[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 99 (Monday, July 6, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S7138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-52. A resolution adopted by the Legislature of the 
     State of Minnesota urging Congress to repeal the federal 
     legislation of 1863 ordering the removal of Dakota people 
     from Minnesota; to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

                               Resolution

       Whereas, in the aftermath of the events of 1862--the delay 
     of United States treaty payments to the Dakota, the refusal 
     of white traders to sell to them, the resulting starvation on 
     the reservation, and the ensuing Dakota Conflict--white 
     sentiment against Indian people was at its height, and many 
     were pressing for the execution of 303 Dakota and mixed-blood 
     men; and
       Whereas, fearing that there would be further violence if he 
     did not act, and to appease public feeling, Abraham Lincoln 
     cooperated with the efforts of Congress to remove Indian 
     people unilaterally, without even the semblance of agreement 
     by treaty, by signing ``An Act for the Removal of the 
     Sisseton, Wahpaton, Medawakanton, and Wahpakoota Bands of 
     Sioux or Dakota Indians, and for the Disposition of their 
     Lands in Minnesota and Dakota,'' an action which ultimately 
     ignited the Plains Indian Wars and brought 30 more years of 
     conflict; and
       Whereas, the act remains in federal law to this day, 
     despite the fact that its terms are obsolete and its presence 
     is a continuing offense; Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota, That 
     it urges the Congress of the United States to repeal United 
     States Statutes at Large, volume 12, page 819, chapter 119, 
     and pages 803-804, chapter 103; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of State of the State of 
     Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this memorial and 
     transmit them to the President of the United States, the 
     President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the 
     Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of 
     Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives 
     in Congress.

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