Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pledged Thursday to put the troubles of the "first Americans" at the top of his ever-growing to-do list.

Salazar, testifying at his first congressional hearing since joining President Barack Obama's Cabinet, told the Senate Indian Affairs committee that he soon will announce up to three American Indians to top jobs in his staff.

And he made a long list of pledges to help spur economic development, increase public safety and improve education programs on tribal reservations - all while also trying to end a long-festering lawsuit over past mismanagement of Indian Trust Fund accounts.

"We have to look at what we have inherited and make changes to try to make it better," Salazar told the committee, after senators recited a long list of tribes' woes.

Salazar said the department was preparing to use about $2.8 billion from the still-pending economic stimulus legislation to spur new jobs in tribal territory. And he also told senators he would try to clear bureaucratic hassles that have prevented tribes from developing energy resources on their lands.

Tribal lands constitute about 5 percent of the United States' land, but they're rich in oil, gas and minerals and contain an estimated 10 percent of the country's untapped resources, committee members said.

The hearing was Salazar's first congressional grilling as Interior secretary. Also making his debut was new committee member Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., who once served as Agriculture secretary under former President George W. Bush.

"The last time we had a conversation, I was up there and you were down here," Salazar said to Johanns, who was sitting on the raised dais.

Johanns quipped: "The view is better from up here."