44TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 1999

REQUESTING CONGRESS TO NAME THE NEW FEDERAL COURTHOUSE AFTER THE HONORABLE WENDELL CHINO IN HONOR OF HIS SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LAW, TO JUSTICE FOR NATIVE AMERICANS AND TO THE STRENGTHENING OF TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY.

WHEREAS, Wendell Chino, president of the Mescalero Apache tribe from 1965 until his death in 1998, was a leader with great vision and determination and respect for the United States federal court system; and

WHEREAS, President Chino's life was touched by survivors of the early days who told stories of the old ways and the tragedy of tribal removal; and

WHEREAS, in his youth he heard stories from the survivors of removal; from those taken by train in open cars to Florida, from those who walked or were carried to Bosque Redondo, from those removed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma; from those who returned to help rebuild the tribe of their ancestors; and

WHEREAS, as a leader of the Mescalero people, Wendell Chino turned to the courts of the United States and, in Fort Sill Apache Tribe, Chiricahua Apache Tribe and Warm Springs Apache Tribe v. United States, Lipan Apache Tribe and Mescalero Apache Tribe v. United States and Mescalero Apache Tribe v. United States, he sought verification of aboriginal title to lands taken from the Apache people and recompense for the aboriginal lands taken from his people without compensation in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; and

WHEREAS, in Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma v. United States, Wendell Chino sought damages for the harm done to the fabric of the great Apache nation, which was ripped asunder by separation and relocation, and detention of the Apache people, who were scattered far and wide throughout the continent or restricted to lands many times reduced in breadth from their original homelands; and

WHEREAS, as a leader of the Mescalero people, Wendell Chino could see a day when the Mescalero Apache tribe would rebuild itself and develop tribal cohesion and increased stability and prosperity for tribal members; and

WHEREAS, Wendell Chino realized that to ensure the longevity of the Mescalero people, the people had to assert their rights in the foreign system in which the Mescalero Apache people now lived, wrongs of the past needed to be made right and his people needed to know that the courts were there to protect the rights of the tribe and the Mescalero people from the heavy hand of external control that would lead to their extinction; and

WHEREAS, as a modern warrior, Wendell Chino moved to strengthen tribal sovereignty and proceeded issue by issue, battle by battle, to confirm that a tribe may control its own resources; establish its own regulatory systems; and not be subject to state taxes for structures on tribal land; and

WHEREAS, in Mescalero Apache Tribe v. U.S.(Tenth Circuit), the right of the tribe to adopt and enforce its own game and fish laws was confirmed; in United States v. New Mexico, the courts verified that the tribe could regulate the commerce of alcohol within its exterior boundaries; and in Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, the structures built at ski Apache were found to be beyond the reach of state taxation; and

WHEREAS, not all of the battles were won, and winning the battle was not always the goal, and many of the battles won were procedural or established jurisdiction in the federal courts; these battles created a clear path for others to follow and a means for tribes to be heard by the federal courts of this land; and

WHEREAS, Wendell Chino, the warrior for justice, knew that no one battle would win the war, but that each battle was a step toward a day when tribal sovereignty would be accepted by all people, when tribal people could be secure in the continued existence of their cultures and communities and when Native Americans could rely on equal justice under the law;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW MEXICO that it recognize the great contribution to the body of Indian law that was made by the fearless yet reasoned litigation brought before the federal courts by the honorable Wendell Chino and the Mescalero Apache tribe to restore and preserve the sovereignty of all the tribes of the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature request the United States congress to name the new federal courthouse in Albuquerque, New Mexico after the great and honorable Wendell Chino; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the members of the New Mexico congressional delegation, the chief justice of the United States supreme court, the president of the United States, the secretary of the interior, the family of the honorable Wendell Chino and the president of the Mescalero Apache tribe.