Remarks in a discussion at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 12, 1999

July 7, 1999

[The discussion is joined in progress.]

President Harold D. Salway. - but we're durable people, have a lot of pride, have a lot of dignity.

President Clinton. How do you stay warm in the winter?

President Salway. Well, we're conditioned. We're conditioned, a lot of buffalo robes, a lot of good, hard work, too. This is how a lot of people live, though. This is about the average conditions of most homes throughout the reservation. And some are really bad yet.

President Clinton. Would you say the biggest immediate need you have is for better housing?

President Salway. Housing and what new markets is going to do, create jobs. Not enough people working here on Pine Ridge, so that causes a lot of potential impacts.

President Clinton. If there were jobs in the near vicinity, some sort of small manufacturing or something like that, do you think all the people who could work would do so?

President Salway. Yes. We have one of the highest unemployment rates for - a lot of people going to work, being more responsible with their time would uplift the lives of the entire family in a lot of ways.

President Clinton. Where's your tribal college?

President Salway. Probably about 40 miles northeast of here, toward the center part of our reservation. Our reservation is about 135 by 84, 85, thereabouts. A pretty large reservation.

President Clinton. How close do the jobs have to be in order not to be too burdensome to go to and from work?

President Salway. We don't have a transportation system, so most people have to car pool into Pine Ridge. Pine Ridge is kind of like the capital of the reservation, if you will. Most people transporting in and out transit to come to work from IGS and BIA and tribal government. That's the greatest portion of employment. Not too much microenterprises for development.

Housing is one of the largest employers on the reservation. But the need is so high that it naturally is one of the higher employment areas.

President Clinton. Andrew, why don't you just say what we've been talking about, say what you were saying about the housing.

Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo. As the President was saying one of the greatest needs is housing, just provide the basic living conditions where people can improve themselves. And then homeownership - very little homeownership on the reservation - and homeownership, given the conversation we've had this past week is really the first access to capital strategy, when you think about it. Because when you own and you have equity in your home, then you can start to get loans, you can start to get financing and start to get credit to open a business or pay a tuition, whatever you'd like to do.

So our efforts are, first, try to improve as much housing as we can. We're doing that through the Housing Authority. We've set up a not-for-profit with the reservation for the first time so the tribe can do business as a tribe and also as a not-for-profit organization.

And then homeownership, homeownership, homeownership. The people who are at the conference today - I was telling the President the numbers are up to about 800 people from across the country who come to this housing conference - 100 tribal presidents. And we have the mainstream homeownership, housing, bankers who come to the conference. And we're going to start, for the first time ever, in a big way, homeownership on the reservation linked to economic development, because it's also an empowerment zone. We're going to sign officially the papers at the next event.

So we have the empowerment zone doing the economic development piece and housing and the homeownership with the private mortgage market coming forward.

President Clinton. Frank?

Franklin D. Raines. Well, we're trying very hard to bring private capital into the reservation. It's been a - working with this reservation, now signing an agreement with one of our major lenders and with the tribe to cut through a lot of the legal problems that lending - when you've got trust lands involved. And we think we can make progress there.

We think that it's important that, in addition to the HUD programs that are so important, that we also get mainstream lenders in the conventional lending here. We've done a fair amount. We've bought about 70 percent of the HUD loans that were made - Fannie Mae has financed on this reservation. But we're going to be committing not only to purchase new housing, but $3 million of venture capital funds to encourage production of housing on this reservation. All this is part of a $500 million initiative that Senator Daschle and Senator Johnson and I announced yesterday. That's covering the whole State, but there is a portion that is going to be just here. And we're intentionally keeping it, without us saying exactly where it's going to go.

We're going to work with the tribal government to ensure that we can either put it in a multifamily or single-family or combinations of housing and retail that will make it possible to bring more and more private capital onto the reservation.