Tom Udall: “I know Senator Durbin is on the floor so I am going to wrap up very quickly. I first want to thank Senator Franken, who…”

“I know Senator Durbin is on the floor so I am going to wrap up very quickly. I first want to thank Senator Franken, who came down here and advocated for his State and for Native Americans across the country. I thank Senator Heitkamp for her passionate speech about Native Americans and Native children. I have known her almost 30 years, as the State attorney general, when she was doing the same things, and she has made real progress. You can see from this roundtable today--and I really appreciate Senator Heitkamp coming and helping me chair that. I had to slip out to Foreign Relations, but she spent a significant amount of time chairing that roundtable. I think it really made a difference to all of the Tribal leaders there. I want to finish with what one of those Tribal leaders said to us. Senator Heitkamp, you said something very similar. This Tribal leader reminded us, he said: Decades ago, Tribes made a downpayment on the healthcare they receive. We are not asking for a handout. We made a downpayment. What was he talking about? We made a downpayment with our land, with our water, and with large areas of what were then either territories or the United States--that they considered their homelands. How sad it is to see that we are not fulfilling the promises of these sacred treaties they entered into. With that, I would conclude--as Senator Franken did and I believe it was the same thrust of what Senator Heitkamp was saying--with this.…”