First of all I just want to thank the President for creating the White House Council on Native American Affairs.  It's a long time coming.  It's something that our elders talked about and dreamed about and it's reality right in front of us.  So thank the President for that.

The first question I want to ask all of you, and just a nod would be good.  Are you our trustee?

[council members on stage nod] 

Great.  [applause]  Thank you.  I get various answers from government officials when I ask that question believe it or not.  Some are like this, well, I'm not, I don't-- So thank you for acknowledging that you are our trustee. 

And of course we need our trustee to be worthy of our trust.  And so you know the one thing that is very, very important to us is true 21st century trust reform.  And what I mean by that is this relationship that we inherited--we did not create this relationship; we walked into this relationship, and kind of like pre-arranged I guess maybe.

But you know this is not our grandparents' generation.  Our grandparents dreamed about this time when we could come and have these type of top-level interactions with the President's brains of the United States of America, his cabinet, his ones that make everything work.

And so you know we have rules and regulations in place that are from the 19th and 20th century.  We need to reflect that we are 21st century native Americans, and we have the infrastructure in place to do things that we weren't able to do in the past, and I would want to ask your agencies to have--and this is a big, tall order in three years--a thorough review of those rules and regulations that can have a positive impact on tribes.

Wow it's already one minute.  Oh my goodness.

So three things real quick.  Three recommendations.  Work directly with tribal leaders.  And I know you're all about that.  Have tribal leaders at the table.  Look at what has been done in the past, like with the rural council.  You know the White House had focused meetings at the White House and around the country.  Look at-- you don't have to re-create the wheel.  Look at what's already been done in the past.  That is very important.  And also you know we need to model planning for these high level meetings on summits between the United States and other nations, so tribal leaders or their representative must be involved.

And so we have other recommendations here but in closing I just want you to know that if you treat tribal governments as equal partners, native peoples win, tribal nations win and America wins.  Thank you and God bless you.  [see also NCAI Nov. 14 press release]