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[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1695 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.1695

                       One Hundred Fifth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America

                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-
                                  eight

                                 An Act

 
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and 
  feasibility of designating the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic 
Site in the State of Colorado as a unit of the National Park System, and 
                           for other purposes.

    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 ``Sand Creek Massacre National 
Historic Site Study Act of 1998''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
        (1) on November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington led a 
    group of 700 armed soldiers to a peaceful Cheyenne village of more 
    than 100 lodges on the Big Sandy, also known as Sand Creek, located 
    within the Territory of Colorado, and in a running fight that 
    ranged several miles upstream along the Big Sandy, slaughtered 
    several hundred Indians in Chief Black Kettle's village, the 
    majority of whom were women and children;
        (2) the incident was quickly recognized as a national disgrace 
    and investigated and condemned by 2 congressional committees and a 
    military commission;
        (3) although the United States admitted guilt and reparations 
    were provided for in article VI of the Treaty of Little Arkansas of 
    October 14, 1865 (14 Stat. 703) between the United States and the 
    Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Indians, those treaty obligations 
    remain unfulfilled;
        (4) land at or near the site of the Sand Creek Massacre may be 
    available for purchase from a willing seller; and
        (5) the site is of great significance to the Cheyenne and 
    Arapaho Indian descendants of those who lost their lives at the 
    incident at Sand Creek and to their tribes, and those descendants 
    and tribes deserve the right of open access to visit the site and 
    rights of cultural and historical observance at the site.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
        (1) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of 
    the Interior acting through the Director of the National Park 
    Service.
        (2) Site.--The term ``site'' means the Sand Creek Massacre site 
    described in section 2.
        (3) Tribes.--The term ``Tribes'' means--
            (A) the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe of Oklahoma;
            (B) the Northern Cheyenne Tribe; and
            (C) the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

SEC. 4. STUDY.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 18 months after the date on which 
funds are made available for the purpose, the Secretary, in 
consultation with the Tribes and the State of Colorado, shall submit to 
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the 
Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives a resource study 
of the site.
    (b) Contents.--The study under subsection (a) shall--
        (1) identify the location and extent of the massacre area and 
    the suitability and feasibility of designating the site as a unit 
    of the National Park System; and
        (2) include cost estimates for any necessary acquisition, 
    development, operation and maintenance, and identification of 
    alternatives for the management, administration, and protection of 
    the area.

SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary 
to carry out this Act.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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