(CNN) Three members of Congress, including one of the first Native Americans to serve on Capitol Hill, have introduced legislation that seeks to rescind 20 Medals of Honor awarded for the Wounded Knee massacre.

If passed, the "Remove the Stain Act" would remove the names of the 20 cavalrymen that are currently on the Medal of Honor Roll. It wouldn't require any surviving medals to be returned, nor the denial of any benefits. All 20 men that received the medal are dead.

The effort began when Rep. Denny Heck of Washington went to his staff with an idea for a bill. Native American groups have been calling for the medals to be rescinded for years.

"The congressman had been reading about the massacre and was bothered by the fact that the 20 Medals of Honor had not been rescinded," his spokesperson Bobby Mattina told CNN. "He sees this bill as helping Native American communities with healing, but also protecting the prestige of the Medal of Honor and removing the stain of the massacre from its legacy."

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