Press Release

[Historian]

NCAI President Joe Garcia to Lay Out 'The Four Great Steps' for Indian Country in State of Indian Nations Address
2/1/2006 1:09:00 PM


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To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor

Contact: Adam McMullin of the National Congress of American Indians, 202-721-1386 or [email protected]

News Advisory:

Broadcast Live on NCAI Website: http://www.ncai.org

Joe A. Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) -- the nation's oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization -- will set the agenda for Indian Country in tomorrow's State of Indian Nations Address at 12 p.m. (EST) at the National Press Club. The address entitled: "The Four Great Steps" will articulate an aggressive agenda for American Indians and Alaskan Natives in the coming year and lay out Garcia's agenda as the newly elected NCAI President.

WHO: NCAI President Joe Garcia

WHAT: State of Indian Nations Address

WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006 at 12 p.m. (EST)

WHERE: National Press Club-Holeman Lounge, 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20045

"The spiritual outlook of the Indian Nations is found in The Four Directions," said Garcia. "I will look to the four directions to outline the agenda for Indian Nations and the most important issues affecting our people today."

Attending will be tribal leaders from across the nation, Administrations officials and national Indian organizations including: The National American Indian Housing Council, Native American Rights Fund, National Indian Education Association, National Indian Gaming Association, and the Friends Committee at National Legislation.

Founded in 1944, the National Congress of American Indians is the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the country. NCAI advocates on behalf of more than 250 tribal governments, promoting strong tribal-federal government-to-government policies, and promoting a better understanding among the general public regarding American Indian and Alaska Native governments, people and rights. For more information about NCAI, visit http://www.ncai.org.

RSVP to Adam McMullin, 202-721-1386 or [email protected]

http://www.usnewswire.com/

© 2006 U.S. Newswire

[WhoMe]

Historian,

I have been getting alot of email forwards from all over Indian Country concerning the State of the Indian address by NCAI president Joe Garcia!


Wooo hoooooo!

Joe Garcia is the governor of my mom's tribe!!!!!


We are so proud of him!

[Historian]

NCAI president says tribes moving on after Abramoff
The Associated Press - 2 February 2006

WASHINGTON D.C. - The president of the National Congress of American Indians said Thursday that Indian nations are moving on after the Jack Abramoff scandal, and that tribes who hired the disgraced lobbyist did nothing wrong.

"We'll get over it, and soon," Joe Garcia said of the scandal.
Abramoff pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges last month and admitted to conspiring to defraud Indian tribes, which he sometimes directed to make contributions to lawmakers. The tribes that hired the lobbyist paid tens of millions of dollars in lobbying fees between 2001 and 2004.

Garcia, also governor of New Mexico's San Juan Pueblo, said his organization stands behind the fact that Indian nations have a right to hire lobbyists and said the nations that hired Abramoff did their "due diligence."

At the group's annual state of Indian nations address, Garcia outlined four steps that would help Indian nations in the coming year: public safety reform, health care reform, education and economy reform. He also called for a quick resolution in longstanding class-action lawsuit in which thousands of American Indians claim they were cheated out of more than $100 billion in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.