109 HRES 294 IH: Supporting the goals of U.S. House of Representatives 2005-05-24 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 109th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 294 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 24, 2005 Mr. Boustany submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform RESOLUTION Supporting the goals of A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval, and for other purposes.

Whereas on March 3, 1699, France established the French colony of Louisiana, and this event was commemorated in 1999 as FrancoFête 99 and the Congrès Mondial Acadien-Louisiane 1999; Whereas on December 9, 2003, a royal proclamation was signed in Canada in which Queen Elizabeth II acknowledged for the first time the wrongs committed in the name of the English Crown during the Acadian deportation of 1755; Whereas this royal proclamation sets July 28th of every year, beginning in 2005, as A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval; Whereas the 10,000 men, women, and children exiled from Nova Scotia two and a half centuries ago are the ancestors of many of south Louisiana’s French-Acadian or Cajun people; Whereas in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory from France, and the French Napoleonic Civil Code was adopted as the basis of Louisiana’s civil law system which continues to the present; Whereas in 1968, the Louisiana Legislature created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) and mandated that the agency promote French for economic, educational, and touristic purposes; Whereas since its creation, CODOFIL has recruited teachers from the international community to come to Louisiana to teach French in Louisiana schools; Whereas there are 30 French immersion schools in Louisiana, and Louisiana leads the Nation in bilingual education; Whereas Louisiana is officially bilingual pursuant to section 51 of title 1, Louisiana Revised Statutes, which states Any act or contract made or executed in the French language is as legal and binding upon the parties as if it had been made or executed in the English language; Whereas in 2004, the Louisiana Legislature declared Acadian Heritage Week to be the third week in September and urged schools in Louisiana to teach children about their Acadian history, culture, and heritage; and Whereas in 2005, the world will memorialize the 250th anniversary of the Acadian deportation and observe a day of remembrance of the suffering of the Acadian people as a result of their deportation by the British Crown (as memorialized in Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Proclamation dated December 9, 2003): Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)supports the goals of Acadian Heritage Week; and (2)supports the goals of A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval, as established by Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Proclamation, signed on December 9, 2003, in which the sufferings of the Acadian people were acknowledged.