Whereas, based on article I section 8 of the United States Constitution, treaties, Federal statutes, and court decisions, the United States has a unique historical and legal relationship with the American Indian and Alaska Native peoples, which serves as the basis for the Federal Government’s trust responsibility and obligations to the American Indian and Alaska Native peoples;

Whereas there are 574 federally recognized Indian Tribes in the United States, with some 40 percent of Indian Tribes located in the State of Alaska;

Whereas Indian Tribes have principal responsibility for lands and people within their jurisdictions;

Whereas this responsibility extends to educating their American Indian and Alaska Native students and providing adequate educational facilities in which the students can learn;

Whereas kindergarten, elementary, and secondary schools all over the Nation use words and symbols representing their schools that are harmful to Native Americans;

Whereas, nationally, more than 1,900 kindergarten, elementary, and secondary schools inappropriately use such harmful names or nicknames, and these names or symbols often become mascots and are used at athletic games for mascot characters, chants, and other antics;

Whereas, although these school communities do not intend disrespect toward Native Americans, that is the end result of allowing these harmful terms to continue in educational institutions;

Whereas there have been national sports teams that have recognized that their mascots were racist and harmful to Native American communities;

Whereas there has been scientific research conducted to determine the harmful effects of these Native sports mascots on our Native youth;

Whereas multiple academic studies over the last few decades have found that American Indian and Alaska Native high school and college students had a consistent, negative reaction to stereotypical mascots because these images and names remind Native youth of the limited ways in which others see them, which in turn restricts how they see themselves, and, importantly, the self-esteem of non-Native youths rose when presented with the same images; and

Whereas the American Psychological Association has determined that these representations also undermine the ability of Native Nations and peoples to portray themselves accurately as distinct and diverse cultures, and that stereotypical images are a dominant culture’s prejudiced representations of a racial or ethnic minority group: Now, therefore, be it