Haley Stevens: “I believe that in this country there is a period of rising expectations on the part of our Alaska Native and native…”

“I believe that in this country there is a period of rising expectations on the part of our Alaska Native and native American peoples that there will be more assistance coming to them from the Federal Government. And, of course, we all seek to have greater self-determination on the part of those people who are part of the Indian tribes and native peoples of our country. The great difficulty is that this is not just an expectation but an increasing demand now for additional money to enable these peoples to carry out the legitimate roles that they have in their own tribal and native organizations. This comes at a time when we are living under a budget ceiling with diminishing resources, as far as the Department of Interior is concerned, caused primarily, in my opinion, because of the vast increase--the enormous increase--in the amount of interest we are paying on the national debt, which is literally squeezing out a lot of the items that we were able to afford previously.”