Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend from Arkansas for yielding and being so generous with the time. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4352. Along with my good friend, Representative McCollum of Minnesota, I am proud to cosponsor this legislation. The legislation amends the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and reaffirms the right of the Secretary of the Interior to place land into trust for federally recognized Indian Tribes. Madam Speaker, as I am sure most people in this House know, the history and relationship between the United States and Indian Tribes isn't something to always be proud of. Frankly, with the passage of the Dawes Act in 1887, Tribes all over the country, but particularly in my State of Oklahoma, were systematically stripped of their lands, and individual Tribal members were as well. I know this because my Tribe was one of the victims. My family was one of the losers in the process. In 1934, the Federal Government wisely saw that it had made a bad mistake and intervened with the Indian Reorganization Act to protect the remaining Indian lands and to allow modest additions and reacquisitions of that land. For 75 years, it worked pretty much the way it was supposed to work, whether it was a Democratic or a Republican administration. Land was protected and modestly brought back into trust--only 9 million acres so far since 1934, so it is not as if we have had a large transfer of land back.…”