Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) announced the bipartisan Repealing Existing Substandard Provisions Encouraging Conciliation with Tribes (RESPECT) Act he co-sponsored with Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) was signed into law.
The RESPECT Act strikes 11 outdated federal laws that discriminated against Native Americans, including ones that stripped children from their families for the purpose of placing them in “Indian reform schools,” such as the now-infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School. It was first introduced in 2016 and is supported by the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).
“I’m grateful the RESPECT Act is now law. While these outdated laws were not being enforced, it’s right to officially strike them. This bill recognizes a devastating period in our history – one never to be repeated – and my hope is it will help heal wounds inflicted in the past as we focus on cultivating cooperative government-to-government relationships for the future,” said Senator Cramer.
“I have worked on this common sense, bipartisan legislation since coming to the United States Senate, so I am pleased that it has been signed into law,” said Senator Rounds. “It’s long overdue to remove these immoral, discriminatory federal laws from our books. Throughout history, Native Americans have been subjected to unfair treatment from our federal government, including the forced removal of their children from their homes. Clearly, there is no place in our legal code for such measures, and it is appalling these laws are still in our federal code. While we cannot rewrite the past, we need to acknowledge it and continue to strive for a more perfect Union.”
Click here for the list of laws the RESPECT Act will repeal.
“The National Congress of American Indians applauds the passage and signing into law of the Repealing Existing Substandard Provisions Encouraging Conciliation with Tribes Act,” said NCAI President Fawn Sharp. “While our history books often ignore the facts, it is no secret that for far too long the U.S. Congress has passed destructive and oppressive laws that by design diminished tribal sovereignty and our political standing of equity and parity with the federal government. This legislation is but one more step in a very long journey ahead toward achieving our vision for a real, just and meaningful government-to-government relationship between sovereign Tribal Nations and the United States.”
Joining Senators Cramer and Rounds are Senators Tina Smith (D-MN), James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM).