SENATOR DENNIS DeCONCINI

STATEMENT

ON

S. 2250,

A BILL TO AMEND THE AMERICAN INIDAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT

I WANT TO COMMEND MY DISTINGUISHED COLLEAGUE, THE SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA, FOR HIS LEADERSHIP ON AN ISSUE WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLE RIGHT AND FREEDOM TO PRACTICE THEIR RELIGION ON LANDS MANAGED BY

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

THE RECOGNITION OF THEIR

LIKE ANYTHING ELSE, THE ABILITY OF A

COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE TO LIVE TOGETHER DEPENDS ON THE EXTENT TO

WHICH THEY CAN MUTUALLY ACCOMODATE EACH OTHERS' DEEPLY HELD

BELIEFS. WHEN THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN ON ITS OWN THEN THERE IS THE

VERY DIFFICULT TASK WHICH SOMEONE MUST ASSUME TO BRING THE

PARTIES TOGETHER TO FIND A WAY TO ACHIEVE MUTUAL ACCOMODATION.

IN THIS CASE, THAT SOMEONE IS THE SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA. I AM COMMITTED TO WORKING WITH HIM ON FINDING A WAY TO ACHIEVE THIS MUTUAL ACCOMODATION BETWEEN THE NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES, THE

NON-INDIAN COMMUNITY AND THE FEDERAL LAND MANAGMENT AGENCIES.

THIS WILL MEAN PROVIDING MEANINGFUL GUIDANCE TO THE AGENCIES

ON THIS MATTER. THE GUIDANCE WE HOPE TO GIVE WILL BE CONSISTENT WITH OUR POLICY OF ENSURING THE MULTIPLE USES OF FEDERAL LANDS.

NO ONE INTENDS TO LIMIT THE USES OF THESE LANDS TO ONE SINGLE

EXCLUSIVE USE. WE WILL NEED TO FIND A WAY TO BALANCE ALL THE

INTERESTS AND MAKE SURE THAT IN DOING SO THAT THE NATIVE AMERICAN

RELIGIOUS PRACTICES ARE INCLUDED. I KNOW THAT MANY OF THE LAND

MANAGERS AND USERS OF FEDERAL LANDS IN MY STATE HAVE GENERALLY

DONE THE BEST THEY CAN TO BE SENSITIVE TO THESE CONCERNS. SOME

HAVE SAID THAT THE CONSIDERATION OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN INTERESTS

NEEDS TO BE DONE EARLIER IN THE PROCESS OF PLANNING FOR THE USE

AND MANAGEMENT OF THESE LANDS. THAT IS WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO

SEE.

I INTEND TO WORK WITH ALL THE PARTIES TO FIND THE BEST WAY

TO ACCOMPLISH THIS. I HOPE THAT EVERYONE WILL COME FORWARD AND

ASSIST US.

I LOOK FORWARD TO THE TESTIMONY AND INPUT OF EVERY ONE HERE

TODAY.

My name is Monsignor Paul A. Lenz, Executive Director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, Washington, D.C. Father Ted Zuern, S. J., pastor of St. Isaac Joques Parish/Mother Butler Center, Rapid City, South Dakota, is the Associate Director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions for legislation. This statement has been researched by him. I want to make it clear at the outset that we support S. 2250, which was introduced by Senator Cranston.

S. 2250 is an amendment to the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act. It ensures that Federal lands are managed in a manner that does not impair the exercise of traditional American Indian religions. It specifically places all Federal property

under mandate to be managed in a way that does not impair a traditional American Indian religion exercise in areas that have been historically indispensible to rituals and rites.

To many Americans knowledge of any religion outside the bounds of the Judeo-Christian tradition or the Muslem tradition is minimal at best. It is not taken seriously.

It is never given the

respect that it deserves. It is something that people follow for lack of anything else to believe.

We must always realize that the American Indians were a very spiritual people, probably more spiritual than we are today. In our age we have so many benefits of science to provide

conveniences for us that we do not realize how ultimately we are dependent on the basic provisions that God gives to us in this life. The American Indians of this country achieved remarkable heights of development in some few instances, but for the most part lived lives close to the elements and with little conveniences. They lived a life close to God, or the Great Spirit, or the Great Mystery, as they called him in their own tongues.

The American Indians were a people of prayer. They allowed most of the actions of their lives to be blessed by the utterance of a prayer to the Great Creator of all things. They lived a life that interjected prayer into so many of their actions. Unlike Christians or Jews or Muslems they did not need a church or synagugue or mosque for their prayers. They had the whole realm of God's creation. They worshipped outdoors. They were close to

their Creator. They were surrounded by the gifts that he gave them.

They were liturgists.

Their sense of appropriate actions united with song of all nations and stillness of silence or with the spoken word, were part of the worship they gave to the Great Spirit. They included dance in their worship. It was a very prominent part of their liturgy. Sometimes they used horses in carrying out their actions of prayer, of worship, of their liturgy. With our strict traditions we never allowed dancing in the worship of God. We found it was not respectful, not becoming

to so great a being. The American Indians found all graceful actions to be worthy of a part in the liturgy, in the worhip of the Almighty Creator.

The graceful movement of their bodies satisfied themselves and all who looked on in reverence. Their whole physical being

pulsed with the act of adoration as they moved in rhythm of the dance. We must not look on dancing as something that is totally removed from worship. The Indians with their Theology of Creation used all things to worship God. Their whole being was employed in the act of worship. It was not a rite of pagan

excess; it was a rite of human worship. It is something that

most Americans have never understood, nor in which they

participated. It is a response to the Great Creator, the One Who Gives All.

Before Columbus came to this hemisphere, American Indians worshiped God. It had none of the accepted ceremonies of Judaism, Christianity or Muslem traditions. But, it was a true worship. There are many accounts of revelation to tribes to direct them in their rituals and rites. American Indians had only the experiences that were known to them. They were profoundly reverent and respectful in all they did in their worship. They worshiped God in the only way they could with the full exercise of their bodies, with songs, with silence, with liturgy that might make us pause in wonder at the reverent way it was performed. We are not of that tradition, and we are caught