[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18787]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         OPENING OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, today is a very special day for our country 
because we celebrate the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum 
of the American Indian.
  I urge all Americans to visit the museum because it will take you 
through a personal journey to the different experiences of native 
peoples of the Americas by exposing you to their histories, their art, 
and their cultures.
  Included in its vast collection, the museum shares the stories of the 
12 tribes in my own State of Michigan whose historical roots lie with 
the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Nations.
  As a child, I learned of the injustices perpetrated against the 
Indian people of Michigan; and when I was first elected to public 
office in 1964, I vowed to work for the human dignity of the Native 
American people.
  That is why I, along with so many of my colleagues, fight so hard 
today to protect the sovereign rights of our country's first Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I can think of no better physical interactive monument 
that pays tribute to the past, present, and future of the American 
Indian than the National Museum of the American Indian.

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