Sec. 4. Sense of Congress

361 words·~2 min read·/bill/118/s/5636/is/section-4

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

It is the sense of Congress that— Indian Tribes are distinct sovereigns that have a government-to-government relationship with the Federal Government; the Federal Government has trust and treaty obligations to Indian Tribes that are established in treaties signed by the United States and enumerated in the Constitution of the United States, Acts of Congress, Executive orders, Supreme Court precedent, and Federal policies and regulations; and those treaties, like all treaties made under the authority of the United States, are the supreme law of the land, as recognized in article VI of the Constitution of the United States; the Federal Government has historically failed to carry out its promises and trust and treaty obligations to American Indians, Alaska Natives, Indian Tribes, and, as applicable, Native Hawaiians; and those failures— are ongoing, as the Federal Government continually fails to adequately support the social and economic well-being of American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Indian Tribes; and have created a civil rights crisis; the historical failures of the Federal Government described in paragraph

(3)include— federally mandated depopulation of Native Americans, including— numerous massacres carried out by the United States; and the forced relocation efforts and genocide practices carried out by the United States; successive oppressive government policies, such as the allotment and assimilation, termination, and relocation eras; suppression, assimilation, and cultural annihilation practices carried out against the United States Indigenous peoples; and an ongoing failure to acknowledge that the lands that make up the United States are indigenous lands; the Federal Government must do far more to live up to its trust and treaty obligations to American Indians and Alaska Natives and Indian Tribes, for just as the United States expects all nations to live up to their own treaty obligations, the United States should live up to its own promises; the Federal Government can empower American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians to realize enormous potential by honoring its promises and obligations through the enactment of legislation; and American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians have long demonstrated remarkable strength, resilience, and revitalization despite the broken promises of the Federal Government and failure to acknowledge their contributions to the United States.