Brownback pushes White House for apology ceremony

National | Politics

Monday, April 26, 2010

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) is pressing President Barack Obama to hold a public ceremony to apologize to Native peoples for being mistreated by the United States.

Brownback first introduced the resolution in 2004. It encountered resistance from the Bush administration but finally passed Congress last year as part of an appropriations bill.

Obama signed the bill into law but has never acknowledged the presence of the resolution. “I’ve been pushing the administration to have a major public ceremony, but they aren’t taking it on yet,” Brownback told Indian Country Today

The resolution cites a number of "official depredations and ill-conceived policies" towards American Indians and Alaska Natives. Among them:

Hundreds of broken treaties with Indian nations.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced Eastern tribes from their homelands.
The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, in which the U.S. military killed 150 Cheyenne men, women and children.
The Long Walk of 1868, which caused the deaths of hundreds of Navajos.
The General Allotment Act of 1887, which broke up the tribal land base.
The Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, in which the U.S. military killed 300 Sioux men, women and children.
The failed 19th- and 20th-century policies of assimilation, termination and relocation.

Get the Story:
Brownback urges apology resolution public ceremony (Indian Country Today 4/26)

2010 Defense Appropriations Act:
Bill Text | H.R.3326

Apology Resolution:
H.J.Res.46 | S.J.Res.14