Political Quotes

“it is not often that I appear in the well to make speeches, but in this instance, I am compelled to do so, particularly to note the seriousness of the issue now before us. I feel it is very, very unfortunate that we are only given 7 minutes to debate a very major issue affecting the lives of some 200 native American Indians. Some of our friends have said we are French-Americans, we are Italian-Americans, we are Irish-Americans. The fact of the matter is we have only been granted native American citizenship in 1924; 300-some treaties we have broken, every treaty we signed to signify the sovereignty of the Indian tribes. I would like to remind my friends, there is only one designation given in our Constitution to recognize Indian tribes separate and apart from French-Americans or British-Americans. We are all Americans in that respect. Madam Speaker, I support the gentleman's amendment. I ask my good friend, the gentlewoman from Ohio, give the Indian tribes a chance and the Committee on Resources, which has primary jurisdiction over the needs of native Americans, give us a chance to work this thing over. The problem cases, 40 cases, that is less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the problem that we are dealing with. Madam Speaker, the Indian Child Welfare Act works. Support the Young-Miller amendment.”