Retiring senator spurs action on Indian issues(AP) – 12 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) —
By any measure, 2010 was a banner year on Capitol Hill for American Indians.
And a huge factor was the pending retirement of a lone senator — North Dakota's Byron Dorgan.
After years of trying, Congress passed several landmark bills for Indians, including laws overhauling tribal health care and law enforcement and settling a 15-year legal battle over lost royalties for mismanaged Indian lands.
Congress continued parceling out $2.5 billion in economic stimulus money to tribes and resolved four long-standing water disputes totaling more than $1 billion.
Tribal leaders and advocates call the two-year session that ended last week the most productive for American Indians in four decades. They offer several reasons, including strong support from the Obama administration, which has made tribal issues a priority.
And there was the Dorgan factor.Dorgan, a Democrat, announced last January he wouldn't seek re-election after almost 30 years in Congress. Dorgan, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said he then "focused like a laser" on unfinished business, including the long-stalled bills on health care and crime.
-snip-
The
health care law, formally known as the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, was included in the larger health care overhaul passed by Congress last spring. It
clears the way for more preventive care, boosts mental health resources and addresses recruiting and retaining physicians throughout Indian Country. It also focuses on teen suicide — an epidemic on many reservations — and improves treatment for diabetes, another chronic problem.-snip-
Congress approved $3.4 billion to settle the lost royalties case, which covers claims that Native Americans were swindled out of payments for oil, gas, timber and grazing rights for more than a century. As many as 500,000 American Indians will receive at least $1,500 apiece; some will get significantly more.
A total of $2 billion will be used to buy broken-up Indian lands from individual owners willing to sell, with the lands turned over to tribes. Another $60 million will go to a scholarship fund for young Indians.The settlement was reached in late 2009, but was not approved by Congress until the lame-duck session that ended just before Christmas.
A separate settlement with the Agriculture Department will pay Indian farmers $680 million for improper denial of farm loans. The settlements and new laws, Dorgan said, are a matter of honor.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iFJLQMl9crRyHZ8hzvyaRruedleQ?docId=4459778037864993b558ff60f1797230 This is before even going into the whole ~
Obama Wants 'Indian Tribes To Be Our New Overlords'
and to Give Manhattan Back To Native Americans.
Although after the past week, people may be asking ~
When Obama Gives NYC to Indians, Will They Plow Streets? http://gothamist.com/2010/12/29/when_obama_gives_nyc_to_indians_wil.php
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