Water Resources Development Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILMER. Mr. Chairman, I thank my good friends, Representative Newhouse and Representative Heck, for taking the lead on this effort.

I rise today in support of this amendment because the Ancient One has been separated from his family for far too long. It is time he return home.

For 20 years, as you heard my colleague point out, the Ancient One has been stuck in limbo while the scientists and lawyers have debated what the Native American community knew to be true: that he is their ancestor. Now that three independent DNA analyses have confirmed his ancestry to the native people of the Columbia Plateau, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must expedite his repatriation so that his descendants may honor his life.
This legislation will help speed up the process and ensure that the Ancient One's descendants have the opportunity to lay his remains to rest in their ancestral burial grounds. Only then will the Ancient One's story finally be complete and will his spirit be able to rest.

That is why I support the amendment, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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