And so I say, in the midst of challenges, in the midst of what might sometimes be a profound sense of uncertainty,
let us always continue to have faith in our young leaders, in their future, And in our collective future.
And I thank you all, all the leaders here, for all you have done and all you will do.
And let us continue to fight for the opportunity and the dignity of all people.
May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.
I'm almost done with my remarks.
So hello again.
I hope you've enjoyed today's discussions and that really amazing lunch that we had.
20 years ago, I would never have believed that I would be standing here addressing you as the Secretary of the Interior, talking about what we have made for Indian Country.
President Biden has been the best president for Indian Country in my lifetime.
We've got an administration that truly sees Indigenous people and has worked tirelessly to address the issues in Indian country that have long been underfunded or outright ignored.
From infrastructure to education to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples, President Joe Biden has directed historic resources into the hands of tribal leaders who know best how to strengthen their communities.
Across the Investing in America agenda, a historic $45 billion, more than 15 years' worth of the Bureau of Indian Affairs annual budget, has gone into Indian country through this administration.
With that comes enduring and transformational change.
It means electrifying homes on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona that have never had it.
Protecting cultural resources like salmon, which Pacific Northwest tribes have stewarded for thousands of years.
Building new transportation infrastructure for the Mescalero Apache Nation in New Mexico that will provide a safer travel route and boost the tribe's local economy.
Addressing toxic legacy pollution and abandoned oil and gas infrastructure that pollutes air and water for the Osage Nation in Oklahoma.
And providing clean drinking water for Fort Peck in Montana.
I could go on.
This is a once -in -a -generation funding that is empowering tribes and making up for significant and systemic underfunding of tribal communities.
Of course, we know that the need in our communities is still incredibly high.
We know that many priorities still need adequate funding and resources.
That's what decades of lack of investments look like.
But what we have done will have lasting and enduring results for the generations that have counted on us to show up.
It means that our kids and grandkids have a better shot at living lives where their needs are met, where their futures are bright, and where the pains and ills of the past no longer dictate who they can become.
That progress is on us.
And it's thanks to President Biden for making this administration and our Cabinet firm and unwavering partners in Indian Country.
Now, like any good tribal council, our cabinet has not always been unified in every decision.
We're passionate people!
United in service to the American people, but also unique in our perspectives.
But every single day, I have felt heard.
I have felt respected.
And I have felt secure that my advocacy on behalf of Indian Country has been acknowledged and seen by the White House.
Twenty years ago, I would never have thought I'd be standing here.
I would never have thought I'd be welcoming the President of the United States to come on stage and greet my relatives, friends,
and colleagues from across the nation.
Yet here we are.
So please give a warm welcome to someone I am so honored to call our friend, President Joe Biden.
Assistant Secretary Newlin and I wanted to acknowledge the...
He has been a champion for Indian country over these past four years.
The best way for us to acknowledge that was with a blanket.
Generation blanket from a tribally owned business.
And I've had it embroidered.
Secretary, Assistant Secretary.
It says Joe Biden, champion for Indian country.
2021 to 2024.
They want us to look over there.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much.
I could have used that blank when I was lighting that Christmas tree.
Both of us were freezing.
Thank you, Secretary Holland.
This is Secretary Nuland.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You know, it's the honor of my life to be a partner of the tribes throughout my presidency.
I'm going to cherish this moment.
You know, I was raised by a guy politically when I got here as a 29 -year -old kid as a senator.
I was raised by a guy named Danny Inouye.
And I once used the phrase, tribes said, no, Joe, nations, nations.
I want to thank Secretary Hallam for the introduction and for your historic leadership in the Department of Interior.
And this has been historic.
It's been historic.
I've worked with a lot of cabinet secretaries.
I've appointed a bunch over my 59, 500 -year career.
But I tell you what, I've never met with a cabinet secretary more devoted to the obligation of the job she's taken on.
I really mean it.
And thanks to all the tribal leaders who traveled across the country representing your tribal nations.
Folks, I came to office and I relaunched the White House Tribal Nations Summit to bring us all together again.
Talk about the needs of your communities, to set goals, to listen, because...
I recognize that respect is the core of nation -to -nation relationships.
We have a lot to be proud of, I think.
We've gotten a lot done.
From day one, my administration, we've worked to include Indigenous voices in everything we do.
Not only the first Native American cabinet secretary in history, more than 80 Native Americans now serve in senior roles across my administration.
I mean this sincerely.
With their help, We've shaped our approach to Indian Country with respect and matched our words with action.
I'm proud to have re -established the White House Council on Native American Affairs and taken historic steps to improve tribal consultation.
For example, you shared with me that too many federal programs treat tribes like they're subsidiaries of the government, like cities or counties, rather than tribal nations.
Nations, not subsidiaries.
That's who you are.
You're a nation.
So, at last year's summit, I signed a groundbreaking executive order to recognize that you should be treated as tribal nations with respect to your decision -making power.
That executive order requires federal agencies to streamline grant applications, to co -manage federal programs, to eliminate heavy -handed reporting requirements.
I'm trying to do that across the board, by the way.
We're also investing in a historic $45 billion, $45 billion directly into Indian country.
More is needed, but it's more than ever happened before.
This includes helping tribal communities get through the pandemic with vaccines in arms and checks in pockets.
We're helping tribes build new roads, bridges, deliver affordable, high -speed internet, and clean water across tribal communities.
As a nation, we're making the biggest investment ever.
Well, I come from,
we call that a big deal.
We're good to go.
I think?
I'm proud to have helped cut child poverty in tribal communities by more than one -third.
There's more to do.
But folks, at the same time, we're also doing what we should have done a long time ago: preserving ancestral tribal homelands.
It really is important.
It really is important.
One example is restoring salmon fishing, which historically has been very important to Native communities.
You know, I think it's very important.
That we memorialize Native culture and history by restoring and designating multiple national monuments that honor tribal nations and protect their homelands.
From Bears Ears to Spirit Mountain, which comprise nearly two million acres combined, will be preserved in perpetuity forever, ever, ever.
I remember a young woman came up to me, a young girl came up to me and said, I bent down, she said, can I talk to you?
I said, sure.
She said, Can you take care of Bear's ears?
Can you take care of Bear's ears?
I thought you wanted me to capture a bear.
And when we signed the bill, I gave her the pen.
Look, it's sacred.
It's magnificent.
This year, my administration designated the first native marine sanctuary proposed by indigenous communities, which is off the coast of California, which occupies 4 ,500 square miles.
That's off limits.
You know, these efforts are totally consistent with my commitment when I came to office to preserve 30 % of all America's lands and waters permanently by the year 2030.
And we're well on our way because of the help you've given me.
And we're doing all this with respect for the stewardship practices that tribes developed over the centuries, known as indigenous knowledge.
I believe tribes should have a say in how We're good to go.
And right or wrong that had been ignored for a long time.
And apologize.
Apologize.
We're not about erasing history.
We're about recognizing history.
The good, bad, and the ugly.
I apologize for the Federal Indian Boarding School era.
A dark chapter that spanned 150 years from the 1860s until 1960.
We're good to go.
I don't want people forgetting 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now pretending it didn't happen.
The Carlisle Indian School was the first off -reservation federal Indian boarding school for Native children that were taken to.
The first one.
About 7 ,800 children from more than 140 tribes were sent to Carlisle, stolen from their families.
They're tribes in their homelands.
It was wrong in making the Carlisle Indian School a national monument.
We made clear what great nations do.
We don't erase history.
We acknowledge it, we learn from it, and we remember so we never repeat it again.
So we can heal.
That's the purpose of memory.
Now, part of the tragedy of Indian boarding schools is that they deliberately tried to erase the culture of tribes.
By ensuring that children lost their language and their traditions.
That's why the next chapter of healing requires revitalizing native languages.
My wife, Jill, to her, this is something our First Lady cares deeply about.
She's an educator.
On her first trip with Secretary Holland, she visited the language immersion program of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
Jill saw Native children light up.
Light up!
As they said at words their ancestors once spoke, over three quarters of the remaining native languages are in danger of being lost, being lost forever.
That's why today my administration is moving ahead on a 10 -year plan to revive native languages in a serious effort.
It's a vision that works with tribes and support teachers, schools, communities, organizations in order to save native language from disappearing.
This matters.
It's part of our heritage.
It's part of who we are as a nation.
It's how we got to be who we are.
We also heard loud and clear that public safety is a stop concern of Native communities.
That's why when I was a vice president, when we reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, which, as my daughter says, I wrote with my own paw.
I wrote it 30 years ago, one of the proudest things I ever did.
We also reaffirmed tribal sovereignty and expanded tribal jurisdiction to cover cases where outside predators harm members of Indian nations in Indian country and decided there.
I also signed an executive order to improve public safety and criminal justice to address the crisis of missing or murdering indigenous people.
These efforts, and all our efforts, are a matter of restoring dignity that was taken away from tribal nations.
Dignity.
My dad used to say, Joey, and I mean it sincerely, everyone, everyone, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity.
A word most often used in my family by my dad.
Dignity.
That's the foundation of our nation -to -nation partnership.
Let me close with this.
This is my final White House Tribal Nations Summit as your president.
It's been an overwhelming honor, I mean it sincerely, an honor of a lifetime to usher in a new era of tribal sovereignty.
A new era, grounded in dignity and respect, that I've seen and experienced in many ways.
In October, I had the honor to bestow one of our nation's highest medals, the National Medal of Humanities on Joy Harjo,
the first Native American to serve this nation as poet laureate.
She once wrote, and I quote, You are a story fed by generations.
You carry songs of grief, triumph, and loss.
Feel their power as they ascend with you as you walk, run swiftly, even fly into infinite possibilities.
End of quote.
To all the tribal nations, I say thank you, and I mean it sincerely.
Thank you for your partnership.
Thank you for your trust in me.
But most of all, thank you for your friendship.
And always believing, as I do, that the possibilities of our nation are limitless.
I was once asked when I spent more time with Xi Jinping in China than any other world leader has, over 108 hours alone with him.
I was on the Tibetan plateau with him in China, and he looked at me and said, can you define America for me?
And this was on the record.
I said, yes, one word.
He looked at me through a translator.
I said, possibilities.
And America.
We believe anything is possible if we do it together.