Lisa Murkowski Quotes

An Indian tribe is sovereign to the extent that the U.S. permits it to be sovereign.

There is great good will on Capitol Hill for the tribes but virtually none for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Our country has a trust responsibility to Indian tribes, and it seems like their voice has been lacking in so many conversations that we've had in this country. And so, I'd like to make sure that tribal leaders have that seat at the table.

First, take the government of the Indians out of politics; second, let the laws of the Indians be the same as those of the whites; third, give the Indian the ballot.

I'm a member of the American Indian Movement, and I'm from the indigenous nations of the Western Hemisphere.

I wanted in my lifetime to vote for a radical Native American woman, since my vision of any future that we might have is that it will be led by women and older women.

I represent more Native Americans than anyone else in Congress.

We owe an historic debt to American Indians. They have a unique set of concerns that haven't been addressed, and I'd like to stand with them. Also, I'd like to get their views on immigration.

I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They can not tell me.

I do not talk English very much… I go down Washington… Government wants to open the Indian country. Indian he no ready yet, maybe half of it, they ready. That’s what I come for. That’s what I tell commissioner.

The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because they had it first; it is theirs. They may sell, but all must join. Any sale not made by all is not valid.

The Cherokee Nation has had a government for a long, long, long time. We had a government in this country long before there was a United States government.

I am afraid that the talk of "freeing" Indians and making them full citizens is a cloak to make it possible to take a little more away from them. Indians are citizens! They have a right to vote! They serve in the armed forces, and they pay income taxes and other taxes except on their land. This land-tax exemption is usually part of the agreed price received from the Federal government for larger areas given up. All the Indians ask is that they be consulted and that they give their consent as to the proper time for "termination" of certain agreements, and that each tribe be consulted separately.

The Democratic Party has learned from the terrible mistakes of the past. Our platform requires that we honor, fulfill, and strengthen the federal government's trust responsibility to American Indians. We take this responsibility seriously.

Indigenous lives matter.

We have a government-to-government relationship with tribes, and they should have that opportunity to weigh in on important decisions that affect them.

I can't imagine what it must be like to be one of the indigenous people of the United States of America. I can't imagine watching the news every day - as people debate whose country this is and who should be in charge of it and how to make it great again - and hardly ever see your people brought into the discussion.

Coming to serve in the Senate and also running for the Senate in a short time period is not for the faint of heart. But I am not fainthearted.

With federal recognition, the Lumbee Tribe would become a full player in Indian country, no longer second class Indians in the eyes of the federal government. As such, we would employ our substantial skills and abilities to help correct problems faced by Indian country and make significant contributions.

The federal government needs to make it clear that recognition of Indigenous rights means that when Indigenous bands and their leadership approve projects, we listen.

We have got to recognize the Mashpee tribe, their sovereignty, and their self-determination.

Tribal sovereignty means that. It's sovereign. You're a... you're a... you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity.

I stand with the Navajo Nation and call upon the U.S. Government to do what is right and clean up this mess.

We also recommit to supporting tribal self-determination, security, and prosperity for all Native Americans. While we cannot erase the scourges or broken promises of our past, we will move ahead together in writing a new, brighter chapter in our joint history.

Some Western states have collaborative water agreements with Indian tribes - Washington state, for instance, monitors a number of its rivers to protect spawning salmon, which are promised to native peoples under 19th-century treaties.