2160

JOINT RESOLUTIONS

Signed April 10, 1979.

No. 12

(House Joint Resolution No- 32)

A House Joint Resolution concerning

Burial of Chief Turkey Tayac

FOR the purpose of requesting the Congress of the United
States to enact legislation to allow the burial of
Chief Turkey Tayac in a certain location.

WHEREAS, Chief Turkey Tayac, who died on December 8,
1978, was a nationally known medicine man of the Piscataway
Nation; and

WHEREAS, Chief Tayac served in the Armed Forces of the
United States during World War I and was both severely
wounded and gassed; and

WHEREAS, He was an activist in the Indian Movement and
helped preserve Indian culture; and

WHEREAS, Chief Tayac desired to be buried on land he
owned at Accokeek, Maryland which he gave to the Department
of the Interior to be included in Piscataway Park; and

WHEREAS, The Department of the Interior has since
refused to allow him to be buried there, so that his body is
presently interred in a mausoleum awaiting return to Mother
Earth in the Indian tradition; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, That the
United States Congress is urged to enact legislation to
honor Chief Turkey Tayac as Chief of the Piscataway Nation,
by allowing his burial in the Indian tradition on land he
once owned in Piscataway Park at Accokeek, Maryland; and be
it further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the
Maryland Congressional Delegation: Senators Charles McC.
Mathias, Jr. and, Paul S. Sarbanes, Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20510, and the remaining members of. the
United States Senate; and Representatives Robert E. Bauman,
Clarence D. Long, Barbara A. Mikulski, Marjorie S. Holt,
Gladys N. Spellman, Beverly B. Byron, Parren J. Mitchell,
and Michael D. Barnes, House Office Building, Washington,
D.C. 20515; Representative Morris K. Udall, Cannon House
Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515 and the remaining
members of the United States House of Representatives; and