Norman D. Dicks: “I just went through a situation like this with a tribe in my district, the Elwah Tribe up in Port Angeles, Washington.…”

“I just went through a situation like this with a tribe in my district, the Elwah Tribe up in Port Angeles, Washington. There was a major State project and it was done on an Indian burial site, and when we started the project we found out that there were actually graves there, and this was a very, very sensitive matter with the tribe. What I did was sit down with the Washington State officials, with the historic preservation people, with the tribe, the local community, the port of Port Angeles, and we worked this thing out, and we protected the tribe's interest. Now, I think Federal agencies are going to be sensitive since you have an executive order. If the tribes feel that there is some problem in the gentleman's State or in my State or in West Virginia, why not get together and work it out with the Forest Service, the BLM, whichever agency it is, rather than trying to do something here with a meat ax that is going to cut off the funding and we have not got a clue of who these people are that are going to come in and make these determinations about what is a sacred site. I mean, to put this into Federal law at this point, to me it just does not make sense. Why not go through and help the people with the sites that are affected and make sure that they have an opportunity to be heard.”