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"Bill Introduced at National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Executive Council Winter Session."

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), Chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs joined other members of Congress in criticizing the federal government's approach to federal trust management and reform at the Executive Council Winter Session of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), being conducted in the nation's capitol this week.

Speaking to hundreds of tribal delegates from throughout the country this morning, Sen. McCain said, "I share your anger over the federal government's mismanagement of tribal funds. If this scandal were to happen to anyone else, it would be on the front pages of newspapers all across the country. It should be on Sixty Minutes. But for some reason, because it's American Indians who are being victimized, it seems to be another story."

Speaking to the session yesterday, Sen. Inouye said it is time to settle the problem. He referred to The Press newspaper, dated July 6, 1876, which featured an article about the death of George Armstrong Custer in bold type and an article regarding the mismanagement of tribal trust resources by the federal government. "That was 164 years ago, and not much has changed," he said.

Sen. Inouye, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner for heroism in World War II, said he is proud to be an American because the U.S. is a nation that keeps its word. "We keep our promises" to everyone except Native Americans, that is."

"If it takes $2.4 billion to settle this problem, let's find it. It's a promise I hope we can keep in my lifetime," said Inouye, who is serving his seventh term in the Senate. "It's time for action."

Sen. McCain said it has been his honor to work with the tribes over the past 20 years and that he considers the federal mismanagement of Indian trust resources "shameful". He also said he has asked Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, to hold up confirmation of Ross Swimmer, President Bush's nominee for Special Trustee for American Indians, until a number of questions are answered. The new position was recently created after a year of negotiations between the Department of the Interior (DOI) and tribal leaders—a process the DOI has abandoned.

McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said the fact that the tribes have given more lives in American foreign wars than any other ethnic group causes him to be even more amazed that they have been so consistently victimized by trust mismanagement by the federal government. Sen. Inouye also announced historic legislation intended to assure the protection of American Indian tribal sovereignty, or the right of tribes to self government.

The proposed will be formally introduced before the U.S. Senate as early as next week. Sen. Inouye called it a "discussion bill" which might take years to pass, but which is intended to throw recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions jeopardizing tribal jurisdiction on reservations, like Nevada vs. Hicks, "out the window."

"This bill will reaffirm the sovereign nature of tribes and will allow tribes jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases and laws," said Sen. Inouye. "This is a great moment for American Indian nations," said NCAI President Tex G. Hall. "The NCAI has been calling upon Congress and the President to work with us to develop legislation over the past year."

The U.S. Constitution has always recognized that Indian tribes are independent governmental entities. Like state governments and foreign governments, Indian tribes have the inherent power to govern their people and their lands. A fundamental contract was created in the treaties. Indian tribes ceded millions of acres to make the U.S. what it is today, in return, tribes received the governmenttal guarantee that the federal government would protect the tribes' right to govern their own people and their reservations as homelands for tribal cultures, religions, languages, and ways of life.

However, over recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has developed a trend in ruling against tribal interests.

"We are deeply concerned about recent Supreme Court decisions which have clouded these historical relationships, and blurred the lines of jurisdiction at the borders between the state and tribal lands," said Hall.