Unlocking Native Lands and Opportunities for Commerce and Key Economic Developments Act of 2023

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I want to make this very clear to the members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Tribe: This is not about you. As a matter of fact, I know you have been seeking this for--it has been 100 years since the event they have memorialized, and you have been seeking this for quite some time. But you need to know that your leadership is playing a game that will ultimately force me to take a position on the modification.

I believe that the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial is at a sacred site, and the act really does need to come into law--just not yet. The reason is, I have an issue with their Tribal leadership. I have an issue with the Sioux's leadership going after the Lumbee Tribe in Eastern North Carolina.

The Lumbee have been trying to seek recognition for years, and there is a long and sordid trail of racism, the Jim Crow era, and things that I will not talk about today, but I will in the coming weeks.

As many of my colleagues know, I have been working on the Lumbee Fairness Act--getting it passed into law--for quite some time. I acknowledge--I am going to go quicker on this. I am going to submit something for the Record, if I may.

Mr. President, the bottom line is, I am not going to get into the history of the Lumbee Tribe. What I am going to do is get into the history of the casino cartel that is trying to prevent the Lumbee Tribe from being recognized. First among them is the largest Indian Tribe east of the Mississippi River. It is the Eastern Band of the Cherokee in North Carolina.

These are my constituents. They are the same constituents where then- Speaker Thom Tillis made sure they were treated fairly, renegotiated their compact, and it was transformational to them, as a Republican leader, over the objections of a majority of my Republican members.

That is the only bill that I allowed to do--in my 4 years as speaker--to do the right thing for the Cherokee. My reward was to have them use some of the treasure that was gained from my support in the statehouse to pay lobbyists huge sums of money to discredit the application for recognition of the Lumbee Indians.

Now I am going to get into some specifics.

For years, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and their adviser Wilson Pipestem had led the efforts, the punitive efforts, directly against the Lumbee Tribe. Most recently, at the 81st NCAI Convention, a few weeks ago, UINO--sorry for these abbreviations--spread inflammatory information about the Lumbee Tribe. That was on November 1. The Eastern Band publicly thanked the UINO for the distribution of these materials. They were false. Since this stunt, the NCAI president has publicly condemned the distribution of those materials and issued an apology to the Lumbee Tribe.

Now I have been made aware that Eastern Band, Wilson Pipestem, and UINO have been hosting events on Capitol Hill, spending large sums of money to continue spreading those lies.

In the coming weeks and months, I am going to continue to highlight the individuals, the lobbyists, the Tribal leaders, and the groups that are part of this web that are preventing the Lumbee from getting the recognition they have deserved for nearly 130 years.

I want to reiterate to the Oglala Sioux and to the Cheyenne River Sioux: This is not about you. This is about your leaders, and this is about their underhanded, unfair treatment of a Tribal nation that deserves recognition and that this country needs to atone for over a century of racism and neglect.

For that reason, Mr. President, I do object to the modification.

Mr. President, Senator Rounds--I call him Mike--we are good friends. We came into the Senate together in 2014. We got to know each other before we even got here. He is a man of honor, and he is a man of his word. I have no doubt that he would not stand in the way should I allow this measure to go forward today.

The problem is, the Tribes that he represents will. They will continue to work to spread the misinformation to smear a Tribe that deserves recognition, and they want the respect that they have been entitled to for over 130 years when they first got recognition, short of Federal recognition.

So if I had a Senate and a Congress--if I had 535 Mike Rounds--I would not have objected to this today. If I had Tribal leaders who were not lying to constituents and misinforming them on the background of the Lumbee Tribe and knowing that they will continue to, I have no other option than what I did today. It gives me no pleasure to do it to one of my favorite people in the U.S. Senate.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I would like to offer an additional piece of legislation that I think would be very appropriate to include in the proposal.

I ask today for consideration of the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act; that is, H.R. 3371-S. 2088. This would place 40 acres of tribally purchased land at the massacre site into restricted fee status.

Both the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe hold a very deep connection to this event. This is the Wounded Knee Massacre site. There were relatives coming from the Cheyenne River Tribe down to winter near Pine Ridge. That is where this event occurred, and it is one of the most terrible events in the history of the United States, where Native Americans were killed and they were left to freeze in a snowstorm.

As you all know, the Wounded Knee Massacre not only represents a low point in U.S.-Lakota relations, but it also serves as truly one of the darkest moments in our Nation's history.

To date, the Wounded Knee Massacre grounds remain a symbolic site, with Tribal members regularly visiting the area to honor the deceased.

In 2022, both Tribes purchased the 40 acres from a private owner in an effort to preserve the land. Shortly after the purchase, both Tribes signed a covenant holding that the property shall be held and maintained as a memorial and sacred site without any other development. This legislation, which simply places the 40 acres into restricted fee status, will help preserve the site for future Tribal generations.

As we approach the 134th anniversary next month of the Wounded Knee Massacre, it is my hope that we can come together to acknowledge this event and work to amend our history through reconciliation and mutual respect. Although we can't rewrite the past, the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act is one way to show healing and progress.

This legislation easily passed the House and has languished in the U.S. Senate for months. Passing this legislation during Native American Heritage Month is of great importance to Wounded Knee descendants from my home State.

Look, this is one of those areas where you have two Tribes that lost members, and their relatives are still there; they still honor that site. I agree that the other pieces of legislation that are here in front of us, I think, are good, and I think they represent some of the best work of the United States, where you set aside differences, you come together, and you pass good legislation. I believe this legislation fits that particular sect as well.

So, with that, I would simply ask the Senator that he would modify this request to include H.R. 3371, the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act.

Mr. President, look, I am very disappointed in my friend from North Carolina's approach to this particular issue. As Members of the Senate, we each have a task as to whether or not we will support different pieces of legislation.

I had chosen not to object to his legislation which he has been speaking about, and we have done our best to try to allay any concerns he may have about our future attempts to disrupt his approach. So it is very disappointing that he would hold as hostage this particular piece of legislation, which is of solid intent to help repair relations between the Oglala Lakota, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes, and the Government of the United States in a way which does not impact his Tribe or the challenges he has with getting his Tribe recognized whatsoever. In fact, we have felt that by not objecting at this point-- and we have not--that he would understand how serious we were about trying to get our piece of legislation attached to this to fix the problem.

As an example, today--and to the chairman of the committee who has worked so hard to bring these forward, along with the ranking member--I have no intentions of standing in the way of them passing their solid legislation simply as a protest vote. I think we have to move forward and take the best that we can.

I will continue to try to work with the Member from North Carolina to assure him that if he will allow this piece of legislation to move forward, we would not be objecting to his legislation in the future. But if we can't have ours, I guess there is always the possibility that he will not be able to get his, as well.

I will not object to the original proposal.

Mr. President, the past 4 years have been the most productive ever for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Working on a bipartisan basis, we have secured the largest investment in Native communities in American history and enacted more than two dozen bills into law. The progress we have made is real, it is tangible, and it is meaningful. But there is still a lot of work to do to live up to our responsibilities to these communities, including in the final weeks of this Congress.

There are currently more than a dozen bills that have advanced out of our committee on a unanimous, bipartisan basis but have yet to receive full Senate consideration, and there is no good reason for them to languish for months or even years without action.

My bill, S. 385, makes technical corrections to the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act, which authorizes grants to Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations for recreational travel and tourism activities. This bill was reported out of committee more than a year and a half ago. There has been more than enough time to raise concerns and rectify any issues. It is time to get this done now.

S. 1322, the Unlocking Native Lands and Opportunities for Commerce and Key Economic Developments, or UNLOCKED, Act would enable Indian Tribes to lease their own land for up to 99 years for business and other purposes and to approve certain rights-of-way on their lands under existing law. Senator Murkowski and I introduced this legislation that will incentivize more businesses to invest in Indian Country. This commonsense legislation will support Tribes and their economic development needs.

Finally, S. 2868 was introduced by Senator Smith on behalf of the Lower Sioux Indian Community to revoke the Tribe's Indian Reorganization Act, Section 17 Charter of Incorporation. The Tribe testified in committee that the charter is actively hindering its economic development activities because it can't do things without the Interior Secretary's approval. The Tribe's charter has been in place since 1937. Only Congress has the power to revoke such charters and has acted to revoke such charters previously for a number of Tribes.

So, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc: Calendar No. 34, S. 385; Calendar No. 342, S. 1322; and Calendar No. 490, S. 2868.

I further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment to S. 1322, be considered and agreed to; and that the bills, as amended, where amended, be considered read a third time, en bloc.

I know of no further debate on the bills, as amended, where amended, en bloc.

I ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, en bloc.

Mr. President, I took the floor today to pass several Indian Affairs bills that have been languishing for months and, some, for even years. I continue to intend to fight to pass several bipartisan bills, so it is good that we passed three of them. But there is a lot more work to do.

Senators Padilla, Lujan, Heinrich, Smith, and others all have bills that are ready for consideration today and can end up as Federal law by the end of this Congress. They would improve the lives of Tribes and their communities from water rights settlements to protecting children from abuse and neglect. All of these bills have to be considered.

I am told additional time will be needed to clear these bills over the Thanksgiving break, and so I will stand down for now. I just want to make it clear to everybody: We are going to spend a lot of time on the floor together. There will be no cheap holds. There will be no convenient holds. We will give people a chance to work out their problems. But we are going to do this on the floor live like a real legislature and we are going to get this done.

I yield the floor.