S.J.R. 1
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8 LONG TITLE
9 Committee Note:
10 The Native American Legislative Liaison Committee recommended this bill.
11 General Description:
12 This joint resolution of the Legislature strongly urges the United States Congress to
13 fund a National American Indian Holocaust Memorial Museum.
14 Highlighted Provisions:
15 This resolution:
16 . strongly urges the United States Congress to take action to fund a commemorative
17 monument to recognize atrocities through an American Indian Holocaust Memorial
18 Museum;
19 . strongly urges each of the states to pass a similar resolution; and
20 . strongly urges American Indian tribes to call upon Congress to fund the museum
21 and to support similar resolutions in the states in which they reside.
22 Special Clauses:
23 None
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25 Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
26 WHEREAS, the indigenous peoples of this land are the original inhabitants of land that
27 now constitute the United States;
28 WHEREAS, the definition of genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a
29 racial, political, or cultural group;
30 WHEREAS, the definition of holocaust is a mass slaughter of people, especially
31 through genocide;
32 WHEREAS, conservative estimates numbered the American Indian population in North
33 America at approximately 10 million in 1500;
34 WHEREAS, by 1900, the American Indian population was reduced to barely 237,000;
35 WHEREAS, the means of this immense population reduction were caused intentionally
36 or by disease, which was intensified by forced migration, deprivation of nutrition, and neglect
37 after relocation to unfamiliar, barren lands;
38 WHEREAS, American Indians were the subject of systemic federal policies that
39 deprived them of land, liberty, livelihood, and life;
40 WHEREAS, once an expanding nation found attractive the land occupied by American
41 Indians for centuries, the land was often simply taken, and frequently by force;
42 WHEREAS, American Indians, displaced by the taking of the lands of their fathers and
43 mothers, then had their liberties further violated through forced relocation, including the young
44 separated from their families to be sent away for schooling and assimilation;
45 WHEREAS, American Indian tribes that resisted relocation and land takings were
46 subdued by force and were, in some instances, pursued to extinction;
47 WHEREAS, relocation stripped American Indians of the livelihoods they had made for
48 centuries from their lands' often plentiful natural resources and forced them to scratch out a
49 new life on lands with little value and few usable natural resources;
50 WHEREAS, American Indians today, as descendants of those against whom the
51 original atrocities were perpetrated, have great resilience;
52 WHEREAS, through this resilience, American Indians continue to progress beyond the
53 consequences of past atrocities;
54 WHEREAS, the many years of genocide against American Indians is a direct assault on
55 all of humanity;
56 WHEREAS, establishing an American Indian Holocaust Memorial Museum would not
57 only illuminate a vital chapter in American history, but would also implore that such a
58 holocaust should never happen again; and
59 WHEREAS, establishing an American Indian Holocaust Memorial Museum would be
60 an important step toward reconciliation and intergenerational healing from these atrocities:
61 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah
62 strongly urges the United States Congress to take action to fund a commemorative monument
63 to recognize these atrocities through an American Indian Holocaust Memorial Museum.
64 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah strongly urges
65 each of the states to pass a similar resolution urging the United States Congress to fund and
66 construct an American Indian Holocaust Memorial Museum.
67 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah strongly urges
68 each American Indian tribe to call upon the United States Congress to fund and construct an
69 American Indian Holocaust Memorial Museum and to support the resolutions for this purpose
70 in the states in which the tribes reside.
71 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of
72 the United States; the Secretary of the Interior; the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs; the
73 Majority Leader of the United States Senate; the Speaker of the United States House of
74 Representatives; the chair of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; the House
75 Committee on Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs; the
76 leader of each legislative house in each of the other states; to each tribe, with assistance from
77 American Indian resources; and to the members of Utah's congressional delegation.
Legislative Review Note
as of 11-22-13 8:59 AM