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Upholding government to government relationships
SOVEREIGNTY
Carol Miller has worked on indigenous issues for decades. She believes that it is not enough to stand in opposition to further attacks on sovereignty but commits to developing legislation to overturn laws and court decisions which have limited or reduced the sovereignty of tribes.
FULL FUNDING OF TRUST OBLIGATIONS
The federal government committed through treaties and trust obligations to provide certain guaranteed benefits to Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Miller believes that these trust obligations should be fully funded; removed from the discretionary budget and taken out of the annual competitive fight for appropriations. The appropriations process has failed. For example the Indian Health Service is funded on a per person level at less than 30% of the average per person health costs in the United States. Categorical funding has failed. This system of funding requires tribes to spend much of their time and resources applying for categorical grants, monitoring and reporting on multiple small grants rather than having a sufficient budget to efficiently deliver essential programs and services.
Funding to tribes must be adequate to meet the treaty and trust obligations. Per capita allocations hurt the smallest tribes because they do not aggregate into enough money to actually provide a service or conduct a program.
A system to provide for off-reservation and urban Indians must be created, beginning with adequate funding for their health care and housing.
PROTECTING THE LAND AND WATER – RADIATION COMPENSATION, BANNING URANIUM MINING AND CLEANUP OF RESERVATION AND TRUST LAND
Miller has worked professionally on the health effects of radiation since the late 1970’s. She has advocated for compensation of uranium miners and the clean-up of impacted communities. In addition to compensation for workers in uranium mines, mills and Department of Energy facilities; compensation should be provided to people in impacted communities. Native communities in New Mexico are the most impacted by earlier uranium mining and milling. It is not enough to compensate past miners at the same time new mines are being licensed; new mines will create a new generation of victims. Miller calls for the banning of uranium mining and milling in the United States as a public health hazard that must be prevented.
Nuclear weapons work in the 3rd Congressional District on New Mexico must cease and those funds directed to clean-up to the extent it is possible and remediation for areas which can not be cleaned up with existing technologies. Research on cleaning contaminated sites and impacted communities must become a national priority.
SETTLE INDIAN LAND GRANTS
Nineteen of the twenty Spanish Indian Land Grants were granted by the King of Spain to the Pueblos long before any lands were granted to European settlers. Later land grants eroded and reduced these original grants. All Pueblo land claims must be settled by any Commission established to address later land grant claims and the loss of these lands after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
