First Substitute S.J.R. 1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 LONG TITLE
9 General Description:
10 This joint resolution of the Legislature strongly urges the United States Congress to
11 support, establish, or construct a National Museum Recognizing Atrocities Against
12 American Indians.
13 Highlighted Provisions:
14 This resolution:
15 . strongly urges the United States Congress to take action to support, establish, or
16 construct a commemorative monument to recognize atrocities through a Museum
17 Recognizing Atrocities Against American Indians;
18 . strongly urges each of the states to pass a similar resolution; and
19 . strongly urges American Indian tribes to call upon Congress to support, establish, or
20 construct the museum and to support similar resolutions in the states in which they
21 reside.
22 Special Clauses:
23 None
24
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, genocide constitutes an atrocity towards a racial, political, or cultural
31 group;
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 a Museum Recognizing Atrocities Against American Indians
57 would not only illuminate a vital chapter in American history, but would also implore that such
58 atrocities should never happen again; and
59 WHEREAS, establishing a Museum Recognizing Atrocities Against American Indians
60 would be an important step toward reconciliation and intergenerational healing from these
61 atrocities:
62 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah
63 strongly urges the United States Congress to take action to support, establish, or construct a
64 Museum Recognizing Atrocities Against American Indians.
65 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah strongly urges
66 each of the states to pass a similar resolution urging the United States Congress to support,
67 establish, or construct a Museum Recognizing Atrocities Against American Indians.
68 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah strongly urges
69 each American Indian tribe to call upon the United States Congress to support, establish, or
70 construct a Museum Recognizing Atrocities Against American Indians and to support the
71 resolutions for this purpose in the states in which the tribes reside.
72 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of
73 the United States; the Secretary of the Interior; the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs; the
74 Majority Leader of the United States Senate; the Speaker of the United States House of
75 Representatives; the chair of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; the House
76 Committee on Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs; the
77 leader of each legislative house in each of the other states; to each tribe, with assistance from
78 American Indian resources; and to the members of Utah's congressional delegation.
[Bill Documents][Bills Directory]