Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 112 Part 2.djvu/695

 PUBLIC LAW 105-243—OCT. 6, 1998 112 STAT. 1579 Public Law 105-243 105th Congress An Act To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study the suitability and feasibihty 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 thsui 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' site described in section 2. Oct. 6, 1998 [S. 1695) Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Study Act of 1998. John M. Chivington. Black Kettle. Cheyenne Tribe. Arapaho Tribe. means the Sand Creek Massacre

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