I think we have made some progress, and that is good. But it is in the category of about damned time we have made some progress.

we are seeing increased instances of breast cancer amongst Alaska Native women attributed to the PCBs from FUDS

We will continue to work diligently and collaboratively with our Federal, State, and Alaska Native partners, affected communities, and others to chart a coordinated and strategic path forward that is responsive to these concerns.

I want to know actually what we have been doing to get these specific sites cleaned up.

And Mayor, that was one of the things that you had mentioned in your comments as well, is that the Ounalashka Corporation would like to be more included in cleanup aspects of it, and recognizing that this builds capacity and provides for…

I guarantee you if they wanted to make it a priority, they would.

If we are recognizing that ANCSA contaminated lands is an environmental justice issue, we are going to try to encourage the Administration to commit to utilizing environmental justice funds.

The responsibility falls on the U.S. Government.

I am committed to working with ANVCA and the affected folks to identify the sites that I know have not yet been put on one of these lists.

I want to know what the barriers are and if we can take some of those down.

We have an obligation to clean up the messes that we create.

Well, I really hope we're not the party of Trump.

I have never believed that a party, a political party, should be the party of one individual. I just don`t believe that.

the United States' mineral security has really become our Achilles' heel. It is a significant threat to our economy, to our competitiveness, to our security, and to our geopolitical leverage, all at the same time. We know that mineral…

It is when we don't expand our table to hear more from those who have been disenfranchised that injustices and systemic inequities are perpetuated.

So what about any administrative authorities within the department to address some of the concerns that we have heard articulated today?

But that can be, I think, the best way to resolve those is within the tribe and through the nation-to-nation relationship.

We have a responsibility to uphold the agreements made with our tribes.

I want to again thank Senator Schatz for holding this important hearing and working with me on this issue.

Tribal self-governance is the best path forward to resolving internal tribal conflicts. We encourage other tribes to take similar steps.

I am interested in learning more about what these treaties entailed, and the obligations of both the tribes and the Federal Government to Freedmen descendants.

Let me ask yet probably another hard question, and that is a recognition that as sovereign parties to treaties, tribes clearly have an important role in interpreting the meaning of the treaties.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for convening today's very, very important and as you have noted, historic hearing.

It is a complicated history of injustice and of sorrow, for both Indian tribes and African Americans.

Both sovereigns who are party to a treaty have a responsibility to fulfill the terms of the treaty, and also have a right to help determine the treaty and its meaning.