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[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 366 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.366

                       One Hundred Sixth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America

                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

           Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
             the twenty-fourth day of January, two thousand

                                 An Act

 
 To amend the National Trails System Act to designate El Camino Real de 
              Tierra Adentro as a National Historic Trail.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro 
National Historic Trail Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
        (1) El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road of the 
    Interior), served as the primary route between the colonial Spanish 
    capital of Mexico City and the Spanish provincial capitals at San 
    Juan de Los Caballeros (1598-1600), San Gabriel (1600-1609) and 
    then Santa Fe (1610-1821).
        (2) The portion of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro that 
    resided in what is now the United States extended between El Paso, 
    Texas and present San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, a distance of 404 
    miles;
        (3) El Camino Real is a symbol of the cultural interaction 
    between nations and ethnic groups and of the commercial exchange 
    that made possible the development and growth of the borderland;
        (4) American Indian groups, especially the Pueblo Indians of 
    the Rio Grande, developed trails for trade long before Europeans 
    arrived;
        (5) In 1598, Juan de Onate led a Spanish military expedition 
    along those trails to establish the northern portion of El Camino 
    Real;
        (6) During the Mexican National Period and part of the United 
    States Territorial Period, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro 
    facilitated the emigration of people to New Mexico and other areas 
    that would become the United States;
        (7) The exploration, conquest, colonization, settlement, 
    religious conversion, and military occupation of a large area of 
    the borderlands was made possible by this route, whose historical 
    period extended from 1598 to 1882;
        (8) American Indians, European emigrants, miners, ranchers, 
    soldiers, and missionaries used El Camino Real during the historic 
    development of the borderlands. These travelers promoted cultural 
    interaction among Spaniards, other Europeans, American Indians, 
    Mexicans, and Americans;
        (9) El Camino Real fostered the spread of Catholicism, mining, 
    an extensive network of commerce, and ethnic and cultural 
    traditions including music, folklore, medicine, foods, 
    architecture, language, place names, irrigation systems, and 
    Spanish law.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION.

    Section 5(a) of the National Trails System Act (16 U.S.C. 1244(a)) 
is amended--
        (1) by designating the paragraphs relating to the California 
    National Historic Trail, the Pony Express National Historic Trail, 
    and the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail as paragraphs 
    (18), (19), and (20), respectively; and
        (2) by adding at the end the following:
        ``(21) El camino real de tierra adentro.--
            ``(A) El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road of 
        the Interior) National Historic Trail, a 404 mile long trail 
        from the Rio Grande near El Paso, Texas to San Juan Pueblo, New 
        Mexico, as generally depicted on the maps entitled `United 
        States Route: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro', contained in 
        the report prepared pursuant to subsection (b) entitled 
        `National Historic Trail Feasibility Study and Environmental 
        Assessment: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, Texas-New 
        Mexico', dated March 1997.
            ``(B) Map.--A map generally depicting the trail shall be on 
        file and available for public inspection in the Office of the 
        National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
            ``(C) Administration.--The Trail shall be administered by 
        the Secretary of the Interior.
            ``(D) Land acquisition.--No lands or interests therein 
        outside the exterior boundaries of any federally administered 
        area may be acquired by the Federal Government for El Camino 
        Real de Tierra Adentro except with the consent of the owner 
        thereof.
            ``(E) Volunteer groups; consultation.--The Secretary of the 
        Interior shall--
                ``(i) encourage volunteer trail groups to participate 
            in the development and maintenance of the trail; and
                ``(ii) consult with other affected Federal, State, 
            local governmental, and tribal agencies in the 
            administration of the trail.
            ``(F) Coordination of activities.--The Secretary of the 
        Interior may coordinate with United States and Mexican public 
        and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and, 
        in consultation with the Secretary of State, the government of 
        Mexico and its political subdivisions, for the purpose of 
        exchanging trail information and research, fostering trail 
        preservation and educational programs, providing technical 
        assistance, and working to establish an international historic 
        trail with complementary preservation and education programs in 
        each nation.''.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.
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