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Native American Recognition (Click to select text)
A Past Forgotten Centuries ago a people filled and roamed the North American continent with an easy freedom and uncommon respect for the surrounding land. Nature and man intertwined in gracious style and extraordinary equilibrium. These people known as Native Americans led an amazing interdependent lifestyle with their habitat that unfortunately cannot be found in today's busy age. These beautiful people with their mysterious and fascinating ways were devastatingly wiped out with the arrival and inhabitance of foreign peoples. Today the Native Americans' existence is scarce and the knowledge of them is even less. The land that is so commonly known as "America: home of the free" is anything but. It is a stolen land from the natives who originally inhabited it, and those few remaining should be largely compensated for the mistakes of Americas past. The arrival of Europeans to America carried an array of diseases and scores of eager settlers. Ignorant to the ways of the white man, the natives welcomed their guests with no conceivable image of what was to come. Never having been exposed to alien germs, they were nearly demolished by the attack of the various diseases introduced by the new inhabitants. The remaining few were forced away from their homelands and confined to destitute reservations in the Indian Removal Act of 1830, more widely known as The Trail of Tears. (Trail) Regarded by the white man as uneducated and helpless, thousands of American Indians were forced to march to the reservations beyond the Mississippi, all the while being told it was for their own good. Eventually they were even expelled from these desolate locales for the mining of oil and gold by the new Americans. The pathetically small population that survived the horrific oppression of the white man was left to fend for itself against the growing power of the Federal government. The unjust treatment exposed to the Native Americans did not go unrecognized by the American government. Attempts to correct the unfairness and to compensate the Indian population can frequently be referenced throughout recent history. The National Congress of American Indians (NCIA) is the largest and oldest organization that strives to bring more recognition to the health, welfare and self-determination among the Indian nations. (Issues) In return for vast Indian lands and resources ceded to the United States, the Federal government made certain promises to Indian tribes including the protection of Indian lands from encroachment, as well as promises to provide in perpetuity various goods and services such as health care, education, housing, and the continued right to self-government. (Issues) Several Acts have been put into place in order to protect and compensate the Native people. The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 was the most significant breakthrough in addressing the housing needs of American Indians. (Allen) This provided direct funding to the Indian governments in order to prevent waste and bureaucratic inefficiency and to allow the tribal governments to address priorities. More housing and funding programs are constantly being provisioned and revised to the best interests of those living on the reservations. Land trusts have been devoted to preserve sacred burial grounds and to expand and protect the existing reservations. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was enacted 1990. Congress' intent in enacting NAGPRA was to ensure that Native American human remains and sacred objects retained by the federal, state, and local governments, universities, and the museum community are returned to the appropriate tribes and/or descendants. The law also ensures that burial sites on tribal and federal lands are properly protected. (Stevens) Exclusions from certain taxes have helped the economic status of the native population, along with trust funds, accounts, and gaming laws allowing for casino attractions. Although still regulated by the Federal government, Native Americans have been allowed to form their own government and laws in turn isolating them from typical American life. As the years go by, more and more recognition is being sought for this so long forgotten group that is such a special part of the American history. Although attempts to reconcile have been made, they are far from what could be done and have often been corrupted. Land preservation movements have succeeded in their purpose to preserve native land, but the amount is miniscule in scale. Of the 90 million acres of reservation land taken by the government, only a fractional ten percent has been returned to Indian ownership. (Issues) The housing plans that were provisioned to improve the lifestyle on the reservations do not even live up to standard poverty level. A small number of Indian tribes have found economic success through gaming, but gaming has done little to change the crippling economic conditions found on most reservations. (Issues) Often the funds set aside for housing development have been misused by the Federal government and therefore do not even benefit the reservation life. It has also been recently proved that the Federal government has lost, misappropriated, or in some cases stolen billions of dollars from some of its poorest citizens. (Billions) This is a sickening display by the government that only further oppresses this exhausted group of people. Said by John Echohawk, director of the Native American Right Fund, "Our people have historically suffered abuse after abuse. We have continuous problems with unemployment, health care and education. It just goes on and on." (Billions) Because of this repeated abuse, the Native American population holds the highest poverty levels of any group in America. (Issues) The attempts to rehabilitate Native American life are certainly recognizable, but need to be on a larger scale and absent of corruption. American Indians are striving to protect and preserve their unique way of life. This cannot be done without a large amount of assistance from the Federal government. The modest ten percent of land that has been restored to trust status is just a beginning in land preservation. Millions of acres remain to be taken back into ownership by the Natives. Housing programs should be improved to an acceptable standard of living and the funding programs should benefit the reservations, not the government. Furthermore, the United States must adhere to its trust responsibility to tribal governments and Indian people to protect and preserve Native culture and tradition. (Stevens) The trust funds and accounts need to remain intact and audits should be performed to insure the usage of such funds. Education for native children needs improvement along with more education about the past and present Native American situations to the public. There is so little knowledge by common America about this special group of people, their history, and their needs. This may seem like a large effort to put forth, but it is the least the Federal government could do. American Indians are the most unrecognized minority group in America. These simple yet mystical people were forced off their land and away from their natural way of life. Unknowing and completely oblivious to what was happening, their homes were snatched away and their heritage almost obliterated. There is nowhere for them to go in order to preserve their heritage because Americans have almost completely devoured their natural homelands. Native Americans deserve to be recognized and compensated for the tragic oppression they suffered for so many years. It is our responsibility to try and correct the mistakes of the past and do what is right. Only then can we truly be called Americans.
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