[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7347-7350]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2100]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001 / 
Presidential Documents  

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[[Page 7347]]


                Proclamation 7395 of January 17, 2001

                
 Establishment of the Minidoka Internment 
                National Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The Minidoka Internment National Monument is a unique 
                and irreplaceable historical resource which protects 
                historic structures and objects that provide 
                opportunities for public education and interpretation 
                of an important chapter in American history--the 
                internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

                On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt 
                signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary 
                of War and military commanders to designate military 
                areas from which ``any or all persons may be excluded'' 
                and to ``provide for residents of any such area who are 
                excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, 
                and other accommodations as may be necessary.''

                Starting in early 1942, military authorities began 
                designating military exclusion areas in the States of 
                California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona, and the 
                territory of Alaska. Following the signing of Executive 
                Order 9066, American citizens and resident aliens of 
                Japanese ancestry living in the designated exclusion 
                areas were ordered to evacuate their homes and 
                businesses and report to temporary assembly centers 
                located at fairgrounds, horse racetracks, and other 
                make-shift facilities.

                To provide more permanent accommodations for the 
                evacuees, President Roosevelt established the War 
                Relocation Authority (WRA) in March 1942. The WRA 
                oversaw the construction of ten relocation centers on 
                Federally owned lands in remote areas of six western 
                States and Arkansas, including the Minidoka Relocation 
                Center in Idaho. Alaskan Native residents of the 
                Aleutian and Pribiloff Islands and members of other 
                ethnic and religious groups were also relocated or 
                interned during the course of the war.

                Established in August 1942, the Minidoka Relocation 
                Center, also known as the Hunt Site, was located on 
                Federal lands in Jerome County, in south central Idaho. 
                During its operation from August 1942 to October 1945, 
                the population reached a peak of 9,397 Japanese 
                Americans from Washington State, Oregon, and Alaska. 
                The Center included over 33,000 acres of land with 
                administrative and residential facilities located on 
                approximately 950 acres. The Center had more than 600 
                buildings including administrative, religious, 
                residential, educational, mess, medical, manufacturing, 
                warehouse, security, and other structures.

                Living conditions at Minidoka and the other centers 
                were harsh. Internees were housed in crude barracks and 
                cramped quarters, and they shared communal facilities. 
                Internees engaged in irrigated agriculture, livestock 
                production, and light manufacturing to produce food and 
                garments for the camp. Approximately 1,000 internees 
                from Minidoka served in the U.S. military. Fifty-four 
                Japanese American servicemen from Minidoka were killed 
                in action.

                Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 
                U.S.C. 431), authorizes the President, in his 
                discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic

[[Page 7348]]

                landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and 
                other objects of historic or scientific interest that 
                are situated upon lands owned or controlled by the 
                Government of the United States to be national 
                monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of 
                lands, the limits of which in all cases shall be 
                confined to the smallest area compatible with the 
                proper care and management of the objects to be 
                protected.

                WHEREAS it appears that it would be in the public 
                interest to reserve such lands as a national monument 
                to be known as the Minidoka Internment National 
                Monument:

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by the authority vested in me 
                by section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 
                U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there are hereby set 
                apart and reserved as the Minidoka Internment National 
                Monument for the purpose of protecting the historic 
                structures and objects of historic interest contained 
                therein, all lands and interests in lands owned or 
                controlled by the United States within the boundaries 
                of the area described on the map entitled ``Minidoka 
                Internment National Monument'' attached to and forming 
                a part of this proclamation. The Federal lands and 
                interests in land reserved consist of approximately 
                72.75 acres, which is the smallest area compatible with 
                the proper care and management of the structures and 
                objects to be protected.

                All Federal lands and interests in lands within the 
                boundaries of this monument are hereby appropriated and 
                withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, 
                sale, or leasing or other disposition under the public 
                land or other Federal laws, including but not limited 
                to withdrawal from location, entry, and patent under 
                the mining laws, and from disposition under all laws 
                relating to mineral and geothermal leasing.

                The Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to legal 
                authorities, shall manage the monument and shall 
                transfer administration of the monument to the National 
                Park Service to implement the purposes of this 
                proclamation.

                To carry out the purposes of this proclamation and to 
                interpret the relocation and internment of Japanese 
                Americans during World War II, the Secretary of the 
                Interior, through the National Park Service, shall 
                prepare a management plan for the monument within 3 
                years of this date.

                This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of 
                Federal law nor relinquish any water rights held by the 
                Federal Government existing on this date. The Secretary 
                shall work with appropriate State authorities to ensure 
                that any water resources needed for monument purposes 
                are available.

                The establishment of this monument is subject to valid 
                existing rights, provided that nothing in this 
                proclamation shall interfere with the operation and 
                maintenance of the Northside Canal to the extent that 
                any such activities, that are not valid existing 
                rights, are consistent with the purposes of the 
                proclamation.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge 
                or diminish the rights of any Indian tribe.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke 
                any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; 
                however the national monument shall be the dominant 
                reservation.

                Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not 
                to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature 
                of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any 
                of the lands thereof.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand one, and of the

[[Page 7349]]

                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-fifth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3195-01-P

[[Page 7350]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD22JA01.181


[FR Doc. 01-2100 Filed 1-19-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C