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H.R. 1161 AND H.R. 1384

LEGISLATIVE HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, RECREATION,

AND PUBLIC LANDS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

May 8, 2001

Serial No. 107-25

Printed for the use of the Committee on Resources

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house

or

Committee address: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov

(II)

COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES

JAMES V. HANSEN, Utah, Chairman

NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia, Ranking Democrat Member

Don Young, Alaska,

Vice Chairman

W.J. ′′Billy′′ Tauzin, Louisiana

Jim Saxton, New Jersey

Elton Gallegly, California

John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee

Joel Hefley, Colorado

Wayne T. Gilchrest, Maryland

Ken Calvert, California

Scott McInnis, Colorado

Richard W. Pombo, California

Barbara Cubin, Wyoming

George Radanovich, California

Walter B. Jones, Jr., North Carolina

Mac Thornberry, Texas

Chris Cannon, Utah

John E. Peterson, Pennsylvania

Bob Schaffer, Colorado

Jim Gibbons, Nevada

Mark E. Souder, Indiana

Greg Walden, Oregon

Michael K. Simpson, Idaho

Thomas G. Tancredo, Colorado

J.D. Hayworth, Arizona

C.L. ′′Butch′′ Otter, Idaho

Tom Osborne, Nebraska

Jeff Flake, Arizona

Dennis R. Rehberg, Montana

George Miller, California

Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts

Dale E. Kildee, Michigan

Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon

Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa

Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii

Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas

Frank Pallone, Jr., New Jersey

Calvin M. Dooley, California

Robert A. Underwood, Guam

Adam Smith, Washington

Donna M. Christensen, Virgin Islands

Ron Kind, Wisconsin

Jay Inslee, Washington

Grace F. Napolitano, California

Tom Udall, New Mexico

Mark Udall, Colorado

Rush D. Holt, New Jersey

James P. McGovern, Massachusetts

Anibal Acevedo-Vila, Puerto Rico

Hilda L. Solis, California

Brad Carson, Oklahoma

Betty McCollum, Minnesota

Allen D. Freemyer, Chief of Staff

Lisa Pittman, Chief Counsel

Michael S. Twinchek, Chief Clerk

James H. Zoia, Democrat Staff Director

Jeff Petrich, Democrat Chief Counsel

SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, RECREATION,

AND PUBLIC LANDS

JOEL HEFLEY, Colorado, Chairman

DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, Virgin Islands Ranking Democrat Member

Elton Gallegly, California

John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee

Wayne T. Gilchrest, Maryland

George Radanovich, California

Walter B. Jones, Jr., North Carolina,

Vice Chairman

Mac Thornberry, Texas

Chris Cannon, Utah

Bob Schaffer, Colorado

Jim Gibbons, Nevada

Mark E. Souder, Indiana

Michael K. Simpson, Idaho

Thomas G. Tancredo, Colorado

Dale E. Kildee, Michigan

Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa

Frank Pallone, Jr., New Jersey

Tom Udall, New Mexico

Mark Udall, Colorado

Rush D. Holt, New Jersey

James P. McGovern, Massachusetts

Anibal Acevedo-Vila, Puerto Rico

Hilda L. Solis, California

Betty McCollum, Minnesota

(III)

CONTENTS

Page

Hearing held on May 8, 2001 ................................................................................. 1

Statement of Members:

Christensen, Hon. Donna M., a Delegate to Congress from the

Virgin Islands ............................................................................................... 8

Gilman, Hon. Benjamin, a Representative in Congress from the State

of New York ................................................................................................... 11

Prepared statement on H.R. 1161 ........................................................... 11

Hefley, Hon. Joel, a Representative in Congress from the State of

Colorado ......................................................................................................... 1

Prepared statement on H.R. 1161 and H.R. 1384 ................................. 2

Pictures and map submitted for the record ............................................ 3

Udall, Hon. Tom, a Representative in Congress from the State of

New Mexico ................................................................................................... 8

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 10

Statement of Witnesses:

Cerny, Milton, President, American Friends of the Czech Republic,

Washington, DC ............................................................................................ 23

Prepared statement on H.R. 1161 ........................................................... 25

Letter from His Excellency Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech

Republic, dated May 4, 2001 submitted for the record ....................... 27

Letter from His Excellency Alexandr Vondra, Ambassador, The Czech

Republic, dated May 4, 2001 submitted for the record ....................... 28

Novak, Michael, George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public

Policy, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC ........................... 29

Prepared statement on H.R.1161 ............................................................. 30

Parsons, John G., Associate Regional Director for Lands, Resources and

Planning, National Capital Region, National Park Service, U.S.

Department of the Interior, Washington, DC ............................................. 13

Prepared statement on H.R. 1161 ........................................................... 16

Prepared statement on H.R. 1384 ........................................................... 17

Letter from the Department of the Interior dated May 4, 2001

submitted for the record ........................................................................ 19

Trujillo, Arvin, Director, Division of Natural Resources, Navajo Nation,

Window Rock, AZ .......................................................................................... 34

Prepared statement on H.R. 1384 ........................................................... 35

(1)

H.R. 1161, TO AUTHORIZE THE AMERICAN

FRIENDS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC TO ESTABLISH A MEMORIAL TO HONOR TOMAS G.

MASARYK IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA;

AND H.R. 1384, TO AMEND THE NATIONAL

TRAILS SYSTEM ACT TO DESIGNATE THE

NAVAJO LONG WALK TO BOSQUE REDONDO

AS A NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL.

Tuesday, May 8, 2001

U.S. House of Representatives

Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands

Committee on Resources

Washington, DC

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:06 a.m., in Room

1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Joel Hefley [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOEL HEFLEY, A

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF

COLORADO

Mr. HEFLEY. The Committee will come to order. Welcome to the

hearing today. This morning the Subcommittee on National Parks,

Recreation and Public Lands will hear testimony on two bills,

H.R. 1161 and H.R. 1384.

Mr. HEFLEY. The first bill, H.R. 1161 was introduced by Congressman Gilman of New York. This bill would authorize the American Friends of the Czech Republic to establish a memorial to

honor Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia, on Federal land in the District of Columbia. This bill

identifies a specific spot near the World Bank where the memorial

would be located. This site is near the hotel where Mr. Masaryk

resided while he lived in Washington. The bill also specifies that

the memorial would be in compliance with the Commemorative

Works Act.

The second bill, H.R. 1384, was introduced by Congressman Tom

Udall of New Mexico. This bill would amend the National Trails

System Act to designate the Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo

as a national historic trail. The trail traces the route that

2

thousands of Navajo Indians followed on their forced march known

as the Long Walk from northern Arizona to southern New Mexico.

I am aware that the administration has a few concerns with both

of these bills, and I would like to work with the Minority, the Park

Service and both Mr. Udall and Mr. Gilman in order to resolve

these concerns.

With that, I would like to thank all of our witnesses for being

here today, including Congressman Udall, and we assume Congressman Gilman will be here shortly to testify on these bills, and

now I would turn the time over to our Ranking Member Mrs.

Christensen.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Hefley follows:]

Statement of The Honorable Joel Hefley, Chairman, Subcommittee on

National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands

Good morning and welcome to the hearing today. This morning, the Subcommittee

on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands will hear testimony on two bills,

H.R. 1161 and H.R. 1384.

The first bill, H.R. 1161, was introduced by Congressman Ben Gilman of New

York. This bill would authorize the American Friends of the Czech Republic to establish a memorial to honor Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, on Federal land in the District of Columbia. This bill identifies a specific

spot near the World Bank where the memorial would be located. This site is near

the hotel where Mr. Masaryk formerly resided while he lived in Washington. The

bill also specifies that the memorial would be in compliance with the Commemorative Works Act.

The second bill, H.R. 1384, was introduced by Congressman Tom Udall of New

Mexico. This bill would amend the National Trails System Act to designate the

Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo as a national historic trail. The trail traces

the route that thousands of Navajo Indians followed on their forced march, known

as the ‘‘Long Walk’’, from northern Arizona to southern New Mexico.

I am aware that the Administration has a few concerns with both of these bills

and I would like to work with the Minority, the Park Service, and both Mr. Udall

and Mr. Gilman in order to resolve those concerns.

With that, I’d like to thank all of our witnesses for being here today, including

Congressmen Udall and Gilman, to testify on these bills and now turn the time over

to the Ranking Member, Ms. Christensen.

[Pictures and a map submitted for the record follow:]

3

TOMAS G. MASARYK

4

MEMORIAL STATUE OF TOMAS G. MASARYK

5

6

7

8

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, A

DELEGATE TO CONGRESS FROM THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

As you said, Mr. Chairman, we are going to receive testimony on

two bills. I would like to welcome those who will testify with us

this morning. The first measure authorizes American Friends of

the Czech Republic to establish a memorial to Tomas G. Masaryk

on a specific parcel of land at 19th and Pennsylvania Avenue here

in Washington, D.C. The legislation states that the memorial is to

be established in accordance with the Commemorative Works Act

and that it shall be funded privately.

Mr. Masaryk was a professor of philosophy who became the first

President of Czechoslovakia and served in that capacity until ill

health forced his retirement in 1935. Based on his public service

and writings, which include the Czechoslovakian Declaration of

Independence, many have referred to Masaryk as the Father of

Democratic Czechoslovakia.

Clearly, Mr. Masaryk is an important and compelling figure not

only in Czech history, but in the history of democracy. However, in

order for the legislation to achieve its own stated goal of complying

with the Commemorative Works Act, several changes may need to

be made to the bill. We look forward to learning more about the

potential improvements of the bill and this fascinating individual

as well.

The second bill, H.R. 1384, which is introduced by my friend and

our colleague on the Subcommittee, Representative Tom Udall,

would establish the Navajo Long Walk National Historic Trail. The

proposed trail would commemorate and interpret the forced march

of members of the Navajo Nation from their ancestral homelands,

a site in eastern New Mexico in the early 1860’s. I understand that

a study of this proposed trail may be necessary and that the witnesses are prepared to discuss that issue today.

So, Mr. Chairman, thank you. I appreciate the attendance of our

witnesses here this morning, and I look forward to working with

you and the sponsors to work out the details of these bills.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you, Mrs. Christensen.

Mr. HEFLEY. And Mr. Gilman was to be on the first panel. I understand he is on his way, but Mr. Udall, would you like to say a

few words about your bill to start things off?

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE TOM UDALL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

Mr. UDALL OF NEW MEXICO. I would love to, Chairman Hefley.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for holding this hearing,

and I know you noted that the Park Service has some issues with

the bill I have introduced, and I look forward to working with you

on those issues to make sure that we can move this legislation forward.

The Congressional District that I represent is one of the more

majestic ones in this country. It is a scenic land with a unique civilization that is part Indian, part Spanish and part Anglo American. As such, the history of the region speaks to some of the most

proud as well as tragic events in our Nation’s history. Among the

most tragic is the Long Walk of the Navajo people. In 1863, the

9

Navajo were forced by gunpoint from their ancestral lands to walk

roughly 350 miles from northeastern Arizona and northwest New

Mexico to the Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico.

More than 150 years ago, the United States engaged in a military campaign against the Navajo people. The campaign was an extension of the U.S. policy to remove the Navajo from their homeland in the hopes of quashing their rebellion against what was an

unwelcome encroachment from the U.S. Government. Colonel Kit

Carson then engaged his men in an aggressive campaign to round

up and remove the Navajo from their native area. The campaign

was not a humane one, and the Navajo were forced to surrender

themselves to Carson’s forces in 1863.

The U.S. then chose Bosque Redondo, a very remote and desolate

site near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, as the place where the Navajo

would be confined and forced to live. More than 8,000 Navajo were

forced to trek over 350 miles under military escort from portions

of Canyon de Chelley, Arizona; Albuquerque, Canyon Blanco,

Anton Chico and Canyon Piedra Pintado, New Mexico, to Bosque

Redondo.

Upon being imprisoned at Fort Sumner, the Navajo faced starvation, malnutrition due to inadequate and poor quality food rations,

disease caused by unclean water, and exposure to inadequate provisions of clothing and shelter unsuitable to meet the extreme weather conditions of the area. Thousands perished under these deplorable conditions.

After roughly four years of imprisonment, President Ulysses S.

Grant issued an Executive Order terminating the military’s role

and entered into treaty negotiations with the Navajo. When an

agreement was made, the Navajo were then allowed to return

home in the same way as they had arrived, on foot. Thus the

Navajo had spent nearly four years as prisoners from their own

land.

Mr. Chairman, this period in our Nation’s history is a tragic one.

Our relationship with the tribes have come a long way since that

time, but there is still more that can be done to strengthen their

relationship. For this reason, I am hopeful the National Park Service, in conducting this feasibility study, will engage in a proper

amount of collaboration and consultation with the Navajo Nation.

I am grateful to the Committee for hearing testimony on this bill

and hope that once the study is conducted, we can enter into the

next step of designating the Long Walk as a national historic trail.

The Long Walk remains one of the more tragic events in our Nation’s history, yet today very few Americans realize the atrocities

that were committed against our Native peoples. By taking these

necessary steps to declare this area a national historic trail, we will

commemorate the people who made the treacherous Long Walk and

were interned at Bosque Redondo. The over 8,000 Navajo made the

Long Walk, and among those, 3,000 who perished should be remembered. I am hopeful that designating the Long Walk as an historic trail will prove to be a significant step in commemorating

their memories.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for recognizing the importance of this

issue. I look forward to hearing the testimony from Mr. Arvin Trujillo, who will testify for the Navajo Nation. Mr. Trujillo is the DiVerDate 11-MAY-2000 15:50 May 01, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 72230.TXT HRESOUR1 PsN: HRESOUR1
10

rector of the Division of Natural Resources for the Navajo Nation,

and thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I see Mr. Gilman

is here.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you, Mr. Udall.

[The prepared statemnt of Mr. Udall follows:]

Statement of The Honorable Tom Udall, a Representative in Congress from

the State of New Mexico

Mr. Chairman, fellow members of the Subcommittee on National parks.

The Congressional District that I represent is one of the most majestic regions in

this country. It is a scenic land with a unique civilization that is part Indian, part

Spanish and part Anglo–American. As such, the history of the region speaks to some

of the most proud as well as tragic events in our Nations history. Amongst the most

tragic is the Long Walk of the Navajo people. In 1863 the Navajo were forced by

gunpoint from their ancestral lands, to walk roughly 350 miles from Northeastern

Arizona and northwest New Mexico, to the Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico.

More than 150 years ago, the United States engaged in a military campaign

against the Navajo people. The campaign was an extension of U.S. policy to remove

the Navajo from their homeland in hopes of quashing their rebellion against what

was an unwelcome encroachment from the U.S. government. Col. Kit Carson then

engaged his men in an aggressive campaign to ‘‘round up’’ and remove the Navajo

from their native area. The campaign was not a humane one, and the Navajo were

forced to surrender themselves to Carson’s forces in 1863.

The U.S. then chose Bosque Redondo a very remote and desolate site near Ft.

Sumner, New Mexico, as the place where the Navajo would be confined and forced

to live. More than 8,000 Navajo were then forced to trek over 350 miles under military escort from portions of Canyon de Chelley (SHAY), AZ., Albuquerque, Canyon

Blanco, Anton Chico, and Canyon Piedra Pintado, NM, to Bosque Redondo, NM.

Upon being imprisoned at Ft. Sumner, the Navajo faced starvation, malnutrition

due to inadequate and poor quality food rations, disease caused by unclean water,

and exposure due to inadequate provisions of clothing and shelter unsuitable to

meet the extreme weather conditions of the area. Thousands perished under these

deplorable conditions.

After roughly four years of imprisonment President Ulysses S. Grant issued an

executive order terminating the military’s role and entered into treaty negotiations

with the Navajo. When an agreement was made, the Navajo were then allowed to

return home in the same way as they had arrived, on foot. Thus, the Navajo had

spent nearly four years as prisoners from their own land.

Mr. Chairman, this period in our nations history is a tragic one. Our relationship

with the tribes have come a long way since that time, but there is still more that

can be done to strengthen the relationship. For this reason I am hopeful that the

National Park Service in conducting this feasability study, will engage in a proper

amount of collaboration and consultation with the Navajo Nation.

I am grateful to the committee for hearing testimony on this bill and hope that

once the feasibility study is conducted, we can enter into the next step of designating the Long Walk as a national historic trail. The Long Walk remains one of

the most tragic events in our Nations history, yet today very few Americans realize

the atrocities that were committed against our native peoples. By taking these necessary steps to declare this area a national historic trail, we will commemorate the

people who made the treacherous Long Walk and were interned at Bosque Redondo.

The over eight thousand Navajo who made the Long Walk, and among those the

three thousand who perished, should be remembered. I am hopeful that designating

the Long Walk as a historic trail, will prove to be a significant step in commemorating their memories.

Thank you Mr. Chairman, for recognizing the importance of this issue. I look forward to hearing the testimony from Mr. Arvin Trujillo who will testify for the

Navajo Nation. Mr. Trujillo is Director of the division of Natural resources for the

Navajo Nation. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Gilman, we are delighted to have you here

today, and—as our first panel, and we will turn the time over to

you to talk about your memorial.

11

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE BENJAMIN GILMAN, A

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF

NEW YORK

Mr. GILMAN. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to

thank our distinguished members of the Committee for taking the

time to consider this legislation regarding H.R. 1161. That measure authorizes the American Friends of the Czech Republic to establish a memorial to honor Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first

President of Czechoslovakia.

I am pleased to be able to sponsor that measure which seeks to

honor one of the foremost advocates of democracy, of freedom and

humanity of our time. Tomas Masaryk is renowned throughout the

world for his advocacy of democracy.

Having visited the Czech Republic on a number of occasions, I

have been able to observe firsthand the democratic plan initially

laid out by President Masaryk nearly 100 years ago being reinstated into a society which has suffered so long under Communist

rule, and I am proud to champion that effort.

We are joined in the audience today by officials of the Embassy

of the Czech Republic, and I am certain these distinguished officials can attest to the success of the resurgence of democracy in

their homeland, which was initiated by Mr. Masaryk.

The memorial statue to Tomas Masaryk will immortalize a good

friend of our Nation and a pioneer for democracy throughout the

world. A steadfast disciple of Jefferson, of Lincoln and Wilson, Masaryk was a student of the American foundations of freedom and

equality and principles of a democratic society.

I understand from my discussions with representatives of the

American Friends of the Czech Republic, who have so nobly undertaken this effort on behalf of the Czech Republic, that before this

legislation can be marked up, certainly refinements will be necessary for the bill to conform with the Commemorative Works Act.

I completely support those changes, which will be brought to your

attention shortly, and urge the Subcommittee to continue with

their consideration of this bill by providing an opportunity for it to

be marked up in the near future.

Once again, I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of

the Committee, for holding this hearing, and I urge the Subcommittee to approve the bill and report it favorably to the full

Committee.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gilman follows:]

Statement of The Honorable Benjamin Gilman, a Representative in

Congress from the State of New York

Chairman Hefley, Ranking Member Christensen:

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this hearing this morning regarding H.R. 1161 which authorizes the American Friends of the Czech Republic to establish a memorial to honor Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of

Czechlovokia.

As you know, I am the sponsor of H.R. 1161, which seeks to honor one of the foremost promoters of democracy, freedom, and humanity of our time, Tomas Garrigue

Masaryk.

Having visited the Czech Republic and seen first hand the democratic plan originally laid out by Tomas Masaryk nearly 100 years ago being reinstated into a society which had suffered so long under communist rule, I am proud to champion this

12

effort. We are joined in the audience today by officials of the Embassy of the Czech

Republic. I am certain that these distinguished officials can attest to the success of

this resurgence of democracy in their homeland which originated with Mr. Masaryk.

The memorial statue to Tomas Masaryk will immortalize a good friend of the

United States and a pioneer for world democracy. A steadfast disciple of Jefferson,

Lincoln, and Wilson, Masaryk was a student of the American foundations of freedom

and equality and principles of a democratic society.

I understand from my discussions with representatives of the American Friends

of the Czech Republic, who have so nobly undertaken this effort on behalf of the

Czech Republic, that before this legislation can be marked-up, certain refinements

will be necessary for the bill to conform with Commemorative Works Act. I completely support the changes which will be brought to your attention shortly and urge

the subcommittee to continue with their consideration of this bill by providing an

opportunity for it to be marked up in the very near future.

Once again, I want to thank the subcommittee for holding this hearing. I urge

the subcommittee to approve H.R. 1161 and report it favorably to the full committee.

Mr. HEFLEY. Ben, can you help me? What is our history of having memorials to other nations’ leaders in the National Capital

area here? I am sure there is some history of that. In fact, we have

a painting on the wall of the House of Representatives of a foreign

leader. But what kind of history do we have of putting up memorials in the Capital for that?

Mr. GILMAN. Just this weekend at West Point, at our U.S. military academy, I attended a commemorative ceremony to General

Thaddeus Kosciusko, and that is on Federal lands. There are some

memorials—and I have just been handed a list. Jose Artigas, there

is a monument for him at 18th Street and Constitution Avenue. He

led Uruguay in independence in 1811. And that was presented by

the Republic of Uruguay. Simon Bolivar has a monument also at

18th Street and Virginia Avenue, and of course we all know him

as a liberator of South America, and that was a gift from the Venezuelan Government.

Then there is a statue—a monument for Mahatma Gandhi at

Massachusetts Avenue at Q Street and 21st Street. And, of course,

he was the Indian leader for independence, and that was presented

by the Government of India. There is a statue to Benito Pablo

Juarez at Virginia Avenue and New Hampshire Avenue. He is

known as the Mexican George Washington, and we just celebrated

mayo cinco in the Capitol, and that was erected by the Mexican

Government. And then the last one is General Jose de San Martin,

founder of Argentine independence, at Virginia Avenue and 20th

Street, and that was a gift from the citizens of Argentina.

Mr. HEFLEY. So your proposal would not be breaking new

ground. There is self-precedence for it?

Mr. GILMAN. By no means. There are some great men who have

been immortalized by these monuments, and I hope we could add

Mr. Masaryk’s statue to that list of wonderful people.

Mr. HEFLEY. Mrs. Christensen?

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I just wanted to welcome Chairman Gilman to the Subcommittee. I remember doing the memorial or the monument to

Mr. Gandhi of India, and I think as long as it complies with the

Commemorative Works Act, and it is a gift of the country and will

be maintained privately, I think those are the requirements.

13

We look forward to working with you on this bill, and thank you

again, Chairman Gilman, for coming.

Mr. GILMAN. And the same will apply, Mr. Chairman. This will

be a gift of the Czech Republic, Friends of Czech Republic, and

they will work out a maintenance program as well.

Mr. HEFLEY. Well, I think we are happy to do it if the Czech Republic will do a statue of you over there. Can you assure us of that?

Mr. GILMAN. I would hope not. I think we have got enough statues of wonderful people over there.

Mr. HEFLEY. Any other questions of members of the Committee?

Well, then, Ben, thank you very much.

Mr. GILMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I thank

the Committee members for your indulgence.

Mr. HEFLEY. Our second panel will be Mr. John Parsons, Associate Regional Director of Lands, Planning and Resources, with the

National Capital Region, the National Park Service. If you would

join us.

Mr. Parsons, if you can, keep your testimony to about 5 minutes

so we have time for questions. That would be helpful.

STATEMENT OF JOHN J. PARSONS, ASSOCIATE REGIONAL

DIRECTOR, LANDS, PLANNING, AND RESOURCES, NATIONAL

CAPITAL REGION, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Mr. PARSONS. All right, Mr. Chairman. I would be happy to do

that.

Welcome, and thank you for this opportunity to present the Department of Interior’s testimony on H.R. 1161 to authorize the establishment of a memorial to Tomas Masaryk in the District of Columbia.

The Department supports the establishment of a memorial to

Tomas G. Masaryk on Federal lands in the District of Columbia or

its environs, but only if H.R. 1161 is amended to bring this proposal into conformance with the Commemorative Works Act.

On April 26th, 2001, representatives of the Czech Republic met

with the National Capital Memorial Commission to share the intent of that government to make a gift of this memorial to the

people of the United States. The American Friends of the Czech

Republic is one of the several groups based in the United States

who have joined to participate in this effort. Enactment of an

amendment to H.R. 1161, as Mr. Gilman mentioned just previously, would provide the mechanism by which the acceptance of

this gift could occur.

Tomas Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia, stands in

history as the best embodiment of the close ties between the United

States and Czechoslovakia. He knew America from his own experience over four decades of repeated trips as a philosopher, scholar

and teacher. He married a young woman from Brooklyn, New York,

Charlotte Garrigue, and carried her name as his own. Masaryk’s

relationship with America is illustrated by his writings, speeches

and articles contained in the Library of Congress.

His personal relationships with President Woodrow Wilson and

the Secretary of State Robert Lansing led to the recognition by the

United States of a free Czechoslovakia in 1918. Inspired by the

writings of Jefferson and the values of Lincoln, Masaryk wrote the

14

Czechoslovakian Declaration of Independence from Austria that

was signed in Philadelphia and issued in Washington on October

18th, 1918, where he was declared President of Czechoslovakia. His

view of government served as a blueprint for the creation of new

nation-states after the First World War, and he stands as a symbol

of the politics of morality, a world leader and a steadfast friend of

the United States.

The National Capital Memorial Commission met to review this

proposal, and the Commission unanimously endorsed it as a memorial gift, with the requirement that legislation conform with the

Commemorative Works Act, as I mentioned earlier. Section 1(b) of

the bill directs the placement of this memorial on a designated site

in the Nation’s Capital. We believe this language should be deleted,

because it precludes public participation in site evaluation and approval required by the Commemorative Works Act and the various

commissions in the city. The provision would also prohibit memorial sponsors from consideration of any alternative site, absent additional future legislation.

We also recommend language be added to reflect that this memorial is a gift of the Government and the people of the Czech Republic. The people of the United States have enjoyed strong ties and

good will with the peoples of foreign nations around the globe, and

many symbols of this mutual esteem have taken the form of commemorative works here in the Nation’s Capital. A commemorative

gift of this nature is not considered a traditional commemorative

work as defined under section 2(c) of the Commemorative Works

Act, and this distinction should be reflected in the text of the bill.

We believe language which recognizes the international significance of the sincere and gracious intent of the Government and

people of the Czech Republic would be highly appropriate.

In addition language to clarify that the United States Government shall not pay any expenses related to the maintenance of the

memorial should be added to section 1(d). Our support for

H.R. 1161 is conditioned on the memorial not contributing to the

National Parks Service’s deferred maintenance backlog. We would

be glad to work with the Committee and Mr. Gilman on drafting

appropriate language.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement, I will be pleased to

answer any questions that you or other members of the Committee

may have. I have testimony on the second bill, but we might want

to take them in sequence. It is up to you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Why don’t you go ahead with your testimony, and

then we will ask questions on both of them.

Mr. PARSONS. All right, sir.

Mr. Chairman, and members of the Subcommittee, I thank you

for the opportunity to appear before you today to present the Department’s views on H.R. 1384, a bill to amend the National Trails

System Act to designate the Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo

as a national historic trail.

The Department cannot support this legislation as currently

written. The National Trails System Act requires that a suitability

and feasibility study be conducted and submitted to Congress before the trail can be established, and a study has not been completed on this trail. We are pleased, of course, to learn from RepVerDate 11-MAY-2000 15:50 May 01, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 72230.TXT HRESOUR1 PsN: HRESOUR1
15

resentative Udall here this morning that he is willing to amend

H.R. 1384 to reflect that, and I would be happy to work with him

and the Subcommittee to develop alternative language in that regard.

Although the Department could support H.R. 1384 in concept if

it were amended to authorize a suitability and feasibility study, we

will not consider requesting funding for the study in this or next

fiscal year. Furthermore, in order to better plan for the future of

our national parks, we believe that such study should carefully examine the full life cycle operation and maintenance costs that

would result from each alternative that we consider. We caution

that our support of H.R. 1384, if amended to authorize a study,

does not mean that the Department in the future will support

designations that may be recommended by the study.

H.R. 1384 would amend the National Trails System Act and designate the Navajo Long Walk National Historic Trail. The proposed

trail would cover a series of routes approximately 350 to 400 miles

long over which members of the Navajo Nation were marched by

the U.S. Army beginning in 1863, after they were forced to leave

their traditional homes in northeastern Arizona and northwestern

New Mexico.

The story of the Navajo Long Walk came at a time in the U.S.

history when the military was called upon to solve a problem of a

clash between cultures. In the 1850’s and 1860’s, more and more

Americans were moving west into New Mexico, the Navajos’ home.

Repeated clashes resulted in the decision to move the Navajo

people away from their ancient homeland to a reservation and

teach them farming and self-sufficiency. The Army destroyed their

crops and orchards, starving them into submission.

There were several successive marches of the Navajo through the

cold winter to the heat of the summer. The aged and infirm often

died along the way, even though their wagons were sometimes provided. Broken and dispirited after their defeat in their homeland,

the Long Walk was particularly grueling and hard on all of the

Navajo people, even those who survived. The destination of the

Long Walk was a reservation at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, called

Bosque Redondo, which was shared with Mescalero Apache people.

More than 7,000 to 8,000 Navajo people were eventually placed on

the reservation. Although seeds were provided, and the Navajo

planted them immediately, there was never any success in growing

crops. Due to a lack of timber for both shelter and firewood, living

conditions were poor. Additionally, the Navajo and Mescalero

Apache did not get along, and by 1866, the Apache had deserted

the reservation.

By 1868, conditions were so bad, that a government commission

was appointed to investigate the conditions of Bosque Redondo.

General W.T. Sherman, commanding the Military Division of Missouri, ordered the Navajo back to their homelands in June of 1868

after a treaty granting them their homelands had been signed.

The Long Walk Trail is located within a corridor that includes

the National Park System units of Canyon de Chelly National

Monument in Arizona and Fort Union National Monument in New

Mexico and the Bureau of Land Management-managed lands in

New Mexico, including El Malapais National Conservation Area

16

and Kasha-Katuwe Tents Rocks National Monument. The route the

Army followed went from Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, to the south

of Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there several routes continued

directly and indirectly to the Bosque Redondo at Fort Sumner on

the Pecos River.

The story of the Long Walk is being told in a number of ways

through the effort of the State of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. For a number of years, the Navajo people have made pilgrimages to the Bosque Redondo. Plans are currently under way for a

memorial and visitors center at Fort Sumner State Monument.

Legislation that was passed in the 106th Congress authorizes funding from the Defense Department to match State funds for the establishment and development of the memorial and visitors center.

The legislation also authorizes the National Park Service to work

with the Navajo Nation and the Mescalero tribe to develop a symposium on the Long Walk and a curriculum for New Mexico

schools.

Any further Federal involvement should consider more than

whether or not the Long Walk has sufficient resources and integrity to meet the standards set for establishing national historic

trails. The study should identify other options that best tell a story

as well as identify the critical resources of that story. But most importantly, any work has to consider the concerns, values and wishes of the Native Americans affected by these tragic events. Therefore, while a study to determine the suitability of national historic

trail designation may be an important part of preserving the story

and sites, any authorized study should include sufficient latitude to

determine if that is indeed the best way to accomplish the task. To

that end, we are ready to work with Mr. Udall, the Secretary of

the State of New Mexico, and the Navajo and Mescalero people to

determine the most appropriate action.

That completes my testimony. I will be happy to answer any

questions you or the Subcommittee members may have, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Parsons.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Parsons on H.R. 1161 follows:]

Statement of John G. Parsons, Associate Regional Director for Lands,

Resources and Planning, National Capital Region, National Park Service,

Department of the Interior

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to present the Department of the

Interior’s views on H.R. 1161, to authorize the establishment of a memorial to

Tomas G. Mazaryk in the District of Columbia.

The Department supports the establishment of a memorial to Tomas G. Masaryk

on Federal lands in the District of Columbia or its environs, but only if H.R. 1161

is amended to bring this proposal into conformance with the Commemorative Works

Act of 1986. On April 26, 2001, representatives of the Czech Republic met with the

National Capital Memorial Commission to share the intent of that government to

make a gift of this memorial to the people of the United States. The American

Friends of the Czech Republic is one of several groups based in the United States

who have joined to participate in this effort. Enactment of an amended H.R. 1161

would provide the mechanism by which the acceptance of this gift could occur.

Tomas Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, stands in history as the

best embodiment of the close ties between the United States and Czechoslovakia.

He knew America from his own experience over four decades of repeated trips as

a philosopher, scholar, and teacher. He married a young woman from Brooklyn,

New York, Charlotte Garrigue, and carried her name as his own. Masaryk’s relationship with America is illustrated by his writings, speeches, and articles contained

17

in the Library of Congress. His personal relationships with President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing led to the recognition by the United

States of a free Czechoslovakia in 1918.

Inspired by the writings of Jefferson and the values of Lincoln, Masaryk wrote

the Czechoslovakian Declaration of Independence from Austria that was signed in

Philadelphia and issued in Washington on October 18, 1918, where he was declared

President of Czechoslovakia. His view of government served as a blueprint for the

creation of new nation states after the First World War and he stands as a symbol

of the politics of morality, a world leader, and a steadfast friend of the United

States.

The National Capital Memorial Commission met to review H.R. 1161 in order to

advise the Secretary of the Interior and the Congress on this matter as is required

by the Commemorative Works Act of 1986. The commission unanimously endorsed

this proposed memorial gift, with the requirement that legislation conforms with the

Commemorative Works Act.

Section 1(b) of H.R. 1161 directs the placement of this memorial in a designated

site in the nation’s capital. We believe this language should be deleted because it

precludes the public participation in site evaluation and approval required by the

Commemorative Works Act. This provision would also prohibit memorial sponsors

from the consideration of any alternative site absent additional future legislation.

We also recommend language be added to reflect that this memorial is a gift of

the government and the people of the Czech Republic. The people of the United

States have enjoyed strong ties and goodwill with the peoples of foreign nations

around the globe, and many symbols of this mutual esteem have taken the form of

commemorative works. A commemorative gift of this nature is not considered a traditional commemorative work as defined under Section 2(c) of the Commemorative

Works Act, and this distinction should be reflected in the text of H.R. 1161. We believe language, which recognizes the international significance of the sincere and

gracious intent of the government and the people of the Czech Republic, would be

highly appropriate.

Finally, language clarifying that the United States Government shall not pay any

expenses related to the maintenance of the memorial should be added to Section

1(d) of the bill. Our support for H.R. 1161 is conditioned on the memorial not contributing to the National Park Service’s deferred maintenance backlog. We would be

glad to work with the committee on drafting appropriate language.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement. I would be pleased to answer any

questions you or other members of the Subcommittee may have.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Parsons on H.R. 1384 follows:]

Statement of John G. Parsons, Associate Regional Director for Lands,

Resources, and Planning, National Capital Region, National Park Service,

Department of the Interior

Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity

to appear before you today to present the Department’s views on H.R. 1384, a bill

to amend the National Trails System Act to designate the Navajo Long Walk to

Bosque Redondo as a national historic trail.

The Department cannot support this legislation as currently written. The National Trails System Act, P.L. 90–543, requires that a suitability and feasibility

study be conducted and submitted to Congress before a trail can be established and

a study has not been completed on the Navajo Long Walk Trail. It is our understanding from discussions with staff that language is being developed to amend

H.R. 1384 in order to authorize a suitability and feasibility study. We would be

happy to work with Representative Udall and the subcommittee on alternate language to study the proposed trail, but more importantly to determine the best manner in which to preserve and tell this important story.

While the Department could support H.R. 1384 in concept, if it were amended to

authorize a suitability and feasibility study, we will not consider requesting funding

for the study in this or the next fiscal year. Furthermore, in order to better plan

for the future of our National Parks, we believe that such studies should carefully

examine the full life cycle operation and maintenance costs that would result from

each alternative considered. We caution that our support of H.R. 1384, if amended

to authorize a study, does not mean that the Department, in the future, will support

designations that may be recommended by the study.

H.R. 1384 would amend the National Trails System Act and designate the Navajo

Long Walk National Historic Trail. The proposed trail would cover a series of routes

18

approximately 350 to 400 miles long over which members of the Navajo Nation were

marched by the U.S. Army beginning in 1863 after they were forced to leave their

traditional homes in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico.

The story of the Navajo Long Walk came at a time in U.S. history when the military was called upon to solve a problem of a clash between cultures. In the 1850’s

and 60’s more and more Americans were moving west into New Mexico, the Navajo’s

home. Repeated clashes resulted in the decision to move the Navajo away from their

ancient homeland to a reservation and teach them farming and self-sufficiency. The

army destroyed crops and orchards, starving them into submission. There were several successive marches of the Navajo through the cold of winter to the heat of summer. The aged and infirm often died along the way even though wagons were sometimes provided. Broken and dispirited after their defeat in their homeland, the Long

Walk was particularly grueling and hard on all of the Navajo people, even those

who survived.

The destination of the Long Walk was a reservation at Fort Sumner, New Mexico,

called Bosque Redondo (Round Grove), which was shared with Mescalero Apache

people. More than 7,000–8,000 Navajo people were eventually placed on the reservation. Although seeds were provided and the Navajo planted them immediately, there

was never any success in growing crops. Due to a lack of timber for both shelter

and firewood, living conditions were poor. Additionally, the Navajo and Mescalero

Apache did not get along and by 1866 the Apache had deserted the reservation. By

1868 conditions were so bad that a government commission was appointed to investigate the conditions at Bosque Redondo. General W. T. Sherman, commanding the

Military Division of the Missouri, ordered the Navajo back to their homelands in

June of 1868, after a treaty granting them their old homelands had been signed.

The Long Walk Trail is located within a corridor that includes National Park System units at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona and Fort Union National Monument in New Mexico and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed

lands in New Mexico including El Malapais National Conservation Area and Kasha–

Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. The route the army followed went from

Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, to south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there several routes continued directly and indirectly to the Bosque Redondo at Fort Sumner

on the Pecos River.

The story of the Long Walk is being told in a number of ways through the efforts

of the State of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. For a number of years, the

Navajo people have made pilgrimages to the Bosque Redondo. Plans are currently

underway for a memorial and visitor center at Fort Sumner State Monument. Legislation that passed in the 106th Congress (Title II of P.L. 106–511) authorizes funding from the Defense Department to match state funds for the establishment and

development of the memorial and visitor center. The legislation also authorizes the

National Park Service to work with the Navajo Nation and the Mescalero Tribe to

develop a symposium on the Long Walk and a curriculum for New Mexico schools.

Any further Federal involvement should consider more than whether or not the

Long Walk has sufficient resources and integrity to meet the standards set for establishing National Historic Trails. A study should identify other options that best

tell the story as well as identify the critical resources to that story. But most importantly, any work has to consider the concerns, values and wishes of the Native

Americans affected by these tragic events.

Therefore, while a study to determine the suitability of national historic trail

designation may be an important part of preserving this story and sites, any authorized study should include sufficient latitude to determine if that is indeed the best

way to accomplish the task.

To that end, we are ready to work with Representative Udall, the State of New

Mexico and the Navajo and Mescalero to determine the most appropriate action.

That completes my testimony. I would be happy to answer any questions that you

or any of the members of the subcommittee may have.

[A letter from the Department of the Interior dated May 4, 2001

submitted for the record follows:]

19

20

21

22

Mr. HEFLEY. Back to 1161, in your testimony, you pointed out

two problems with this bill, which, in your view, violate the CWA

in two respects. Do the administration and the Commission support

the idea of erecting a statue to Mr. Masaryk on Federal land in

downtown Washington, D.C.?

Mr. PARSONS. Absolutely, without equivocation.

Mr. HEFLEY. Do the administration and the Commission support

the idea of erecting the statue on the site proposed by Mr. Gilman

in this bill?

Mr. PARSONS. We would prefer to use the provisions of the Commemorative Works Act, which requires the study of various alternatives, and then an approval process. In the past, some of the legislation for memorials has been site-specific, and we have found it

troubling that after the act is passed, we find what some deem to

be a better site, and we have to come back here to get an amendment. So we would prefer that it not be site-specific.

Mr. HEFLEY. It is our understanding the site proposed for the

statue in the bill is currently maintained by the World Bank rather

than the National Park Service under a voluntary maintenance

agreement. Doesn’t that mean that the World Bank has assumed

primary responsibility for the maintenance of the park for a 5-year

period?

Mr. PARSONS. Yes. I am glad you emphasized a 5-year period. We

have a number of adopt-a-parks in the city that are on temporary

agreements that we hope will last in perpetuity, but we are never

sure of that.

Mr. HEFLEY. So the World Bank is responsible for installing and

maintaining pavement, benches, trash receptacles, plants, all of

those things?

Mr. PARSONS. Yes, they are, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Okay. Mrs. Christensen?

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I think you have asked all my questions, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Tancredo?

Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Chairman, I have a quick question. Actually

it was prompted today not by your testimony or that of Mr. Gilman’s, but something I heard on the radio on the way over here

in which a group of citizens participating in some sort of commission or other were talking about the over 110 sites they had identified in the area that are being identified for redevelopment around

Anacostia, and specifically for—sites for Federal national monuments. And I wondered, to what extent the—to what extent you

would give any credence to that kind of input. Do you work with

them for that purpose of defining other potential sites for monuments? Certainly the Mall is getting concerned, and they are concerned, and me, too. And I just wondered how that process goes

along. Is there a communication there? Do you think about that alternative over there, the—. Mr. PARSONS. Very much so. I will try to make this simple. This

is a very complicated city to build anything in. Congress made it

that way, and I think it works, but it is very complicated. There

are three commissions which Congress has established to deal with

memorials. The three commissions have bound together in a joint

task force and have developed the memorials master plan, which

23

has 100 to 104 sites in it, that has been out for public comment.

The reason for that is to designate sites that nobody will be surprised about in the future; that will reach out into the communities, the neighborhoods of this city. It will define specific sites in

and around the Mall that can and can’t be used, and I should point

out that the site mentioned in this bill is one of those sites. We

think it will be a very valuable tool for locating memorials in the

future.

We build about one memorial a year. Congress authorizes one or

two, and it takes about 10 years to get the more complicated ones

to fruition. But I guess we have done enough for a century, then,

at 100 sites.

Mr. TANCREDO. Thank you.

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Udall?

Mr. UDALL OF NEW MEXICO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr.

Parsons. Thank you for your testimony.

Do you support the intent of H.R. 1384 as long as we follow the

procedures under Public Law 90-543, and that is the National

Trails System Act, requiring a feasibility study?

Mr. PARSONS. Absolutely.

Mr. UDALL OF NEW MEXICO. And the normal thing you would do,

Mr. Parsons, in a study is where you have a tribe like the Navajo

Nation involved, you would consult with them very closely in order

to find out the best way to tell their story?

Mr. PARSONS. That is exactly right. It is their story.

Mr. UDALL OF NEW MEXICO. Thank you.

I don’t have any further questions, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Ms. McCollum?

Ms. MCCOLLUM. No, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Parsons, for your testimony.

Mr. PARSONS. Thank you.

Mr. HEFLEY. And our next panel will be Mr. Milton Cerny, President, American Friends of the Czech Republic; Mr. Michael Novak,

Director of Social and Political Studies, American Enterprise Institute; and Mr. Arvin Trujillo, Director, Division of Natural Resources for the Navajo Nation. Mr. Cerny, why don’t we start with

you.

STATEMENT OF MILTON CERNY, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN

FRIENDS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mr. CERNY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a great pleasure for

me to be here today to talk about the legislation, and I am proud

to be here with Michael Novak.

My parents and grandparents, forebears, came from what was

then the Bohemian lands, or the former Czechoslovakia. Mr.

Novak’s parents came from Slovakia, and we have come together

here today to talk about this memorial to a man who we knew as

children from our studies in school, even though we were born here

in America. His reputation was profound in our community, mine

in Chicago and his in Pittsburgh. So I thank you again and the

Committee for hearing us on this matter.

The American Friends of the Czech Republic is a national nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the advancement of civil,

24

legal, democratic societies and a free-market economy in the Czech

Republic. It is a 501(c)(3) public charity. It is an educational organization. We were involved in educating the Congress about different aspects of the Czech Republic, primarily with regard to

NATO expansion, trade, commerce, education, other issues as this

country was emerging from communism.

Foremost on our current agenda today is the passage of this legislation, which we believe will honor a champion of liberty,

promotor of human rights and defender of the democratic principles

of the United States, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk. This effort has received the enthusiastic support of the leaders in the Czech Republic, and I believe you all have copies of a letter that we received

just the other day from President Havel supporting this project, indicating that he will put all his power behind this project, and

placement of the statue of President Masaryk in Washington. You

also have a letter from Ambassador Vondra, who is the official representative of the Czech Republic here in Washington, supportive

of this gift from the Czech people to the United States.

Mr. Novak will talk about Masaryk. So I will address the remainder of my comments to the points that were raised with regard to the legislation.

Mr. Chairman, as you are aware, and as Mr. Parsons has indicated, that in accordance with the Commemorative Works Act,

H.R. 1161 provides for congressional authorization for the placement of the memorial. I wanted to thank Mr. Parsons and his staff

for an excellent discussion that we had with them following the

time that the legislation was introduced, and in which Mr. Parsons

discussed with us certain difficulties they had with regard to the

legislation as currently drafted.

We believe that Masaryk had a specific and a profound impact

on the United States, but we also realize that under this act, the

judgment is not ours where this statue is to be placed. It really belongs to the Park Service and the commissions that have to make

that determination. And I would like to address two points with regard to this.

First, we suggested in the legislation that we thought an appropriate place for the statue for consideration was in a park on 18th

and Pennsylvania Avenue, right across from the World Bank. Why

do we select that particular site? As indicated, we looked at the

master plan of potential sites that might be available, and we

thought this was an ideal site because of the fact that Masaryk had

lived in what was then the Powhatan Hotel on the corner of 18th

and Pennsylvania Avenue, where he would walk on several occasions to meet with President Wilson with Secretary Lansing, with

Colonel House and others in the drafting of this Declaration of

Independence. It has historic significance to us, and, I think, to the

people who would visit that statue, because it stands in front of a

building today that is reaching out to young nations and to groups

to show that there is a future.

As far as the gift, I think that is explained in the two letters that

you have from the Czech Republic.

I would like to add one last comment. I returned from the Czech

Republic last week, where I met with the mayor of Plzen. Plzen is

a community where U.S. troops stopped at the Second World War,

25

after defeating the German army, and then were not permitted to

go any further. The Russians took over the country basically, when

a Communist Government was instituted, and for 50 years this

country languished in communism.

We now have a situation, that we can honor the man who

brought democracy, liberty and freedom to a people who deserve

much more and much better. The Czechs are fully supportive, as

is the city of Prague and, as we can see, the President and the Ambassador. So I think the gift will be accomplished, and we will receive support from people in the Czech Republic and the United

States.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Cerny follows:]

Statement of Milton Cerny, President, American Friends of the

Czech Republic

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before your Subcommittee

today in support of H.R. 1161, Rep. Benjamin Gilman’s (R–NY) legislation which

would authorize the establishment of a memorial to Tomas Garrigue Masaryk in the

District of Columbia.

The American Friends of the Czech Republic is the national non-profit organization that advances a civil, legal, democratic society and a free-market economy in

the Czech Republic while strengthening the education, cultural, commercial and security partnerships between the United States and the Czech Republic. It is a

501(c)(3) public charity that has educated our leaders and opinion makers in such

areas as NATO expansion, trade, culture and Czech heritage.

Foremost on our current agenda is supporting the passage of legislation, which

we believe will honor a champion of liberty, promoter of human rights, and defender

of the democratic principles of the United States, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk. This

effort has received the enthusiastic support of the leaders in the Czech Republic,

most notably, President Vaclav Havel and the Ambassador to the United States,

Alexandr Vondra and government and community leaders throughout the United

States.

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia, stands in history

as the best embodiment of the close ties between the United States and Czechoslovakia. A philosopher, scholar and teacher, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk accomplished a great deal in the United States. During repeated trips he taught in the

United States, married a young woman from Brooklyn, NY, and developed personal

relationships with some of the most illustrious American political figures of the

time. However, all of this pales in comparison to his most notable achievement. For

six months Masaryk traveled throughout the United States writing the Czechoslovak Deceleration of Independence from Austria that was signed in Philadelphia

and issued here in Washington, D.C. on October 18, 1918, where he was declared

the President of Czechoslovakia.

I am joined today by Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute and recent recipient of the Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Medal. Mr. Novak will speak in more

detail as to Tomas Garrigue Masaryk’s connection with the United States and his

prominent place in history. Mr. Chairman, I would like to focus the remainder of

my testimony on the legislation, which has led to this hearing.

Although the American Friends of the Czech Republic has served as the catalyst

for this effort to honor President Masaryk with a Memorial in Washington, D.C.,

we are supported in this endeavor by the Czech Republic and by dozens of Czech

and Slovak organizations throughout the United States. Rep. Benjamin Gilman has

championed our cause through the introduction of this legislation. I would also like

to make the subcommittee aware of a counterpart to this legislation, S. 621, sponsored by another friend of the Czech community, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R–NE) and his

cosponsors Senators Richard Lugar (R–IN), Joseph Lieberman (D–CT) and Jeff

Bingaman (D–NM).

Mr. Chairman, as you are aware, in accordance with the Commemorative Works

Act, H.R. 1161 provides congressional authorization for the placement of a Memorial

to honor Tomas Garrigue Masaryk in Washington, D.C. However, at this time we

would like to address two issues contained in the legislation. Prior to this hearing,

representing the American Friends, I met with John Parsons and his staff at the

National Park Service to discuss the bill, reviewing Masaryk’s significance in

26

history, and outlining our desire to gain the support of the National Capital Memorial Commission during this undertaking. I would like to thank Mr. Parsons for his

willingness to work with us on this legislation and his helpful words and advice.

On April 26, the Commission unanimously voted to support the concept of a proposed memorial and we express our appreciation to the Commission for this important endorsement.

A potential site is described in the bill, a park located in front of the World Bank

on Pennsylvania Avenue. It was our suggestion that the site holds a strong connection to President Masaryk’s time spent in Washington, D.C. and his philosophy of

political change. This particular park sits only a short walk away from a site that

once housed the Powhantan Hotel, which served as Masaryk’s residence while in

Washington. We believe that having the World Bank as a backdrop to this tribute

would also be fitting as this organization seeks to support the growth of free and

democratic states, including the Czech Republic. We also understand that the decision on placement must be made by the Park Service in accordance with the Commemorative Works Act. We want to assure the Committee of our intention to work

with the Congress and the Park Service in selecting an appropriate site under the

Commemorative Works Act. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, if the Committee moves forward on consideration of this legislation, at that time we will work with you, Rep.

Gilman, and staff to present a new version of this legislation which does not contain

the site specifications.

Additionally, another aspect of HR 1161 which needs further clarification is our

intention that the statue be a gift from the Czech Republic to the United States.

As stated in the present legislation, the American Friends of the Czech Republic

would be authorized to establish this memorial. It has always been our intent to

have the statue presented as a gift of the Czech Republic to the United States and

we would remain financially responsible for its placement and maintenance. If authorized by Congress, the sculpture will be presented as a gift to the American

people by the Czech Republic.

Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to support these changes. I recently returned

from the Czech Republic, visiting the cities of Pilsen and Prague and received strong

support from the mayors of these cities for the memorial. We have also received

strong support from President Vaclav Havel and from communities throughout the

Czech Republic. Funding will be raised to pay for the sculpture so that the people

of the Czech Republic can take part in honoring their most revered leader. As this

process proceeds, Ambassador Vondra and his Embassy staff will work with us on

coordinating this aspect. In the United States, Czech and Slovak community organizations are raising funds for a permanent endowment to care for the sculpture and

to provide an educational fund to teach young Czech students the ideals of democracy and free enterprise that were so important to President Masaryk and his place

in American history. Having the Czech Republic present the sculpture will bestow

a worthy honor for our ally in world affairs. It is our hope that the unveiling of the

Masaryk sculpture will coincide with a state visit in the spring of 2002 by President

Vaclav Havel to the United States to meet with President Bush at which time a

joint unveiling of the sculpture can take place.

The Czech Republic together with the American Friends of the Czech Republic are

honored to present this sculpture to the people of the United States and the city

of Washington and to support the future upkeep and maintenance of the memorial

so that it does not become a burden to U.S. tax payers. As indicated, we also intend

to establish a living memorial with excess funds raised in support of the Masaryk

Memorial to educate Czech and American students in the principles for which Masaryk stood that form the bedrock foundation for the close ties between the United

States and the Czech Republic.

In conclusion Mr. Chairman, honoring Tomas Garrigue Masaryk with a memorial

in Washington, D.C. would provide a point of focus in the understanding of the role

that he played in the spread of freedom and democracy to other parts of the world.

More importantly, it will also serve as a reminder to visitors of our nation’s capital

that the foundation and principles that the Untied States is based upon transcend

language, time, and ethnicity. That the American ideals of freedom and democracy

ingrained in just one individual can impact millions throughout history.

I would like to thank you for providing this opportunity to appear today before

your subcommittee and speak in support of H.R. 1611 and I am prepared to answer

any questions you may have.

[Letters submitted for the record by His Excellency Vaclav Havel, President of the

Czech Republic, and His Excellency Alexandr Vondra, Ambassador, The Czech

Republic, follow:]

27

28

29

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Novak?

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL NOVAK, GEORGE FREDERICK

JEWETT CHAIR IN RELIGION AND PUBLIC POLICY, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mr. NOVAK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I was born in 1933 in Pennsylvania. My grandparents came from

little villages in Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now the Republic of Slovakia. Through professional work

as a scholar and writer, and also part-time Ambassador of the

United States to the Human Rights Commission and to the Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and also on the

Board of Radio for Europe Radio Liberty, the Board which argued

for successfully the moving of radios from Munich to Prague, I have

had a lot to do with the Eastern European countries, particularly

the Czech and Slovak Republics.

Since I was very young, having grown up near Pittsburgh, I have

always had in mind the image of Tomas Masaryk as a great symbol

of liberty in the American style. He was a bridge between our two

cultures. George Washington once suggested that one day all the

other nations of the world would repair to the American model and

Masaryk is one of the best evidences of that. The men whose

names were recited earlier, the set of heroes from Latin America

and India, whose statues grace Washington, were moved by the

American example. But from a very early age, so was Masaryk,

and he became a symbol of the fact that American ideas, the truths

that Thomas Jefferson wrote about, are not just American ideas.

They belong to all human beings by nature.

Masaryk spent his early years as a philosopher trying to sow the

roots of liberty and the ideas of limited government and consent of

the governed in Czech culture, in Czech language, in Czech heroes,

preparing the way, he thought, for the liberation of the Czech

peoples from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where they lived in a

certain second-rate status and sometimes in subjection. It later

came about that both the Czechs and the Slovaks, through their

contributions to the Allied effort in World War I, were joined together in one independent nation.

The Declaration of Independence of Czechoslovakia was formulated by Masaryk with help from others based on American precedents. He had, by this time, already married a young American

woman from Brooklyn (I suspect in Brooklyn her name might have

been pronounced Gar-ri-GUE, and maybe by those who knew, Garrigue, but anyway, even today it is pronounced several different

ways.) He maintained her name as his middle name professionally

and personally throughout his life.

Afterwards, Masaryk served three successive terms as President,

appointed first and then elected. He helped to formulate the new

Constitution, again on the American model. He produced almost a

book a year, even as President, in the last years of his life. He

charted a path for democracy through the extremes of ideological

turmoil in Europe raging about him at that time, both against the

left and against the right. He charted a humane, moderate, levelheaded course.

30

When I was a graduate student at Harvard, David Riesman,

then, I think, the most famous professor, certainly the most loved

by the students on campus, recommended to me that I must read

the works of Masaryk. It is the best guide to an understanding of

communism available in any language, he said. He added that Masaryk was a marvelous articulator of the American idea, in terms

that were not specifically American but drawn from other cultures.

Masaryk, better than other statesman, showed an ability to articulate difficult ideas, Mr. Riesman told me.

In any case, Masaryk remained a figure emphasizing the power

of the truth. That was one of his fundamental ideas. Politics is

based on the idea of truth. We don’t always see what the truth is,

but we certainly have the ability to point out falsehoods, and we

can find our way if we remain drawn by that compass. This idea

became extremely important for Vaclav Havel and for those who

led the Velvet Revolution some 50 years after Masaryk’s death, and

to this day Havel looks back to Masaryk as the one who laid the

foundation of the Czech and the Slovak idea of democracy, and its

dependence on the idea of truth—which is exactly where Jefferson

and Adams placed the American idea originally: ‘‘We hold these

truths...’’

This is not just an American idea, I want to repeat. It belongs

to the whole human race. And they saw that, and they became a

light, Masaryk and now Havel and others, a light looking eastward,

the spreading of this idea. And that is why we Americans only understand ourselves fully when we see the power of this idea spreading to others, and see the vindication of the claim that all men are

created equal. It is not just Americans, but all who are created for

liberty.

These ideas have resonance everywhere, and that is why I think

in the future Masaryk will be even more important than today and

will be a model for our youngsters to study.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Novak follows:]

Statement by Michael Novak, George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion

and Public Policy, American Enterprise Institute

Mr. Chairman,

My name is Michael Novak. My grandparents were immigrants from the Slovak

Republic, which until recently was one of the two states in the Federal Republic of

Czechoslovakia, whose first president was Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937). In

1981 and 1982, I served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations

Human Rights Commission in Geneva; in 1986 I served as U.S. Ambassador to the

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; and from 1983 to 1993 I served

as a member of the Board of International Broadcasting, one of those responsible

for moving the headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from Munich to

Prague. Through all these activities and through my writings, I have remained

quite close to the peoples of Eastern Europe. Each summer for the last ten years

I have been teaching a Summer Institute for students from that region and American students in Krakow, Poland, and this summer I will open the first week-long

Summer Institute on the free society in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Four years ago, the Slovak government awarded me the highest honor they can

give to a foreign citizen, and last year President Havel conferred upon me the

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Award, the highest award the Czech government can bestow on a foreign citizen. Since I was born in 1933, just four years before the death

of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, I can say that my whole life has been lived in the wake

of the love for liberty he helped to generate in the land from which my family hails.

31

Indeed, when I was at Harvard during the early 1960s, one of the most highly esteemed professors on campus, David Riesman, the sociologist, told me that I should

read deeply in the writings of Masaryk, who had written more wisely about Communism, he said, than any other man and whose writings on democracy were

among the most profound in any language. Professor Riesman told me that Masaryk

was a political leader with the keenest philosophical mind he had ever encountered

among political leaders.

There is one more accident of time and place that tied my imagination to the life

of Masaryk. When Mr. Masaryk came to the United States in the early spring of

1918, there was no such nation as Czechoslovakia. However, at that time there were

more Czechs living in Chicago than in any city in the Czech Republic except Prague,

and more Slovaks living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, than in any city in Slovakia.

But by the time Masaryk left for Europe in November of that year, he had drafted

the first joint Declaration of Independence of Czechoslovakia from the Austrian empire, presided over the writing of its initial Constitution, and become its first President. These achievements in America took place mainly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from my birthplace in Johnstown; and they were duly impressed upon

my memory from an early age. From his youth, Masaryk had been a champion of

American ideas of limited government under a democratic republic, with the protection of individual rights and the right of association, and of the pluralism and humanistic moral commitments of the West. With similar great spirits in Poland and

Hungary, he was a broadcaster of the ideas of liberty and human rights eastward,

to all the peoples of Eastern Europe. Among Western leaders, not only in France

and Britain, but especially in America, he was very highly esteemed, not least by

President Woodrow Wilson, who from a very early period pledged to support the

independence of Czechoslovakia.

While still in his twenties, Masaryk traveled for the first time in the United

States, and it was here that he married his wife, Charlotte Garrigue, from Brooklyn,

New York, in 1878. For the rest of his life, he carried her name as his own. From

early years, his scholarship and writings were widely recognized in the United

States, and he was invited many times to lecture in our major universities, and to

visit many of our institutions. Long before there was any physical image of him in

our public squares, he was a fixture in the American imagination and spirit of inquiry.

Masaryk was born in Moravia in 1850, and at the age of 14 was apprentice to

a blacksmith. In his twenties he studied at the University of Vienna, writing his

thesis in philosophy on the nature of the soul. He first met his American wife while

he was working as a private tutor in Leipzig, and journeyed to America to marry

her here the next year.

In 1887, Masaryk made his first journey to Russia for discussions with the great

novelist Leo Tolstoy, with whom he continued to meet over the next twenty years.

In 1891 he was elected to the Parliament in Vienna as a member of the Young

Czech Party. However, more and more, his mind turned to thinking and writing

about the nature and destiny of Czech culture, and its place in the history of liberty,

and so during the last five years of the nineteenth century, he published nearly a

book a year on the moral and religious foundations of the politics of his people.

In the year 1899, a famous trial of a Jewish man accused of murdering two Christian girls led to several anti–Semitic demonstrations, and prompted Masaryk into

public campaigns against racial prejudice and especially to fight against flagrant superstitions about Jews. On this and other occasions, he came several times to the

public defense of Jews in central Europe.

In 1900, Masaryk established what later became the Progressive Party in the

Czech lands. Just before World War I, he was again elected to Parliament for two

consecutive periods, but with the outbreak of World War I, fled to America. He was

condemned in absentia as a traitor for leaving in the teeth of the War. Masaryk’s

earlier writings on freedom, the consent of the governed, self-determination, and respect for rights made it unavoidable, however, for him to join the Allied powers in

the fight against Austro–Hungary and Germany.

In 1917 began one of Masaryk’s greatest adventures. He traveled extensively

through Russia, consolidating the scattered remnants of the Czechoslovak army in

the months after the Bolshevik Revolution, and leading it across nearly the whole

country on a legendary march. Masaryk had a chance to see what the imposition

of Bolshevik power meant in the outermost regions of the countryside. Frequently,

he observed, it meant that the more thuggish elements of society practiced violence

upon others. Even after Masaryk left for America in 1918, the Czechoslovak Legion

remained behind in Siberia, controlling the entire Siberian Railway until 1920.

Late in 1918, the revolutionary National Assembly in Prague elected Masaryk the

first President of the new Federal Republic of Czechoslovakia. In nearly the same

32

month, Masaryk’s new book, The New Europe, offered an outline of what a new free

and democratic Europe would look like.

In 1920, Masaryk was again elected President according to the new Constitution,

and then re-elected again in 1927 and 1934. He was obliged to resign from the Presidency for reasons of health in 1935, and died not quite two years later in 1937 in

central Bohemia. Even during his Presidency, he continued to publish books that

were widely read around the world including, in 1925, The Worldwide Revolution

(Svetova Revoluce).

It is hard to think of a figure in all of Europe who wrote so broadly of the vivid

ideological struggles of the twentieth century, and charted his way through them

with a clearer vision of liberty, limited government, and the democratic republic.

The depths of his thought and his resistance to extremes, combined with a warm

and universal sense of humanity, help today to explain the power and the beauty

of the ‘‘velvet revolution’’ of 1989, the career of President Vμclav Havel, and so many

other of the great and humanistic Czech and Slovak leaders of the last ten years.

The passion for truth that continued under Soviet domination, and the love of liberty, owes many of its intellectual roots to Masaryk.

Not only because of his marriage to an American woman, but even more because

of the marriage he made between the most humanistic of European traditions and

the American discoveries about limited government and democratic rights, Masaryk

is a figure likely to live in the 21st century, and even to become better known. Moreover, his light still extends eastward to the other Slav lands and the lands of Asia.

Meanwhile, the equilibrium he kept and the depth of his commitments offer a model

to Western Europe and even to our own fellow citizens. He refused to be blown too

far either to the left or to the right, steering his compass by what is true, just, and

most profound about the human soul—the subject of his philosophic thesis at the

University. Even before his death in 1935, he had warned Europe about the fate

that might befall it under the Nazis who came to power only in 1933. He read the

danger quickly and accurately, but was spared from living through it. He was 87

when he died.

The statue of such a man would fit very well with the other statues of this great

city, so many of which represent heroes and liberators from many nations. (It should

be added that a bronze statue of Masaryk had been created for a prominent place

in the city of Prague, but was removed under the occupation first of the Nazis and

then of the Communists, and was kept in this country for safe keeping down

through the decades, first in California, later in Iowa.) Not only would a statue of

Masaryk be at home here in the United States; the original one, intended for

Prague, has been here for almost fifty years.

President Washington observed that one day the nations of the world would repair to America as a model for what human nature promised their own citizens.

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk was one of the many, like Don Luigi Sturzo of Italy,

Konrad Adenauer of Germany, Jean Monnet of France, and many others who implanted the ideas of this nation in the hearts of other nations. By the power of his

own philosophical mind, Masaryk deepened some of the ideas he learned from this

nation. Americans have much to learn from him. This is a man our children should

be encouraged to study.

What happened in his country in 1989, as the Berlin Wall came down, was one

of the great, dramatic events of all history. 1989 is a date school children will have

to memorize in the future. One of the great forerunners of that event, whose history

they should know of, is Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, and this statue in downtown

Washington will issue that invitation to many young minds for generations to come.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael Novak

George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy,

Author of Taking Glastnost Seriously (1988) and The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1991)

Mr. HEFLEY. I think we will go ahead and have questions of this

panel, and then, Mr. Trujillo, we will get to you.

It is clear to me that if we could have one person to be honored

in Washington, D.C., from the Czech Republic, that this would be

the person that you would want honored.

Mr. CERNY. I would think so. Some people might say Havel runs

a second, but I think Masaryk generally is so respected that he

would be the number one person.

33

Mr. HEFLEY. You have some historic reason for this particular

spot that is in the bill for the memorial, but you don’t particularly

care exactly where it is. Is that true?

Mr. CERNY. Well, we believe that under the legislation, it is really not our final decision to make. We respect the Act and we would

like very much to work with the committees that will have to make

that decision. We only suggested this site because we thought it

might be an appropriate site because of its historic significance.

Mr. HEFLEY. In front of me here I have a picture of the proposed

memorial.

Mr. CERNY. Yes.

Mr. HEFLEY. Who approved that sculpture?

Mr. CERNY. This sculpture is still being discussed and considered. It is not final, because we don’t know exactly where it will

be placed and what needs to be done. So we have had some initial

discussions with different sculptors, different types of models, and

it ultimately will be a decision beyond us. We can only come forward with suggestions.

Mr. HEFLEY. Is that going to be a competitive thing among sculptors with several people giving you a model, and you choose, or— Mr. CERNY. The way we have set it up at this point is that we

have talked to some of the leading sculptors in the Czech Republic

about what would be appropriate, what type of models have come

about with regard to Masaryk that have been displayed not only

there, but all over the world, and we have this one example. There

are other statues of Masaryk, different periods of statuary art, and

I think that we will consider a number of these before a final decision is made.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you.

Mrs. Christensen?

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I don’t have any questions, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Tancredo? Mr. Tancredo, a Czech name from

northern—. Mr. TANCREDO. Not the last time I checked. Sorry about that.

You asked for it.

Good question, Mr. Chairman, except just a comment to Mr.

Novak there. It must take—and it certainly has come to me in this

discussion—it has come to my thinking that your contributions to

the advancement of the power of ideas and the ideas that you are

so beautifully articulated not just here today, of course, but over

the many times I have heard you speak and had the opportunity

to have you come into Colorado at the Independence Institute,

those ideas and your ability and your persuasive ability, I think,

stand you in good line for the possibility of eventually having another memorial somewhere. I don’t know where, I don’t know in

what fashion, but I should tell you, Mr. Novak, that you are to be

commended, and I just want to express to you my sincere appreciation for your being here today, but also for the many wonderful

things that you have done for this country and for the advancement of human freedom throughout the world.

Mr. NOVAK. Thank you very much.

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Udall?

Mr. UDALL OF NEW MEXICO. No questions, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Ms. McCollum?

34

Ms. MCCOLLUM. No thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you very much.

Mr. Trujillo.

STATEMENT OF ARVIN TRUJILLO, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF

NATURAL RESOURCES, NAVAJO NATION, WINDOW ROCK,

ARIZONA

Mr. TRUJILLO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee. Again, my name is Arvin Trujillo, and I am the Executive Director for the Division of Natural Resources for the Navajo

Nation. Again, I would like to thank the Subcommittee.

I would like to thank Congressman Udall for the amendment

that is—or the proposal that is before you now, H.R. 1384, the

Navajo Long Walk National Historic Trails Act. Again, as was

noted by Congressman Udall, the Navajo people during our history

were forced from the area that we call the area of the four sacred

mountains, and during this march down to the southern portion of

New Mexico, the Navajo people that went and experienced this experienced a tremendous amount of hardship, experienced a tremendous amount of despair as they made that walk, as they moved

away from what they considered to be an area that their Creator

designated for them, and what was told in their stories and what

was reiterated to their young people who became my grandparents

and my ancestors.

What I would like to come to you this morning and ask is that

you support this effort. This event was a significant event in the

history of the Navajo people. This event itself, though we suffered

despair, though we suffered hardship, was one of those events that

begin to mold and develop us as Navajo people. It began to shape

our fortitude. It began to shape our belief in persevering, knowing

that 1 day we would again return.

The Navajo people have a rich and a proud history. These accounts that have been presented to you in a study that was done

are accounts that in some cases were very difficult for our older

people to talk about.

Mr. TRUJILLO. Because, again, these were times that people had

to experience a tremendous amount of hardship. But it is something again that helped molded us, helped develop us into who we

are today. And it is a way that we as young people, a way that

even my generations can begin to appreciate who we are as Navajo

people. In essence, this trailing shouldn’t totally be viewed as a

walk of death and despair, but it should be a test amount of a

people’s will to survive and persevere, and again, to grow into a

great Nation.

So I would urge the Committee and Mr. Chairman that first of

all, until the initial research completed by Dr. Ackerly, there are

four primary cites noted. I would urge the Committee that Congress defer to the Navajo Nation the ability to determine which

route should be designated as the historical trail. And this, in

working with the National Park Service, we would also like to ask

that, again, we stress that the National Park Service should consult with the Navajo Nation as we move forward in the development of this historic trail. And that any interpretive material, such

as brochure trail markers, scenic off ramps, again, that they conVerDate 11-MAY-2000 15:50 May 01, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 72230.TXT HRESOUR1 PsN: HRESOUR1
35

sult with us and that we develop a picture of our history that not

only the Navajo people, but the U.S. government can be proud of.

And I would also urge that the—or the Navajo Nation urges Congress to add appropriations authorization language to the bill so

that the Navajo Nation and the National Park Service be able to

conduct necessary research, consultation, as well as address issues

concerning maintenance for such a trail.

Again, in conclusion, this has been a time and a period that

many of our people have difficulty still relating to. But again, it is

a test of Navajo fortitude that remains in the shadows of American

history and we do not want that to be forgotten. It ensures who we

are and as we talk about this place, Hwe ́e ́ldi, as we call it in

Navajo, it is important to our people. And it serves as a reminder

of the importance of cultural preservation and perseverance. And

again, we support this effort, and we respectfully request your positive approval in this, in ratifying this amendment and in helping

the Navajo people continue with our long and historic history with

the U.S.

[The prepared statement of Arvin Trujillo follows:]

Statement of Arvin Trujillo, Director, Division of Natural Resources,

Navajo Nation, Window Rock, Arizona

There is really a lot to this story, but I’ll tell you just a portion of it. The Journey

to Fort Sumner began because a terrible war. That was what my grandmother told

my mother, and she passed the story on to me. My mother was probably a young

child at that time of the Long Walk. There is a place called Dleesh Bii To (White

Clay Spring), a little way southeast of here. From there on up this way there used

to be farms. One day as some of the Dine were roasting corn from a pit, all of a

sudden a loud noise was heard from the director of a place called Atch inaa ahi

(Points Come Together). The noise resembled thunder crashing. Our people were always on the alert, as it was a fearful time. Other people sleeping on the hill also

heard the noise. Then someone yelled from the top of a hill, as men did in those

days. As the man was yelling, horses hoofs were heard. The Utes were approaching

fast. They attacked the people who had been sleeping and killed a lot of them. Some

Dine fled up the hill where, on the very top, stood a man named Ats aali (Branch

of the Wash) who saw the shooting and killing taking place down below. He saw

a lot of our people killed....

Yesbah Silversmith who at age 90 still herds sheep near her home in Lukachukai,

AZ. Her story of escape was handed down by a grandmother.

INTRODUCTION

The Navajo Nation and its people have a rich and proud history. Our history recounts the journeys of our ancestors through several underworlds, into the present.

The Navajo are known as the Ni’hookaa’ diyin dine’e bila’ a ́ shdla ́’ii— ‘‘Five Finger

Earth Surface Holy People,’’ the name given to the Navajos by the Holy People at

the time of their emergence into this world. From time immemorial the lands between the four cardinal mountains of Sisnaajin—Blanca Peak, Alamosa, Colorado;

Tsoodzi —Mount Taylor, Grants, New Mexico; Dok’o’oosliid—San Francisco Peaks,

Flagstaff, Arizona; and Dibe ́ Ntsaa—Hesperus Mountains, Durango, Colorado, have

been the sacred homeland of the Navajo. It is in this world, Ni’hodis’s—the Glittering World - that a fairly recent historical event challenged the Navajo people’s

very existence within the boundaries of the sacred mountains of Navajoland.

The Spanish and later Mexican governments, forced themselves into the aboriginal lands of the native populations of the Southwest. By the mid–1800s, the Navajo

people, after approximately three centuries of unwelcome encroachment by Europeans and later Americans, were reacting to a situation that was tearing away their

culture and land base. This era is bitterly remembered as a dark page in Navajo

history, when the United States set out to obliterate Navajo culture, at a place

known as Hwe ́e ́ldi—Bosque Redondo, or Fort Sumner, NM.

36

THE LONG WALK

In the mid–1800s, well after the Civil War, enslavement and slave trade of Navajo

women and children was still actively practiced in the Southwest. The slave raids

lead by Mexican and American settlers of recipical raids retaliation by Navajos

against the communities that surrounded the Navajo lands.

From 1849 through 1860 several failed peace negotiations with the United States

Government lead to a military campaign to subdue the Navajos. The Army would

not tolerate any humane treatment of Navajo people who would not surrender. The

United States realized that the Navajos in their own land could not be subjugated,

and viewed removal as the only alternative.

Beginning early in 1860, the Military posts in Navajo land under the leadership

of Brigadier General James H. Carleton, set the stage for the campaign against the

Navajo people. Colonel Christopher Carson, known as ‘‘Kit Carson,’’ commanded the

Army troops that ravished through Navajo country ‘‘rounding up’’ the Navajos to be

removed to a foreign land. Almost every Navajo family today has family history describing the terrifying destruction and annihilation of the determined Army campaign against the Navajos.

Hwe ́e ́ldi, more than 350 miles from Navajo land was the desolate site chosen to

confine the Navajo people and force them to live according to the foreign laws of

the United States Government. Thousands of Navajos walked the entire distance to

Fort Sumner under the watchful eyes of the U.S. Military. Thousands of Navajos

endured the trek with severe starvation, hunger and attacks from other tribes to

vile flat land and appalling living conditions which was devastatingly traumatic to

the Navajo people.

The Navajos were held as ‘‘prisoners of war’’ for four years at Fort Sumner. Poor

planning, drought conditions, severe winters, and continued slave raids took their

toll on the already suffering captive Navajos. Finally, in the spring of 1868, the

worn leaders begged to return to the land within the Sacred Mountains. The drive

to return to their homeland kept the people alive, despite the vast distance to where

the Navajos were removed. On June 1, 1868, a treaty was drawn up that ended this

nightmare and allowed the Navajos to walk 350 miles back home.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• The Navajo Nation urges Congress to defer to the Navajo Nation in determining

which route will be designated. There were four primary routes that were used

United States Military during the Navajo removal.

• The Navajo Nation also recommends that Congress mandate that the National

Park Service consult with the Navajo Nation in the interpretative material such

as brochures, trail markers, scenic off-ramps and the like.

• The Navajo Nation urges Congress to add appropriations authorization language

to the bill so that the Navajo Nation and the National Park Service are able

to conduct the necessary research, consultation, and maintenance of the Long

Walk Trail.

CONCLUSION

The horrible accounts of this period in Navajo history are not openly discussed

or willingly shared by Navajo people. This test of Navajo fortitude remains in the

shadows of American history left to be forgotten. The proposed H.R. Bill 1384 ‘‘To

amend the National Trails System Act to designate the Navajo Long Walk to Bosque

Redondo as a national historic trail,’’ will insure that this page of Navajo and American history will be remembered and the Navajos who endured the Long Walk and

incarceration at Hwe ́e ́ldi are properly honored.

The Navajo people have a culture unique to the United States Southwest. It has

sustained the Navajos for countless generations. The symbolism imbued in the landscape has created unbreakable ties between the land and the people. It is the devotion to the sacred land and the enduring culture that has fostered a viable sovereign

nation that continues to survive and prosper. The strength of Navajo culture and

its ties to the land have been challenged throughout time and continue to be challenged.

It is the strong culture and sacred landscape that the Navajos cherish, and these

fundamental values will keep the Navajo Nation and its people living between the

four cardinal mountains in their sacred homeland. The Long Walk serves to remind

society of the importance of cultural perseverance, and as a national historic trail;

Navajo history will never be forgotten. Hence, the Navajo Nation and its people support H.R. Bill 1384 ‘‘To amend the National Trails System Act to designate the

Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo as a national historic trail,’’ and respectfully

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request immediate legislative action to ratify this important page in American history.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you. I am going to defer, first of all, to Mr.

Udall, if you would comment.

Mr. UDALL OF NEW MEXICO. Thank you very much, Chairman

Hefley. First of all let me welcome from traveling here and he is

also accompanied by Shawn D. Pensoneau and Darryl Begay, who

are with the Navajo Nation, Washington office. I believe the Navajo

Nation is one of the few tribes which maintains a very effective

Washington office, and both of those gentleman are also with us

here today. Let me also say about Mr. Trujillo, by way of introduction and comment, that the Navajo Nation is the Nation’s largest

tribe. And as such, it has developed a very sophisticated governmental structure. And if you, for example, look at their supreme

court and the rulings out of their supreme court and their justice

system, it is a real marvel of a court system adapted to the Navajo

ways.

And so they have done that in the judicial area, and Mr. Trujillo

has done that in the natural resources area. The Navajo Nation

has developed a very sophisticated division of natural resources,

Mr. Trujillo has been a leader on the natural resources issue, and

we are very fortunate to have him here today. Mr. Trujillo, let me

first of all, by way of consultation, the term that you have used

that you want to consult with the Park Service on this issue, say

that where there is more than one route frequently, what is done

in the designation of these trails is in, and that is what will be

done in this feasibility study, is work closely with you and the different routes can be designated. You don’t necessarily have to pick

one over the other.

Many times several routes where they diverge are allowed to be

recognized. So I am going to, as you have suggested, urge the Park

Service when we end up getting this done and in place, to consult

with you on a very intensive basis to make sure that is done. At

the beginning—and then let me just make a comment too, you did

not have the opportunity to read all of your testimony, but at the

beginning of your testimony is the story of a 90-year-old Navajo

woman who lives in Lukachukai, Arizona.

Her name is Yesbah Silversmith and she has a tale that she has

passed down, which was passed down through the generations

about the Long Walk and that experience. And maybe you could

talk just amongst bit about that oral tradition. Is it something that

probably most Navajo’s today, although they are 150 years away

from this incident, have heard from their grandparents and parents

about what the experience was and maybe you could share some

of that with us.

Mr. TRUJILLO. Thank you, Congressman. Yes, we have a very

strong oral tradition. I have been a part of that as I grew up. The

way the Navajo begin to relate their stories is they have a tradition, especially during the winter months, you know, we see the

four seasons in the Colorado plato area. Within the winter months,

we go in and we can develop fires in our hogans or wherever we

are living. We have different games that help entertain us in the

evening. But then the elders or the older people will come in and

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then tell stories, and those stories will relate not only to what has

happened historically to the people, but also they are stories about

character; they are stories that help develop the young people.

But in terms of the Long Walk, there are many families and we

have different clan systems, and there are clans, and each clan is

a family unit unto itself. And each of them relate their stories differently. But all of them come back to central themes as to what

happened during that period, what happened not only during the

walk, but during the incarceration down in Fort Sumner.

And most importantly are the stories when they came back,

when they saw the mountains. The song that they sang coming

back, those are just as important as the despair they felt when

they were leaving the sacred areas.

So yes, the oral tradition is very strong. And there is also a packet in there that talks about the research that was done by Dr.

Ackerly. He relates different aspects, some of those stories, by different people that were given.

Mr. UDALL OF NEW MEXICO. Mr. Trujillo. Thank you very much

for your testimony today and Mr. Chairman, I would also like to

recognize my original co-sponsor on this legislation, Chris Cannon

from southern Utah. Representative Cannon has a portion of the

Navajo Nation in his district. As we all know, the Navajo Nation

is in Arizona, New Mexico and a part of southern Utah, and so

Chris Cannon, who is unable to be with us here today but is a supporter of this legislation, and I know will be helping us out with

this.

So with that, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you. Mr. Trujillo, we are talking here in this

bill about designating the trail. But also the Park Service talked

about wanting to talk with the Navajo Nation regarding what is

the best way to commemorate this experience. They have no objection to commemorating the experience. Are you convinced that the

trail designation is the best way, or would some kind of a memorial

be the best way, or in the study if we do a study of this, would you

be open to considering, or would you encourage considering a variety of ways of commemorating this, or are you absolutely convinced

that a trail designation is the best way.

Mr. TRUJILLO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, what I am

looking basically is we would go through the feasibility study with

the Park Service and receive what would be the best way. But from

what I have looked at and what we are trying to develop, along

with the memorial and the visitors center, and what we are trying

to do down in the Fort Sumner area, we are also focused on the

trail itself, because it is something that the people can begin to see

and begin to visualize where our ancestors actually walked, where

they traveled, what they had to experience as they had to make

this trek, not only down to the Fort Sumner area, but back home

again.

So again, that is why we feel it important that we have a series

of markers that would designate those areas that our people had

to travel through during this period in our history.

Mr. HEFLEY. Okay. Thank you.

Mrs. Christensen.

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Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I don’t have any questions. I am very interested in working with your representative in making sure that this

is developed in the way we would like to see it developed.

Mr. TRUJILLO. Thank you.

Mr. HEFLEY. Ms. McCollum.

Ms. MCCOLLUM. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also would like

very much to see the study take place and to preserve this part of

our total American history. And the best form of history even

though this has a bias, is the primary source. And the Navajo

people’s primary source was the tradition of song. So I feel very

comfortable in using them as a source in the Park Service and the

other studies that have been done to use that for documentation

and I thank you for coming.

Mr. TRUJILLO. Thank you.

Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Udall, I appreciate you bringing this to our attention. I have done quite a considerable study on the Indians of

the southwest, particularly the Apache tribes and somewhat the

Navajo, and yet I was not real familiar with this particular march.

I appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Fort Sumner to me

was the Lincoln County war and Billy the Kid, and so I think if

I am ignorant about a very significant piece of our Nation’s history,

and the Navajo nation’s history, then maybe others are too.

And so we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. And if

it is successful and is designated, then it would bring it to the attention of the American people who are fascinated by the place you

live anyway. And this would be in addition to that. Thank you Mr.

Trujillo. We appreciate you coming all the way from Arizona to be

with us on this.

Mr. TRUJILLO. Thank you. And, Mr. Chairman, if you would like,

we could also provide you with some oral history some oral stories

that we do have available concerning the Long Walk and other

studies that the Navajo have done, too, for your collection and for

your pleasure.

Mr. HEFLEY. We would appreciate that. You know, this is not a

pretty part of our Nation’s history in many respects. The American

government did some things they should not do. The Indian

nations did some things they should not have done. There were

atrocities committed on both sides. It is not something that a lot

of us are real proud of, but it is something that we should remember. So this might be a way to commemorate at least one portion

of it.

Thank you very much.

Mr. TRUJILLO. Thank you.

Mr. HEFLEY. Thank you, Mr. Udall. If there are no other questions or discussion, the Committee stands adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 11:14 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

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