Lise: How would you work to strengthen the infrastructure of tribes to help them become more self supporting?
Wesley Clark: I think it starts with education and I think we have to put the funding we need in to help Native Americans achieve good education including pre-school all across the country, getting kids to graduate from high school, getting them into college but I think that it starts with education and from there we have got to insist on, not only funding for Indian Health Services and the other specific Bureau of Indian Affairs programs, but we’ve also got to really promote economic opportunity through the Small Business Administration and making sure that ordinary Americans have assistance in developing business plans, get credit and any other assistance they need in starting businesses. We have to work through a variety of areas to bring wealth and prosperity across America.
Wesley Clark: I have talked to people, I read about it and when I was growing up in Arkansas we always were very proud of our connection with the frontier and that we were next to the Oklahoma territory. My step-father, his side of the family has Indian blood in it, they are connected to the Osage. I remember when I was a kid I went up to northwest Arkansas and seeing the picture of his great uncle, they said he was full blooded Osage, I don’t know if he was or not, but I saw the picture and he looked like he could have been. We were always just very proud of it, we were very conscious of it. We collected arrow heads and we did a lot of things in Arkansas that made me very much aware of and proud of our Indian heritage in America.
Lise: There has been a lot of controversy about allowing tribes to teach their native languages in the class rooms. Where would you stand on this issue?
Wesley Clark: I think its a wonderful thing to be able to teach native languages and I am not sure of all the details of this but I will tell you this that in Europe, minorities are supposed to have the rights to teach in their native languages. One of the reasons there was so much trouble in the Balkans was because that right wasn’t respected. What I would hope is that every Native American would know their native language, but they would be fluent in the English language so that they can participate in the economic life in America.
Lise: Is there anything you would like to say to the Native people?
Wesley Clark: I think that America should be very proud of our Native American heritage, we’re proud of our Native Americans today and we want to do everything we can to help them succeed in the lives they choose to lead. However if Native Americans want to come out and succeed like my West Point class mate Doc Krantz did, who was a Mohawk Indian, and got the Native American Scholarship to Harvard. He is tremendously successful in the business world I am really proud of Doc Krantz, and for those who live on reservations and want to stay there I think that’s wonderful and we want to help them.
http://www.native-voice.com/fullstory.cfm?ID=478
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