S1516-119

What This Bill Does

The reported Cahokia Mounds Mississippian Culture Study Act directs the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study covering the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, the Emerald Mounds in St. Clair County, Illinois, and the Pulcher Mounds in Monroe and St. Clair Counties. The study must evaluate the area's national significance and determine whether adding it to the National Park System would be suitable and feasible. This is a study requirement only; the bill does not itself create a national park unit, transfer land, or authorize federal acquisition.

Interior must also examine alternatives to National Park System designation for preserving, protecting, and interpreting the sites. Those alternatives may involve federal, state, or local governments and private or nonprofit organizations. The analysis must estimate federal acquisition, development, interpretation, operating, and maintenance costs associated with the alternatives. It must follow the National Park Service's statutory special-resource-study process.

The reported substitute expressly requires consultation with applicable federally recognized Indian Tribes, in addition to interested federal, state, and local government entities, private or nonprofit organizations, and other interested individuals. It defines Indian Tribe by reference to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act. The introduced version required the same core study but did not expressly list applicable Tribes as consultees. The introduced findings about Cahokia's history and significance do not appear in the reported substitute.

Within three years after funds are first made available for the study, Interior must submit the results, conclusions, and recommendations to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee. Because the deadline starts only when study funds first become available, enactment alone does not establish a calendar due date. The bill contains no direct appropriation and does not dictate what Congress or Interior must do after reviewing the report.

Who Benefits and How

Applicable Indian Tribes gain an express place in consultation concerning ancestral Mississippian cultural resources. Illinois preservation agencies, local governments, nonprofit preservation groups, historians, archaeologists, and nearby communities gain a federal evaluation of protection and interpretation options. Heritage-tourism businesses may benefit if the study supports future visitor investment or a National Park System designation. Congress receives a structured record of significance, feasibility, alternatives, and costs before deciding whether to pursue additional legislation.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Interior and National Park Service staff must perform the resource analysis, consultation, cost estimates, and congressional report. Tribal governments, Illinois agencies, local governments, landowners, and preservation organizations may spend time supplying records and participating in consultation. Any acquisition, development, or operating costs identified by the study are estimates rather than obligations created by this bill. Future land-use effects would depend on later federal action, not on the study mandate itself.

Key Provisions

• Requires a special resource study of three Cahokia-area historic sites in Illinois.
• Requires evaluation of national significance plus suitability and feasibility for National Park System designation.
• Directs consideration of governmental, private, and nonprofit preservation alternatives and their federal costs.
• Requires consultation with applicable Indian Tribes and other interested governments, organizations, and individuals.
• Requires a report to the two congressional natural-resources committees within three years after study funding first becomes available.