Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce two bills that are aimed at righting past wrongs and fostering the self-sufficiency of proud nations. The Canyon Mountain Land Conveyance Act of 2013 and the Oregon Coastal Land Conveyance Act will provide homelands for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, respectively--two tribes that are currently without a land base or that have only a nominal land base. I am pleased to be joined in this effort by my friend and colleague, Senator Merkley.

Our country's official policies toward its native peoples have changed over time since the founding of the United States. When European settlers came to American shores, they recognized that the lands on which our Nation now sits were occupied by millions of people organized by hundreds of governments, and these European colonial powers respected these governments as fellow sovereigns. In the late 1700's, when our great Nation was born, it followed suit, making treaties with the governments of the various tribes and aiming to get along with them to ensure peace and prosperity for all. As our Nation became more powerful, its policies toward Native peoples and governments shifted with the political tides of those times. If you examine history books, some of the darkest episodes in our history can be found in the chapters written about our federal government's treatment of the first Americans.

Our Nation's past is littered with failed policies toward its first peoples, and one of those failed policies--that to which scholars refer to as, ``Termination''--had a profoundly negative impact on my State. During the 1950's, the federal government was not in the business of honoring the treaties it made with the Indian tribes nor was it interested in living up to its trust responsibility toward its first peoples. Importantly, and as an aside, the tribes had bargained for these rights in exchange for the millions of acres of lands ceded to the United States to enable our westward expansion. At that time, our official Federal stance was focused on terminating the government-to-government relationships between tribal governments and the United States. In my own State of Oregon, several tribes west of the Cascade Mountains were terminated, including the two that are the subjects of the bills I am introducing today. The Termination Era had tragic effects on those tribes that lost Federal recognition. Members of terminated tribes struggled to retain their cultural and religious identities and to survive in a new landscape in which federal programs for their health, education, and housing did not exist.

The Termination Era was such a disaster that the Federal Government formally rebuked it a mere twenty years later when Presidents Johnson an Nixon ushered in the Self-Determination Era. Now, our Federal stance toward tribes is one that respects tribal sovereignty and supports a tribe's right to determine its own destiny while at the same time, fulfilling our duty as trustee to the various tribes. Our Federal policy of self-determination has been lauded by scholars as being the only Federal Indian policy that has succeeded in benefitting our native peoples. Self-Determination Era policies have resulted in an economic boom all over Indian Country as tribes have used Federal assistance to create jobs for Indians and non-Indians alike all across the Nation, much of the time in rural areas where economic opportunities would otherwise not exist. Many of the tribes in my State, for instance, have been able to build their economies, become more self-sufficient and provide valuable goods and services as well as jobs to surrounding community members.

For a tribe to fully exercise its governmental powers--to protect and nurture its members, to retain its cultural and religious heritage, and to grow its economy--it needs a land base. Even though the Cow Creek and Coos tribes were restored to Federal recognition in the 1980's, they still have not been given back any of their former land from which they can exercise their inherent authority as sovereigns. My bills would provide home bases for these tribes from which they can flourish.

The bills I am introducing today convey 17,826 and 14,804 acres of land that is now managed by the Bureau of Land Management, to the Secretary of the Interior to hold in trust for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, respectively. The bills specify that commercial forestry activities taking place on the land must be done pursuant to all applicable federal laws, and because both of the tribes already own casinos, they specify that the land cannot be used for gaming purposes. Lastly, to address the concerns of counties over lost timber revenues from the Oregon and California Railroad lands within the conveyances, the bills contain provisions ensuring there will be no net loss of O&C lands to the counties.

I want to thank the tribes, counties, and other stakeholders for working together to find the common ground which made these bills a reality.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bills be printed in the Record.

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