100th CONGRESS 2nd Session
H.Con.Res.331
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 5 (legislative day, September 26), 1988
Received and referred to the Select Committee on Indian Affairs
October 21 (legislative day, October 18), 1988
Committee discharged
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
To acknowledge the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the development of the United States Constitution and to reaffirm the continuing government-to-government relationship between Indian tribes and the United States established in the Constitution.
Whereas the original framers of the Constitution, including, most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy;
Whereas the confederation of the original Thirteen Colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself; and
Whereas, since the formation of the United States, the Congress has recognized the sovereign status of Indian tribes and has, through the exercise of powers reserved to the Federal Government in the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (art. I,s.2, cl.3),delt with Indian tribes on a government-to-government basis and has, through the treaty clause (at. II, s.2, cl. 2) entered into three hundred and seventy treaties with Indian tribal Nations;
Whereas, from the first treaty entered into with an Indian Nation, the treaty with the Delaware Indians of September 17, 1778, the Congress has assumed a trust responsibility and obligation to Indian tribes and their members;
Whereas the trust responsibility calls for Congress to “exercise to the utmost good faith in dealings with Indians” as provided for in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, (1 Stat. 50);
Whereas the judicial system of the United STates has consistently recognized and reaffirmed this special relationship: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That-
- The Congress, on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution, acknowledges the contribution made by the Iroquois Confederacy and other Indian Nations to the formation and development of the United States;
- the Congress also hereby reaffirms the constitutionally recognized government-to-government relationship with Indian tribes which has been the cornerstone of this Nation’s official Indian policy;
- the Congress specifically acknowledges and reaffirms the trust responsibility and obligation of the Inited States Government to Indian tribes, including Alaska Natives, for their preservation, protection, and enhancement, including the provision of health, education, social, and economic assistance programs as necessary, and including the duty to assist tribes in their performance of governmental responsibility to provide for the for the social and economic well-being of their members and preserve tribal cultural identity and heritage; and
- the Congress also acknowledges the need to exercise the utmost good faith in upholding its treaties with various tribes, as the tribes understood them to be, and the duty of a great Nation to uphold its legal and moral obligations for the benefit of all of its citizens so that they and their posterity may also continue to enjoy the rights they have enshrined in the United States Constitution for time Immemorial.
Passed the house of Representative October 4, 1988.
Attest: DONNALD K. ANDERSON – Clerk