[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18787-18788]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       RIGHTFUL PLACE OF HONOR OF THE FIRST AMERICANS IS REALIZED

  (Mr. HAYWORTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, in the nearly 10 years that I have been 
honored to serve in the House, I have welcomed many constituents from 
Arizona

[[Page 18788]]

to our Nation's capital, but one visit stands out in particular. It was 
in my first term. The gentleman visiting me was a Vietnam veteran. He 
was a White Mountain Apache, and he came to my office late in the day 
and he said, Congressman, I have seen all the monuments, I have seen so 
many statues, but where is the Indian?
  It was not a rhetorical question; but now, for that constituent, and 
Mr. Speaker, for all Americans, the rightful place of honor of the 
first Americans is realized. As my colleague from Michigan mentioned 
earlier, today we celebrate on our National Mall the opening of the 
National Museum of the American Indian.
  Mr. Speaker, I was honored when I first came to this House that 
nearly one out of every four of my constituents was Native American, 
and I think the challenge we can confront is that, though we may divide 
between political parties, there are really only two types of people 
who serve in the Congress of the United States, those who represent 
what we now call Indian Country and those who represent what was once 
Indian Country.

                          ____________________