WASHINGTON - The president of the National Congress of American Indians pledged Wednesday to mobilize 1 million Indian voters in eight states this fall.

"These are key states, these are key races," said Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota.

Hall said the Indian turnout in Arizona, South Dakota, New Mexico, Alaska, Minnesota, Michigan, Oklahoma and California will be "critical to our success in reclaiming other important rights - the right to adequate health care, quality education, the right to fully govern our lands, to protect our citzenry and the right to see our nation's commitments to tribes fulfilled."

Hall made the pledge during his second annual "State of Indian Nations" address in Washington. He also outlined a number of areas where he said the federal government has fallen short in its responsibilities to Indian tribes. Those areas include funding of the Indian Health Service and schools, and the need for changes in the management of an Indian trust fund, he said.

Congress created the fund in 1887 to manage revenue from land designated to each tribal member, but the money often was not collected, lost or stolen.

Lawyers for a group of American Indians say that, with interest, the account should be worth as much as $176 billion. They also contend that tens of billions of dollars likely never made it to more than 300,000 Indian landowners.

Hall called on Congress to boost funding to the Indian Health Service by $2.3 billion. He said it would allow the agency to better fight diabetes, heart disease, cancer, suicide and alcoholism - "each disproportionately severe in Indian Country."

Jacqueline Johnson, the congress' executive director, said the group's overall priorities for the year include working to protect tribal sovereignty, resolving the dispute over the trust fund, boosting funds needed for Indian programs and getting Indians out to vote.

(On the Net: National Congress of American Indians: http://www.ncai.org.)