Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to acknowledge and thank the Senator from North Dakota. She has been a champion for the Native people, the indigenous people around the country, including in my State of Alaska. Whether it is working to address the issues related to childhood trauma, which so many of our young Native children face, or the issues relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking--these are scourges that we see directed, unfortunately, at so many of our Native women in the State of Alaska, in the State of North Dakota, and around the country. She has cited the statistics. I think sometimes we just get numb by the statistics. When you are told that you are four times the national average, that sounds bad. But what does that mean? When you put a face to it, when you hear the tragedy repeated through the stories, these are not just statistics that we are speaking of. These are real women. These are our sisters. These are our neighbors. These are our friends, and these are human beings who deserve to be respected in their lives but also respected in other tragic deaths. How we work to address these difficult issues needs to be a focus and a priority for us. So I appreciate what the Senator from North Dakota is doing in bringing attention to our Nation's lackluster--and that is kind of a polite term here--response to the tragedy of missing and murdered Native women and girls.…”