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York), May Edward I. Koch, and Governor Mario M. Cuomo sent a letter to Senator Inouye outlining a proposal to resolve issues surrounding the Museum. Their proposal would:

• Maintain the Museum and its Board of Trustees in New York and continue functions at its Audubon Terrace site;
 
• Seek legislative transfer of the New York Custom House to the Museum, but permit the Bankruptcy Courts to remain therein until completion of their new facilities;
 
• Establish a National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall, together with a memorial for the interment of skeletal remains in the Smithsonian collection; and

• Provide in the transfer legislation liberal borrowing authority for the Mall museum from that in New York and authority for traveling exhibits as approved by the Heye Board.

On November 12 the Secretary, accompanied by Mr. Acheson, testified at a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the Select Committee on Indian Affairs on S. 1722 as introduced and on S. 1723, a bill to establish six regional branches of the National Museum of the American Indian. The hearing was chaired by Senator Inouye.

The Secretary spoke in support of the concept of creating a National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall in Washington and of providing a storage and conservation facility at the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland, as well as an appropriate exhibition facility in New York City, under the administration of the Institution. In describing the Smithsonian's obligations for the collections with which it has been entrusted and the scientific purposes of its collection of American Indian skeletal remains, he opposed Title II of S. 1722 which would require the burial in a monument on the Mall of a substantial portion of that collection. The Secretary also opposed S. 1723, stating that there were less expensive alternatives with which to meet its objective of making American Indian ethnograhic collections more accessible to the communities from which they were derived and to the public at large.

Representatives of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, testified at the same hearing in support of S. 1722 and of Senator Inouye's proposed amendment to transfer the Custom House to the Smithsonian for the New York Museum.

On November 16 the Mayor Koch, several Members of Congress, and New York State officials testified in opposition to S. 1722 and in support of the proposal outlined in the November fifth letter. They were followed by representatives of American Indian tribes and of national organizations of American Indians who generally favored the establishment of a National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, as well as the repatriation or