Manataba Messenger

Page 12 Chairwoman of the 43rd Tribal Council of the Colorado River Indian Tribes Amelia Flores Mid-Year Address to the People As Chairwoman I come to you today as my commitment to communicate with our people. As we near the halfway mark for 2021, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on this administration’s accomplishments and to reassure our people that I remain focused on the priorities that matter most to them. As your tribal council, we continue to strive to make the Colorado River Indian reservation a better place to live, work and play. Our people’s health and safety remain mine and your tribal council’s number one priority today. Effective June 1st, in a special tribal council meeting, action was taken to approve Phase 3 and lift the tribe’s Covid-19 mitigation measures to fully re-open the Colorado River Indian Tribes economy by August 31, 2021. [See Page 13] After reviewing the national, CA, AZ, and tribal vaccination rates as well as the spread of COVID-19 variants, we are prepared to CAUTIOUSLY move forward through phased measures to re-open the economy. We have withstood the worst of the attack on our people, but to meet our goal of fully opening, we all need to remain vigilant. I appeal to each of you to take responsibility, based on the love for your peo- ple, your elders and community, to get vaccinated. If we do not reach our communi- ty level vaccination goals, we will continue to struggle with the virus. Also, the soon- er we all get vaccinated, the sooner we can go without wearing a mask. Until then, continue using common sense and wear a mask when in a close public area. This administration has been focused on maintaining essential services during the pandemic. Now we will begin taking action to add resources and expand services for our people. Our strong community values and beliefs will guide us toward a new normal, one that we will achieve with time, resources, and patience. CRIT Tribal Council has passed two proclamations to advance important social issues. In May we issued a Proclamation establishing May 5 as a Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman and Girls. Tribal Council is in the planning stages to further memorialize the women and girls we have lost to violence. This month Tribal Council established June 2021 as Pride Month. Tribal Council rec- ognizes the significant contributions made by our LGBTQ+ community. Tribal Council is committed to promoting the principles of equality, liberty and justice for the LGBTQ+ community. Establishing our CRIT 911 system has been a critical priority-made all the more urgent with the pandemic. As the community is aware you have to directly call dis- patch at 928-669-1277 for emergency services on the reservation at this time. Tribal Council has committed the funds and resources to implement the CRIT 911 system and significant progress has been made. Another priority was to take full advantage of the Biden/Harris administration. So far, CRIT has played a key role in building Tribal and Congressional support for the historic nomination and confirmation of Secretary Deb Haaland, the first indigenous Cabinet Secretary; facilitated a contract for CRIT Tribal Historic Preservation Office with La Paz County through a provision in federal law; negotiated an identical pro- vision for new, yet-to-be enacted legislation that would mandate a similar contract and guarantee culturally appropriate handling of artifacts incidentally uncovered during construction – a first in federal law; made progress on legislation that would fund on-reservation agriculture and irrigation improvements and authorize tempo- rary leases of CRIT water; I gave testimony via zoom to the Senate Committee on Water infrastructure in Indian Country; entered into settlement to reduce impacts to culturally sensitive areas within a solar project located without our ancestral territo- ry; signed letters of support with fellow native tribes for more funding for water infrastructure; engaged in meetings regarding Bureau of Reclamation Guidelines for the Colorado River; participated in an NCAI roundtable with House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva regarding water and cultural resources; and I gave testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on efficient water infrastructure, leasing and improvements to the BIA Irrigation proj- ect. In my previous address, I touched on improving water delivery to our reservation through our Water Resources department. I am proud to announce that in the past few months the tribes secured three new grants and have one more pending. Funding is from the US Bureau of Reclamation and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Combined with previous grants, there will be a total of almost $5 million dollars to modernize water systems to help the Tribe’s farmers. Most of the NRCS funds will go directly to Tribal member’s farms to improve their irrigation systems, both reducing farming costs and conserving water for the community. The CRIT Utilities water well issue is still a work in progress. Tribal membership and water system users were notified that a new well is needed immediately to serve existing users and allow for growth. The Indian Health Service was working on the project but did not have sufficient funding, So Tribal Council is assisting IHS finan- cially to get the project started. We are exploring the potential to get reimbursed through grants back to the tribes. CRIT’s lobbyists worked diligently to ensure that CRIT, along with other Tribes across the nation, received significant funds under the American Rescue Plan. ARP funds will be critical to the CRIT economy rebounding from the impacts of the pandemic. CRIT is in the process of prioritizing the expenditure of these funds, within the requirements of federal law, to focus on improving infrastructure and services to the Tribal membership. After lengthy negotiations CRIT and the State of Arizona finalized the 2021 Gaming Compact Amendment. These amendments maintain the exclusivity of the games we offer at our Casino, extends our gaming operations for an additional 20 years, reduces our revenue contribution to the State of Arizona, and allows for expanded gaming in our facility. As one of the Tribes primary sources of revenue the Amended Compact is essential for our economic stability. Along with other tribes, government agencies, and private companies throughout the country, we endured a cyber-security incident as well. CRIT retained profession- als to assist us through the response and improve our security to prevent a future attack. CRIT will continue to improve our IT environment to both keep information more secure and improve services. The initiatives taken to broadcast of our Saturday meetings, to safely open them to members, had to be postponed while our IT technicians concentrated on the security concerns. I truly apologize for their delay. I am proud to announce we have had a successful Saturday meeting and it was wonderful to see you all again. We are truly committed to listening to our members and getting our communications back on track. I remain committed to supporting and recognizing women in leadership. I have established monthly meetings to discuss tribal and BIA concerns with Superintendent Davetta Ameelyenah and health concerns with Indian Health Service CEO, Barbara Asher. These relationships support a common goal: to better serve our people and community. I wonder, in the future, how will we look back and think of these most recent times? So many extraordinary events and ‘first’s’ have shaken our foundation as a commu- nity to its core. Yet none can compare to our loss of tribal members to covid-19. Let us not overlook the people who still need time to heal mentally, physically, and spir- itually. It has not been an easy year and there is still a lot of work to do, but I believe that with everyone working together, we will continue to make progress and will achieve our goals for 2021. I have not yet covered all my priorities but continue to work toward them. I campaigned for this position because I was optimistic about possibilities for the tribe, and I remain committed to my belief in and hope for the continual betterment of our people. We will build on victories we have achieved in overcoming the pan- demic. I want to personally thank our tribal members for bravely weathering this storm. Social distancing, using of face masks, and participating in testing and vaccination have all been collective efforts. The tribes will continue to be relentless push for vac- cinations until they reach higher than 50 percent across the board. This is how we can push the re-start button to get back to a new normal, and safely bring back our long-held traditional and community events. Could you help us to continue this good fight by rolling up your sleeve and getting vaccinated? With momentum from all our efforts toward the greater good of our people along with inspiration from our recent tribal graduates, we will continue to move forward as people with influence and impact! Here’s to a terrific second half of the year! Thank you for your prayers and the honor and privilege to work for you. Yours in service, Chairwoman Amelia Flores