Secretary Salazar: Recovery Plan to Create Jobs, Stimulate Economic Activity in Indian Country

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told American Indian leaders that President Obama's economic recovery package provides more than $2 billion to Indian Country to create jobs and stimulate business activity. [Photo Credit: Tami Heilemann, DOI-NBC] Hi-Res

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Speaking to a summit of American Indian leaders,Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today highlighted more than $2 billion in President Obama's economic recovery package to create jobs and economic opportunity in Indian Country.

“The challenges we face as a nation are not new to Indian Country,” Salazar told a Tribal Nations Legislative Summit of the National Congress of American Indians. “But President Obama's recovery package will provide significant investments in Indian Country which can play an important role in helping to stand-up tribal economies.”

Recovery funds to be distributed through the Department of the Interior include $450 million to fix and build roads, repair and construct schools, strengthen detention centers in Indian Country; and another $50 million for housing improvements, workforce training programs, and economic development loans.

Other non-Interior funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for Indian Country includes $510 million in Native American Housing Block Grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development; $310 million for roads, through the Federal Highway Administration; and $500 million for health information technology and facility construction and health services from the Department of Health and Human Services. Additional stimulus funding is included under the Department of Justice and other federal agencies.

Commenting on the recent Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, the Secretary said he was “troubled” by the ruling that only Indian tribes that were formally recognized in 1934 could have land taken into trust for them by the Department of the Interior. Since the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, Interior has added about eight million acres of land to the trust for various tribes, including some that were not federally recognized in 1934. Salazar pledged to continue the program while examining all options to resolve the land-into-trust issue raised by the court decision.

Later, Salazar spoke to the Council of Energy Resource Tribes summit on Native energy development. One of the greatest opportunities for economic development for tribes can be the development of alternative energy sources, Salazar said. Indian lands have major resources for renewable energy as well as rich sources of conventional fossil fuels.

“Indian country offers some of the premier wind energy sites in the United States,” the Secretary noted. “I look forward to exploring with tribes the potential for wind, geothermal, biomass and solar energy development that exists on those lands.”

The Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development has identified 77 reservations that possess commercial-scale wind resources and the ability to support viable wind-based economies. Forty of these are in states that enacted a Renewable Portfolio Standard requiring utilities to purchase a percentage of their power from renewable sources.