The tribe owns the land, and the tribe ought to be free, to develop its resources.

this really is a huge problem jurisdictionally because historically you gave tribes the ability to have jurisdiction over their people but you did not give them any jurisdiction with people on their land that were not of their tribe

It is a nightmare problem in Oklahoma, the allotment situation, so what is the feasibility?

Frankly, you cannot really assess the needs if you do not track them anyway, you do not know if you are doing any good.

It is a huge problem for us. We have had enormous growth.

Because the need is real and you are quite right, the trust obligation does not cease simply because you are not on a reservation or in an area of jurisdiction.

I have been to the facilities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa and they are terrific, and we get a lot of folks that would not get health care that are from either their reservations or areas of historic jurisdiction that have it, so thank you.

Mr. Chairman, you can see what our problem has been for about 500 years. There are a lot of Choctaws.

Thank you for the example you provide in the reinvestment of tribal funds back into education, back into services.

I agree. I understand the funding need as well, but I just want to point out for the record, Mr. Chairman, the Senate actually got that passed last year and we were very close in the House.

That is exactly right, Mr. Chairman. That is exactly right. I was hopeful we could get it done in November or December after the elections but hopefully we can push that along this year.

It just flows right back.

The politics are tough.

If I may, I just want to, for the record, thank you and thank Chief Pyle, who is just a remarkable leader.

But you need, you do need to have that tool, and Congress needs to be willing to sort of, you know, stand up to the lobbies.

Most of the mail I get on this issue, Mr. Chairman, is from people who do not own horses, who have never been around horses.

this idea that you have to give up part of your sovereignty to get some of it is really incredibly offensive.

What is your comfort level that Johnson-O'Malley funds... are actually used as they are intended to be used?