SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 20
(By Senators Mitchell, Caldwell, Rowe and Sprouse)
Requesting the Joint Committee on Government and Finance review,
examine and study the statutory means by which West Virginians
of indigenous descent who do not meet the current criteria for
federal acknowledgment may be given formal recognition. 
Whereas, There are thousands of people of American Indian or
other indigenous descent who are living in West Virginia; and
Whereas, These descendants may have hidden their true
identities out of fear of persecution and prejudice; and
Whereas, These people were denied status as American Indians,
Native Hawaiians or Native Alaskans even when they may have desired
it as a result of governmental policies of the past; and
Whereas, These persons may have suffered the same torments
visited upon indigenous people in general because of their heritage
or affiliations but were, and are currently, denied the special
privileges afforded the status American Indians, tribes and
nations. Those people are now coming forward to claim those
privileges because of increasing cultural awareness and tolerance
among other Americans; and
Whereas, Our society has failed to provide a clear and concise
manner by which these descendants, some of whom extract their
heritage from three or more ethnicities, can be identified and delineated from mainstream West Virginians and Americans; and
Whereas, The people of American Indian or other indigenous
descent comprise only two tenths of one percent of the total
population of West Virginia and they have suffered the inevitable
consequences and handicaps of being such an overwhelming minority;
and
Whereas, There are groups and communities of descendants of
indigenous people in our state who have created and maintained
cultures that are distinctively theirs alone, who have made vast
contributions to the overall rich heritage of West Virginia and who
are fighting under increasing pressures to preserve and foster
their traditional ways of life; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Joint Committee on Government and Finance is hereby
requested to study the limitations upon the privileges of
indigenous recognition and well as defining and adopting the term
"metis" as the official word used to denote the ethnological
description and composition of these recognized groups;
establishing criteria by which organized entities may be determined
to be metis; providing for accountability in the event of
misrepresentation or fraud; and granting state minority status to
metis individuals and organizations; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Government and
Finance is further requested to review, examine and study the statutory means by which West Virginians of indigenous descent who
do not meet the current criteria for federal acknowledgment may be
given formal recognition; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Government and
Finance report to the regular session of the Legislature, 2003, on
its findings, conclusions and recommendations, together with drafts
of any legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations;
and, be it
Further Resolved, That the expenses necessary to conduct this
study, to prepare a report and to draft necessary legislation be
paid from legislative appropriations to the Joint Committee on
Government and Finance.