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Speech

Remarks by Acting Assistant Attorney General Sam Hirsch on the Occasion of the Ceremony to Commemorate the Historic Settlement of Tribal Trust Claims Between the United States and the Navajo Nation

Location

Window Rock, AZ
United States

I am deeply honored to stand here today with the leaders and members of the Navajo Nation and my colleagues from the Department of the Interior to share in this momentous occasion, one that marks a new era in the enduring trust relationship between the United States and the Navajo Nation. 

I want to thank President Ben Shelly, Speaker Pro Tempore [LoRenzo] Bates, Attorney General [D. Harrison] Tsosie, and Trust Mismanagement Litigation Task Force Chair Lorenzo Curley, as well as all the tribal officials and members who have joined us today.  Thank you all for welcoming us to your beautiful home.  I’m also delighted to be here with Secretary Jewell and Assistant Secretary Washburn, who are leading great efforts to support and strengthen American Indian tribal sovereignty and to fulfill the historic trust responsibility of the United States.

For decades, the United States and Indian tribes have struggled — sometimes side-by-side and sometimes at odds — to resolve, with finality, long-standing problems related to the United States’ management of tribal funds and resources.  In that context, the Navajo Nation pursued its own claims for past failures, most recently in a lawsuit raising deficiencies that spanned decades and addressed the entire breadth of the Navajo Nation’s funds and resources.  That litigation, unfortunately, stood in the way of furthering the relationship between the United States and the Navajo Nation.

As the novelist James Baldwin once wrote: “People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.”  In some ways, this statement might characterize the greater part of the historical relationship between the United States and Indian country.  But today we come together to move beyond the worst parts of that history and to embrace the future. 

Another man, at the founding of the United States, took pen in hand and wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  But for more than a century after these words marked the foundation of this nation and the launch of constitutional democracy in the world, those same words proved empty for American Indians, who watched their numbers, their power, and their traditions erode as the United States expanded from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

As the United States grew, it entered into treaties that exchanged territory for peace and promises to hold in trust the sacred lands and natural resources of American Indians.  Until recently, too many of these promises were broken.  The trust responsibility that the United States government had assumed was viewed as a burden, as a “problem” to be “solved,” not as a sacred vow to be upheld.

The Navajo people know this narrative all too well, beginning with the “Long Walk” when your ancestors were forced to march away from this beautiful home to an internment camp in the Bosque Redondo.  In 1868, once the reservation proved to be a failure, the Dine returned to their homeland under a treaty with the United States.  But the cycle of history continued, with promises made and promises broken, and in many ways American Indians became “trapped” in a cycle of distrust, disenfranchisement, and disappointment.

As Attorney General Holder told tribal leaders last November at the White House Tribal Nations Conference: “Far too much of our history has been defined by violence and deprivation.  Far too many promises have been broken.  Far too many tribes have been told that their lands, religions, cultures, and languages were somehow not theirs to keep.  That their rights could be abridged or denied without the guarantee of due process.  That they could not vote.  And that the only course of action available to them would be to move on, to give up, and — quite simply — to forget.”

But in the last five and a half years, under the leadership of President Obama, Attorney General Holder, and Secretaries Salazar and Jewell, we have seen the dawn of an era of unprecedented partnership, of unparalleled support and respect for tribal sovereignty. 

Part of this effort is an attempt to fairly and honorably put some of our history behind us.  As the Attorney General said in a statement today, the Department of Justice has made honoring and fostering the trust relationship between the United States and American Indian tribes a top priority.  Resolving the claims in these trust accounting and management cases, he said, “strengthens this relationship and allows us to move ahead into a future embodied by mutual respect and partnership.”

In this Administration we are striving to break the cycle of history, to relieve future generations of a dispute that has sorely burdened both of our sovereign governments.  We recognize that the journey we are on together constitutes a future, a fortune and fate that we all share, and leads us toward a new day in the government-to-government relationship between the United States and the Navajo Nation.  And it does so through a fair and honorable resolution of the Navajo Nation’s claims concerning the federal government’s management of the Nation’s trust funds and resources.

From his first days in office, President Obama has worked to honor the government-to-government relationships between the United States and tribal governments.  Truly, this settlement is yet another example of the Administration’s promise to strengthen the ties between the United States and the Navajo Nation.  And it reflects my personal commitment to resolving long-standing lawsuits rather than wasting the time and resources of both the United States and Indian tribes in contentious litigation.

By providing fair compensation for the Navajo Nation’s “breach of trust” claims, this settlement will provide substantial tangible benefits to the Navajo Nation and its members.  These benefits include monetary relief, as well as commitments by the United States government to improve the way in which it carries out the trust relationship with the Navajo Nation.

This resolution, however, benefits not only the Navajo Nation; it benefits all Americans.  By amicably settling these claims on terms that are fair and reasonable, we avoid the expense and drain on federal resources resulting from unnecessary litigation.

There are many people who deserve recognition for achieving such a meaningful resolution:

  • Most importantly, I am immensely grateful for the hard work of the Navajo Nation, President Shelly, Attorney General Tsosie, Deputy Attorney General Bobroff and the Nation’s outside counsel in engaging with the United States in meaningful mediation of the Nation’s claims and working toward this successful settlement.
  • Also I would like to thank our colleagues at the Department of the Interior — including Secretary Jewell, Assistant Secretary Washburn, Acting Principal Deputy Solicitor Jack Haugrud, and Acting Director of the Solicitor’s Indian Trust Litigation Division, Ken Dalton, who is also here with us today.  The commitment from Interior — at the highest levels — to resolve tribal trust claims expeditiously has been reflected in the hard work and dedication of countless Interior Department staff.
  • Finally, I would like to thank my predecessor Bob Dreher, the Chief and Deputy Chief of our Natural Resources Section, Lisa Russell and Jim Gette, and the other dedicated attorneys in the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division who worked so hard to reach this historic settlement.

This settlement between the United States and the Navajo Nation, while unique, is not unprecedented.  From the beginning of this Administration until today, the United States has reached settlements with 80 federally recognized Indian tribes.  Yet I am keenly aware that we haven’t concluded our work.  So, while we celebrate a significant milestone today, we know that there are other cases still pending that require our continued attention.

Today’s settlement is yet another significant step toward closing a long and difficult chapter of our history, and demonstrates the Administration’s unwavering commitment to moving forward through a more constructive relationship with millions of Native Americans.  In that context, I look forward to working with the Navajo Nation and its leaders and members to achieve our broader shared goals.

Thank you very much.


Topic
Indian Country Law and Justice
Updated September 26, 2014