In certain states, there are treaties, specific treaties signed by tribes, yet through the years, the Department of the Interior and the BIA have just dropped certain tribes that were signatories to those treaties from the rolls.

We do have in the Constitution our basis for our relationship to the sovereign nations.

Your abiding interest in justice for our Native Americans certainly reaches back to at least the 33 years that you have been in Congress, and the Indians have benefitted from your sense of justice.

I hope that your underlying attitude in implementing this bill would be one of streamlining, so money would not be lost.

I think we have to recognize that. We are not talking to some corporation, or the Elks Club, or the Knights of Columbus, but we are talking to sovereign nations and their rights under their sovereignty.

The Treaty of Detroit guaranteed you the right to fish in perpetuity, and perpetuity means perpetuity.

Sovereignty is not just a theoretical thing, it is a practical thing.

I am very happy that we are having this hearing. It is very important that the Federal government carry out its responsibility, I think both legal and moral responsibility, to make sure these sites are respected and cared for, protected, and I think the Federal government can set an example also for other levels of government.

This law was written for a very important reason: respect for the first Americans.

H.R. 3697 and H.R. 3742.

If people want to see how these programs work, let them come to Flint and Genesee County. We've got it here.