Indians may get apology
Senate-backed resolution admits to massacres, mistreatment

FAITH BREMNER • Argus Leader Washington Bureau • March 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - More than 100 years after the 7th Cavalry killed 300 Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, Congress is considering legislation officially apologizing for it and other mistreatment the U.S. government carried out against Native Americans over the years.

South Dakota's congressional delegation supports the Resolution of Apology to Native Peoples of the United States, which the Senate unanimously agreed to add to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which is now pending in the House.

Congress has apologized for mistreating other minority groups. In 1993, it apologized to Native Hawaiians for helping overthrow the Hawaiian kingdom in the late 1800s. In 1988, Congress apologized to Japanese Americans for forcibly removing them to internment camps during World War II.

"It's important for those that feel that they and their family members in the past have been treated unfairly, for the federal government to formally recognize the injustices that have been committed," Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., said Thursday.

An apology for historical wrongs is a necessary step in the healing process, said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

"However, an apology alone won't improve Indian health care, secure educational opportunities for the future of Indian children or bring economic development to Indian Country," Johnson said.

"The best way for the United States to apologize to Indian Country is to live up to the treaty and trust responsibilities," he said.

The apology resolution, which was introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., recounts how native people helped early European settlers and explorers survive their harsh, unfamiliar surroundings and how relations between the groups descended into armed conflicts, in which many innocent lives were lost.

It also highlights some of the well-known government actions that caused many Native Americans to suffer and die, including the policy of forcibly removing tribes from their homelands onto reservations, the Sand Creek and Wounded Knee massacres and the forcible removal of native children from their families to send them to boarding schools.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., sponsored similar apology legislation in 2005. That measure passed the Indian Affairs Committee but was never taken up by the full Senate.

"While it is important to acknowledge and learn from the mistakes of the past, Senator Thune is also focused on building strong relationships and together finding solutions for the future," Thune's spokesman, Kyle Downey, said.

The apology is a good first step, said Patrice Kunesh, director of the Institute of American Indian Studies at the University of South Dakota.

The government's misdeeds continue today in the form of discrimination against Native American voters, Kunesh said. The federal government has failed to enforce laws that require local governments to draw voting district boundaries in a way that's fair to Indian people, she said.

"Each state has had its own sad, sordid history," said Kunesh, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. "Certainly South Dakota is still struggling with that history."

Lakota activist Russell Means said the apology would reinforce his efforts to get the World Court to charge the U.S. with genocide of its native people. Means said he has been talking with foreign officials, whom he declined to name, to sponsor a lawsuit before the World Court on behalf of his group, Lakota Freedom Delegation.

The apology resolution carries a disclaimer that denies authority or support for any claim against the U.S.

"It's helpful because (the genocide) is fact now, in terms of the government admitting it," Means said. "It's a great thing."

The bill has been referred to three House committees, but no hearings have been scheduled yet.

Contact Faith Bremner at fbremner@gns.gannett.com.

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