Political Quotes

“I am so very lucky to have on the Subcommittee for indigenous peoples, the dean of the House, Representative Don Young, as the ranking member. The amount of work that we do in that committee, that is bipartisan, that always looks at what is the issue that must be solved and works together to solve that issue, is exactly sort of epitomized by this bill. We are recognizing that there was a tragedy in our history where we actually tried to eliminate the food source for the indigenous peoples of the Americas. And we did. We caused hunger. We caused the deprivation, but we are recognizing that today and we are going to be giving the assistance to all Tribes to be able to manage buffalo herds. I have been very fortunate to eat bison. We love bison burgers at my home; and I have been at Taos Pueblo when they have offered in their ceremonial way the buffalo meat and the cooking around the fire. It is indeed delicious. I completely agree with the dean of the House. But we also need to recognize that managing a buffalo herd is not simple. We need to make sure that there are no diseases that are passed between cattle or elk and buffalo. They need to make sure that there is the right genetics so that we don't interbreed so much. So it does require a lot of work, and this bill provides the Tribes with the assistance so that they can both protect and manage these herds of these magnificent animals.…”