Second Substitute S.J.R. 1
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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 museum to recognize atrocities against American
17 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 a national museum and to support similar resolutions in the states in
21 which the American Indian tribes 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 constitutes the United States;
28 WHEREAS, conservative estimates numbered the American Indian population in North
29 America at approximately 10 million in 1500;
30 WHEREAS, by 1900, the American Indian population was reduced to barely 237,000;
31 WHEREAS, this immense population reduction was caused by disease or intentionally,
32 and was intensified by forced migration, deprivation of nutrition, and neglect after relocation to
33 unfamiliar, barren lands;
34 WHEREAS, American Indians were the subject of centuries of circumstances that
35 deprived them of land, liberty, livelihood, and life;
36 WHEREAS, once an expanding nation found attractive the land occupied by American
37 Indians for centuries, the land was often simply taken, and frequently by force;
38 WHEREAS, American Indians, displaced by the taking of the lands of their fathers and
39 mothers, then had their liberties further violated through forced relocation, including the young
40 being separated from their families to be sent away for schooling and assimilation;
41 WHEREAS, American Indian tribes that resisted relocation and land takings were
42 subdued by force and were, in some instances, pursued to extinction;
43 WHEREAS, relocation stripped American Indians of the livelihoods they had made for
44 centuries from their lands' often plentiful natural resources and forced them to scratch out a
45 new life on lands with little value and few usable natural resources;
46 WHEREAS, American Indians today, as descendants of those against whom the
47 original atrocities were perpetrated, have great resilience;
48 WHEREAS, through this resilience, American Indians continue to progress beyond the
49 consequences of past atrocities;
50 WHEREAS, establishing a national museum recognizing atrocities against American
51 Indians and recognizing American Indians' valuable contributions to America, its history, and
52 its culture would not only illuminate a vital chapter in American history, but would also
53 implore that such atrocities should never happen again; and
54 WHEREAS, establishing a national museum recognizing atrocities against American
55 Indians would be an important step toward reconciliation and intergenerational healing from
56 these atrocities:
57 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah
58 strongly urges the United States Congress to take action to support, establish, or construct a
59 national museum recognizing atrocities against American Indians.
60 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah strongly urges
61 each of the states to pass a similar resolution urging the United States Congress to support,
62 establish, or construct a national museum recognizing atrocities against American Indians.
63 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah strongly urges
64 each American Indian tribe to call upon the United States Congress to support, establish, or
65 construct a national museum recognizing atrocities against American Indians and to support the
66 resolutions for this purpose in the states in which the tribes reside.
67 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of
68 the United States; the Secretary of the Interior; the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs; the
69 Majority Leader of the United States Senate; the Speaker of the United States House of
70 Representatives; the chair of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; the House
71 Committee on Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs; the
72 leader of each legislative house in each of the other states; to each tribe; and to the members of
73 Utah's congressional delegation.
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