Rogers / 3 Senator Jones

S.S.___________

A BILL
To rebuild and Modernize Native American reservations in America.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Native American Act of 2016.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
A) That Native Americans suffer from many social and economic problems, a couple of examples are,
disproportionately high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and low high school completion rates.
B) About 22% of our country's 5.2 million Native Americans live on tribal lands (2010 U.S. Census).
C) Living conditions on the reservations have been cited as "comparable to Third World".
D) Native American civil rights advocates are cultural issues related to the ability to maintain and pass on traditional
religious beliefs, languages and social practices without fear of discrimination.
E) The federal government has special trust obligations to protect tribal lands and resources, protect tribal rights to
self-government, and provide services necessary for tribal survival and advancement.
F) The fight to preserve tribal sovereignty and treaty rights has long been at the forefront of the Native American
civil rights movement.
G) The scarcity of jobs and lack of economic opportunity mean that, depending on the reservation, four to eight out
of ten adults on reservations are unemployed.
H) The "Digital Divide" is also a major area of concern for Native Americans and other minority groups - because
many American Indians and Alaskan Natives have yet to be connected to basic telephone networks and are thus
unable to access the Internet, they are at risk of falling even further behind in their ability to access employment,
educational, and other opportunities made available by information technology.
I) New research is suggesting that historic trauma, passed down from generation to generation, may be a root cause
of many of the health problems facing Indian Country.
J) About 40% of our countrys 4.9 million Native Americans live on reservations.
K) Today there are only 52 million acres left from the original American Indian homeland of the about 6.1 billion
acres that form North America and this trust land is mostly of inferior quality: the BIA took an investigation about the
erosion on American Indian tribes land and considered the state of 12 million acres crucially, 17 million gravely, 24
million gently affected as to that.
L) For many Native Americans there is no possibility to make a living by farming without the use of chemicals and
in some reservations commercial hunting and fishing are prohibited.
M) The federal government has special trust obligations to protect tribal lands and resources, protect tribal rights to
self-government, and provide services necessary for tribal survival and advancement.
N) The fight to preserve tribal sovereignty and treaty rights has long been at the forefront of the Native American
civil rights movement.
O) When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed in 1988, it brought about the biggest surge to economic
development in Indian Country in the last decade, however it opened the doors to misinformation about casino
gambling and Native Americans.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) This bill shall help the Native Americans who are still living within the Native American Reservations.
Rebuilding them from the ground up. Making it a better living environment, one with jobs, homes, gas stations,
grocery stores, hospitals, among many other things.
B) The US Indian Affairs Bureau will be responsible in helping with this act in rebuilding of the reservations. Funds
to complete the renovation would be coming from private funding sources.
C) The Native American act of 2016 shall be enacted on January 1, 2017.

Native American Issues in America

Approximately 40% of our countrys 4.9 million Native Americans live on reservations, that 40% is living in
conditions that are compared to living in a third-world country. Many households are overcrowded and earn only social
security, disability, or veterans income. The overall percentage of American Indians living below the federal poverty
line is 28.2% (http://www.nrcprograms.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_livingconditions). There are roughly three
hundred Native American Reservations in the United States, meaning the geographical area of them all is 56,200,000
acres which is approximately the size of Idaho.(http://www.bia.gov/FAQs/)
To explain the poverty of the reservations people normally point to alcoholism, corruption or school-dropouts,
not to mention the long distances to jobs and the dusty undeveloped land that doesnt seem good for growing much.
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoppisch/2011/12/13/why-are-indian-reservations-so-poor-a-look-at-the-bottom-1/)
Not only have Native Americans suffered from discrimination, alcoholism, infant mortality, poverty, and
unemployment. They also have suffered from over-crowded homes, that never really seem to have enough food within
them. A lot of reservations are on land that have little to none good soil for gardening and growing produce, making it
difficult for them to grow their own food. A staggering number of Native American tribal elders are afflicted with
diabetes, and about 58 percent have hypertension. Because these ailments are often caused by a poor diet, gaining
access to healthy food is imperative. (http://www.nativepeoples.com/Reclaiming-Food-Sovereignty-on-Reservations/)
Many American Indians are living in substandard housing. About 40% of on-reservation housing is considered
inadequate. The waiting list for tribal housing is long; the wait is often three years or more, and overcrowding is
inevitable.(http://www.nrcprograms.org/site/PageServer?pagename=naa_livingconditions) With the Native American Act of
2016, I shall end home overcrowding by building more up-to-date homes with indoor plumbing and as well central air.
Native American Reservations shall have more space to live in and as well to working in. Building new homes will get
the Native Americans a chance to earn a little money on the side by helping us build new homes, schools, hospitals,
stores, etc. As has long been the case, many Native American communities are economically depressed, and their
jobless rates are high. Only when Native Americans have a high and steady employment rate will their poverty rate
decline and their wealth begin to grow.(http://www.epi.org/publication/bp370-native-americans-jobs/)
The legal basis of the US' relationship with tribal nations is rooted in the treaty relationship; the US made
approximately 800 treaties with tribes. Of those that were ratified, all of them were violated by the US in sometimes
extreme ways that resulted in massive land theft and the subjection of Indians to the foreign power of American law.
(http://nativeamericanhistory.about.com/od/nativeconceptsandperspectives/a/How-The-Injustices-Of-The-Past-AreThe-Injustices-Of-Today-In-Indian-Country.htm) There were many promises made and many that were broken, treaties
helped set the stage for a later and more dramatic policy of Indian removal. Indians who resisted attempts by the whites
to obtain Indian land via treaty arrangements found themselves facing "removal" further westward.
(http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/stories/0701_0141.html)

The main focus of the Native American Act of 2016, is to not only rebuild their overcrowded homes, and create
new jobs- but to build new schools, rehab centers, grocery stores, hospitals and so much more. With this bill I shall
give each and every Reservation in America a choice to either have us fund their renovations and have them do it their
self or to have us come in and work on it with them. I shall get fundings from the US Indian Affairs Bureau, and as
well talk with them on fixing treaties that were previously broken.