Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 117.djvu/1290

 PUBLIC LAW 108–108—NOV. 10, 2003

117 STAT. 1271

for the use and distribution of the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s Judgment Funds from Docket 92–403L, the Pueblo of Isleta’s Judgment Funds from Docket 98–166L, and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation’s Judgment Funds in Docket No. 773–87–L of the United States Court of Federal Claims; each plan shall become effective upon the expiration of a 60-day period beginning on the day each plan is submitted to the Congress. SEC. 138. (a) SHORT TITLE.—This section may be cited as the ‘‘Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Land Exchange Act of 2003’’. (b) FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.— (1) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: (A) Since time immemorial, the ancestors of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have lived in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The Eastern Band’s ancestral homeland includes substantial parts of seven eastern States and the land that now constitutes the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (B) The Eastern Band has proposed a land exchange with the National Park Service and has spent over $1,500,000 for studies to thoroughly inventory the environmental and cultural resources of the proposed land exchange parcels. (C) Such land exchange would benefit the American public by enabling the National Park Service to acquire the Yellow Face tract, comprising 218 acres of land adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway. (D) Acquisition of the Yellow Face tract for protection by the National Park Service would serve the public interest by preserving important views for Blue Ridge Parkway visitors, preserving habitat for endangered species and threatened species including the northern flying squirrel and the rock gnome lichen, preserving valuable high altitude wetland seeps, and preserving the property from rapidly advancing residential development. (E) The proposed land exchange would also benefit the Eastern Band by allowing it to acquire the Ravensford tract, comprising 143 acres adjacent to the Tribe’s trust territory in Cherokee, North Carolina, and currently within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway. The Ravensford tract is part of the Tribe’s ancestral homeland as evidenced by archaeological finds dating back no less than 6,000 years. (F) The Eastern Band has a critical need to replace the current Cherokee Elementary School, which was built by the Department of the Interior over 40 years ago with a capacity of 480 students. The school now hosts 794 students in dilapidated buildings and mobile classrooms at a dangerous highway intersection in downtown Cherokee, North Carolina. (G) The Eastern Band ultimately intends to build a new three-school campus to serve as an environmental, cultural, and educational ‘‘village,’’ where Cherokee language and culture can be taught alongside the standard curriculum.

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Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Land Exchange Act of 2003. 16 USC 460a–5 note.

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