U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) today introduced legislation proposing a theme study on the peopling of America. The Peopling of America Theme Study Act of 2000 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to identify regions, areas, districts, structures and cultures that illustrate and commemorate key events or decisions in the peopling of America, and which can provide a basis for the preservation and interpretation of the complex movement of people, ideas, and cultures to and across the American continent that resulted in the peopling of the nation, and the development of our unique, pluralist society.
The bill encourages development of preservation and education strategies to capture elements of our national culture and history such as immigration, migration, ethnicity, family, gender, health, neighborhood, and community. The study will make recommendations regarding National Historic Landmark designations and National Register of Historic Places nominations. The study will also facilitate the development of cooperative programs with educational institutions, public history organizations, state and local governments, and groups knowledgeable about the peopling of America.
"America is truly unique in that we are all immigrants to the United States, coming from different regions -- whether from Asia, across the Bering Sea, or from islands in the Pacific Ocean, or Mexico, Europe or many other regions of the world," Akaka noted. "The prehistory and the history of this nation are inextricably linked to the mosaic of migrations, immigrations and cultures that has resulted in the peopling of America. Americans are all travelers from other regions, continents and islands. We need a better understanding and appreciation of this coherent and unifying theme in America. This is the source of our nation's greatness and strength.
"We embody the cultures and traditions that our forebears brought from other places and shores, as well as the new traditions and cultures that we adopted or created anew upon arrival. Whether we settled in the rangelands and agrarian West, the industrialized Northeast, the small towns of the Midwest, or the genteel cities of the South, our forebears inevitably formed relationships with peoples of other backgrounds and cultures. Our rich heritage as Americans is comprehensible only through the stories of our various constituent cultures, carried with us from other lands and transformed by encounters with other cultures."
The bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to prepare and submit to Congress a theme study on the Peopling of America. The theme study will be carried out by the National Park Service. In recent years Congress has mandated other theme studies, including the Underground Railroad, landmark theme study on Japanese American wartime relocation sites, and a desegregation theme study. The theme study may recommend to Congress potential new National Park units relative to the peopling of America.
The bill directs the Secretary to identify potential new national historic landmarks and national historic places as part of the theme study. The bill also provides for continuing authority for the Secretary to identify and designate national historic landmarks and historic places to commemorate the peopling of America. It authorizes public education and research efforts to link regions, groups of people, and units of the Park system, in order to maximize opportunities for public education and scholarly research on the peopling of America. Local and national organizations and educational and professional groups can enter into cooperative arrangements with the Park Service to participate in conducting the study. The legislation underscores and broadens the official NPS thematic framework that "the Secretary shall ensure that the full diversity of American history and prehistory are represented" in the identification and interpretation by the National Park Service.
"All Americans were originally travelers from other lands," said Akaka. " Whether we came to this country as native peoples, English colonists or African slaves, or as Mexican ranchers, or Chinese merchants, the process by which our nation was peopled transformed us from strangers from different shores into neighbors unified in our inimitable diversity – Americans all. It is essential for us to understand this process, not only to understand who and where we are, but also to help us understand who we wish to be and where we should be headed as a nation. As the caretaker of some of our most important cultural and historical resources, from Ellis Island to San Juan Island, from Chaco Canyon to Kennesaw Mountain, the National Park Service is in a unique position to conduct a study that can offer guidance on this fundamental subject.
"As we enter a new century of hope and opportunity, it is incumbent on us to reflect on the degree to which the development of the United States owes to our population diversity. Looking back, we understand that our history, and our very national character, is defined by the grand, entangled progress of people to, and across the American landscape – through exploration, colonization, the slave trade, traditional immigration, or internal migration – that gave rise to the rich interactions that make the American experience unique."
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, on which Senator Akaka serves, has jurisdiction over the Peopling of America Theme Study Act of 2000.
