the on handle michell hicks, principal chief of the eastern band of cherokee indians on behalf of the united south and own tribes. and the honorable robert shepherd, chairman of the sisseton wahpeton oyate tribe on behalf of the great plains tribal chairman's association. welcome to you and thank you, again, for your patience. president sharp will you proceed with your testimony. >> thank you. on behalf of the tribe of northwest indians we're truly proud to be here and thank you for the opportunity. we believe this is another reflection of the new era of the partnership with the united states. not only do we have a relationship with the president but now with the legislature, the congress. and we thank you for that opportunity and your leadership. i would like to begin our remarks by speaking to natural resources issues. the northwest is rich with abundant wildlife, fish, hunting, gathering, and we would like to speak to a couple of issues that relate to, first of all, the b.i.e. rights protection fund. we appreciate the increase, the proposed increase from 28 million to 32 million, b

between the debt ceiling fight and presidential candidates embraced from michele bachmann to herman cain and newt gingrich and hickerry, those two moments seemed to tarnish the tea party movement a little bit but it's not done. i think we can look there to some of the senatorial races and dick lugar might be facing a legitimate challenge from a tea party candidate some off the other races are tighter. so you're seeing across the senatorial level and congressional level influence from the tea but not what it was two years ago. >> i've read some articles that say, you know, traditional republican super pacs, let's say, are sort of squashing the tea party because the tea party has damaged the republican brand. has it, lz, or a passing phase? >> no, it has damaged it. i wrote a piece for cnn.com last year where i talked about john boehner looked weak because it seemed as his actions were being dictated by a bunch of freshmen coming in with the tea party. i couldn't imagine a more horrific scenario than watching your party kidnapped by a bunch of people who didn't know the heck what they were doing. i think part of the

girls co-founder ashley hicks and pioneering marathoner catherine hicks and sal salon.com editor rebecca traister. so talking about michelleple, and so we saw a recent episode of nbc's "biggest loser" and she was kind of gamely in there and working it out and bringing attention and i love it. look at those, and she does boy push-ups, right. all of this sort of providing an opportunity for us to talk about women's participation at this national level, but there are undoubtedly people watching mhp right now who don't lace up shoes, and who don't care much about sports, why should we care about participation and participation of everybody and particularly of girls? >> i think that one of the things that is great about "let's move" is that as far as a program goes, it is about increasing possibility for more people, right. when it is criticized and you hear itç criticized is the nan state and finger wagging and the thing about "let's move" it is not about bad body image or taking away the food, but increasing education and increasing nutritional options and the reason it is good is because it is part of the many factors to be