Denver, CO — Ken Salazar On Borderlands and Standing Up For the Nation’s First Americans in Cobell v. Salazar

Statement by Secretary Ken Salazar On Borderlands and Standing Up For the Nation’s First Americans in Cobell v. Salazar

Yesterday we celebrated and remembered the historic resolution of the Cobell litigation with the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colorado. As President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, we led the resolution of the decades long litigation against the United States. It marked a new era of respect for Native Americans in our fight for a more inclusive America. My book, Borderlands, includes a chapter “Yellow Bird Woman” about this epic saga in our relationship with Indian country.

It was an honor to join my friend John Echohawk for a conversation about Borderlands: My Fight for an Inclusive America and to reflect on one of the most meaningful chapters of my public service. I recognized the historic efforts of John Echohawk, Lucille Echohawk and the Native American Rights Fund and their extraordinary leadership. I named the chapter for Elouise Cobell whose tribal name was Yellow Bird Woman.

As I shared in Borderlands, lasting progress often comes when people are willing to look beyond themselves in pursuit of a greater purpose. When I asked Elouise Cobell to ask her attorneys to “'think of this as a civil rights litigation, not a class action lawsuit,” she understood what was at stake. Her leadership helped make possible a historic settlement that provided long-overdue justice, restored millions of acres of tribal land, and created the Cobell Education Scholarship Fund to help Native American and Alaska Native students pursue higher education.

That story is one of the reasons I wrote Borderlands. At a time when our country too often seems defined by division, I believe America's future depends on rediscovering our capacity to solve hard problems together with respect, courage, and common purpose. An inclusive America is not just an aspiration — it is the path to a stronger nation, and the lesson that leaders like Elouise Cobell continue to teach us today.