Bill to repeal 'hateful' and 'paternalistic' federal laws on agenda

Monday, September 12, 2016

A symbolic yet significant bill is taking a step forward on Capitol Hill this week.

S.2796, the Repealing Existing Substandard Provisions Encouraging Conciliation with Tribes Act (RESPECT Act) repeals a dozen federal statutes that Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) says are "hateful" and "paternalistic." One law, still on the books, allows Indian children to be removed from their homes without parental consent while another authorizes the government to withhold funds from "hostile" tribes.

"Currently, Native Americans who are U.S. citizens just like you and me are still legally subject to a series of obsolete, historically wrong statutes," Rounds said in an April 13 speech on the Senate floor. "These statutes are a sad reminder of the hostile aggression and overt racism that the federal government exhibited toward Native Americans as the government attempted to assimilate them into what was considered modern society,"

Army general Richard Henry Pratt is seen here with an Indian boarding school student , circa 1880. Pratt was the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and advocated the Kill the Indian -- Save the Man approach to the education of Indian children. Photo: U.S. Military Institute, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on the bill on June 29. David Flute, the chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, said his grandfather suffered under federal boarding school laws yet went on to serve the United States in World War II.

"He was taken at five years old from his mother's arms," Flute, who also is a veteran, told the committee. "He didn't see his grandparents, he did not see his parents, for 11 years. When he came back to the reservation to look for his home, there was no home."

The committee will consider S.2796 at a business meeting on Wednesday. If it's approved, it can be sent to the full Senate for possible passage.

S.2796 is the only bill on the agenda for the meeting, which takes place at 2:30pm in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Ofice Building and will be immediately followed by a legislative hearing.

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notices

Business Meeting to Consider S. 2796 (September 14, 2016)
Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on the following bills: S. 2636, S. 3216, S. 3222, S. 3300 (September 14, 2016)