On the recordNovember 4, 1997
the point of this bill is to correct a wrong. The wrong was the BIA's incorrect decision to administratively terminate a tribe, a power they did not have. Now, we are asking the same BIA to treat them well when they violated the law in terminating them in the first place. A few years ago, the Catholic parish in this area, who keeps the best records, one can go back and find their great, great grandfather's baptismal records, they know these Indians. The Catholic parish gave them 3 acres of land so they would have at least some land they could call their own, some of the same land that they had lost before. We should certainly recognize what the locals, the European locals, the European Catholic Church recognized, that these were the same people whose homes were burned to the ground by the sheriff. The church gave them some land so they would have at least that recognition. I think we should do no less.
Source
govinfo.gov
