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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The route of The Long Walk, a 300-mile forced march by 8,500 American Indians to an internment camp in New Mexico, may be designated a National Historic Trail under a bill passed Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., sponsored the legislation to act as a memorial of the event in which 3,000 people died in 1864. Udall said that the Long Walk remains one of the most tragic events in our nation's history, but few recognize the atrocities committed.

The legislation, approved Tuesday, directs the National Park Service to study protecting the series of trails through northeastern Arizona and central New Mexico to Bosque Redondo, a desolate tract along the Pecos River in eastern New Mexico.

The bill is now set to go to the Senate.