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Thank you, Chairman Jensvold. I want to say good morning to the Upper Sioux Community,
Minnesota, Board of Trustees and all of our invited guests that are here today.
It is a pleasure to be here as the FEMA Region Five Regional Administrator and I
also want to say that I bring with me the greetings of President Barack Obama,
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate on
this historic and momentous occasion. We worked toward the goal with the
Upper Sioux Community of establishing a relationship that would be marked by
understanding. A relationship that would be marked by profound dignity and honors.
A relationship that would be marked by respect and this, first of its kind, agreement in
FEMA Region Five truly demonstrates our commitment to partnering with the
Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota. It truly demonstrates our commitment to working with
our tribal partners and we are grateful for the opportunity to partner with you
on this nation to nation agreement.
Again, I thank everybody for coming. Mr. Velasquez, approach that table and
take care of this for our people.
Chairman Jensvold, will you do us the honors, please?
Thank you.
Chairman Jensvold, as I stated earlier, we want to applaud you for the efforts
undertaken to ensure that your community is prepared for the risks and the threats
that you face. I have here, a letter signed by the FEMA Regional Administrator,
FEMA Region Five, acknowledging that your hazard mitigation plan has been approved.
Chairman, you also asked if you could have our FEMA flag to display and we are honored
to provide you with our flag to display.
As a small token of our appreciation by providing you with this plaque that is a
demonstration of our commitment to continuing to work very closely with the
Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota to ensure that you have the disaster assistance that
you need during times of crisis, but to also commemorate this historic moment.
Again, thank you for this, Mr. Velasquez, it is a very profound day for all of us
and hopefully in the future we’ll come to look back and say we did a beautiful thing
for both of our nations.
Indeed.