raymond weaver, chief of the mahwah band of choktaw indians. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member, committee members and staff. my name is freeman weaver. and i am the elected travel chief of the choctaw indians. today i would like to say a few words about what the process has done to us as a tribe. it is clear that our tribe are the [ inaudible ] for structural failures evident in the federal recognition process. as the only tribe in the nation to have exhausted all three remedies made available for the granting of federal status, or for a federal lawsuit, congressional bills, we are well aware of the inherent bias, corruption, and how the finance campaigns waged against legitimate historic nonfederal tribes. we are the second longest petition tribe in the nation. only those in north carolina have petitioned longer. our initial attempt at federal recognition began with our mass community attempt to be admitted. we clearly understand that the current process is only open to those with millions of dollars. we have children through this long process no to al