Sen. Brownback hosts ceremony to read apology resolution

National | Politics

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) hosted a ceremony on Wednesday to read the official U.S. apology resolution.

Brownback started pushing for the government to apologize to Native people back in 2004. The resolution finally became law last year but President Barack Obama has yet to acknowledge it.

Brownback has pressed the White House to hold a public ceremony for the apology. In the meantime, he read the resolution at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where leaders of five tribes were present.

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:
Congress to Native Americans: We're sorry (KING 5 News 5/19)
Kansas senator reads apology to American Indians (AP 5/19)
McDermott, Brownback: Apology to Indians (The Seattle Post-Intellligencer 5/19)

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

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