Indian communities, recognizing that “one size does not fit all” on Montana’s seven reservations.
Jon believes that Montana should be a leader in wind energy and that special incentives should encourage this type of clean and renewable energy development on Indian reservations.
Aggressively Pursue Hi-Line Water Projects
As a dryland farmer, small businessman and Montana Senate president, Jon Tester understands the value of clean water to agriculture, health, and our economy. That is why he supports and has worked for the Hi-Line water projects—restoring the St. Mary Canal and funding the Fort Peck-Dry Prairie Regional Water System and Rocky Boy’s-North Central Regional Water System.
These projects provide a lifeline to tribes and communities across the Hi-Line, including ensuring irrigation water for agriculture producers along the Milk River and safe drinking water and water to livestock producers on the Rocky Boy’s and Fort Peck Indian Reservations and to surrounding communities.
These projects are examples of cooperation between tribes and their neighbors.
The projects will cost more than $600 million, and need a champion in Washington, D.C., who understands the true value of water and its importance in farming, health and economics.
“Clean water is essential to our health and our way of life, in addition to being an important spiritual and cultural component for tribal people,” Tester said. “We must fund and build these projects in a timely, cost-effective way to provide clean water to tribes, businesses, farmers and communities along the Hi-Line.”
The $200-million Dry Prairie Rural Drinking Water Project on the Fort Peck Reservation will centralize water treatment facilities and help rural communities in northeastern Montana.
The $275 million North-Central Rural Drinking Water Project on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation could help communities from Cut Bank to Chinook ensure safe drinking water to their residents.
Tester said he will work aggressively to get federal funding approved for these projects so communities can meet federally mandated clean water standards and bring clean drinking water to these communities along the Hi-Line.
Both of these major projects have been authorized but need further and ongoing appropriations to be built.
The St. Mary Rehabilitation Program will restore the aging infrastructure built almost a century ago to provide drinking and irrigation water to a large portion of the Hi-Line by diverting water from the St. Mary River Basin to the Milk River Basin. Havre, Chinook and Harlem rely on this system for their municipal water supply.
The St. Mary’s facilities are located on the Blackfeet Reservation in Glacier County.
Tester was the chief sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 9, which passed the 2005 Montana Legislature and requested federal funds for rehabilitation of the St. Mary Diversion Facilities and urged the support and leadership of the Montana congressional delegation.
Tester noted irrigators and others who rely on the canal just don’t have the resources or operating and maintenance revenue to pay for the much-needed repairs to the system.
Tester’s resolution also requested the U.S. Department of the Interior to work with the State of Montana, the Blackfeet Tribe, and residents in the Milk River Basin in their efforts to rehabilitate these critical structures and improve management of the Milk River Basin. The resolution was sent to Montana’s Congressional Delegation, the Governor of Montana, the Blackfeet Tribe, the Fort Belknap Tribe, and the St. Mary rehabilitation working group.
“These basic building blocks of culture and life - housing, health, water, and infrastructure - will make Indian and non-Indian communities alike stronger and healthier, create jobs, and boost economies,” Tester said.
“Neighbors will be working with neighbors. That’s good.”
Settle the Cobell Lawsuit
The almost 10-year-old court case brought by Eloise Cobell of the Blackfeet Nation, from Browning, asserts that the federal government has for more than a century mismanaged royalties and other income from natural resources on leased land owned by Indian people.
The U.S. District Judge in Washington, D.C., who has heard the Cobell lawsuit said that the U.S. Interior Department “sets the gold standard for mismanagement by the federal government.”
Cobell and other Indian leaders have proposed settling the lawsuit, which seeks billions of dollars to repay individual Indians who had not been paid the amounts rightfully due them after the U.S. government earned money by leasing tribal land.
Tester believes that it is time to repay Indians for lost royalty income from leased tribal land and to hold the federal government accountable for its historical mismanagement and injustice. Tribes also have been forced to divert money from other needed programs to pay litigation fees in this case, Tester noted.
“Settlement negotiations must be conducted with respect and on a government-to-government basis,” Tester said. “We need to move forward in a fair and equitable way to resolve this issue.”
Posted on Sunday, May 28th, 2006 at 4:04 pm.
