Tribal Policy and Native Americans

Tribal Policy and Native Americans
Policy List
Essential Articles

“The Congress, on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution, acknowledges the contribution made by the Iroquois Confederacy and other Indian Nations to the formation and development of the United States;

the Congress also hereby reaffirms the constitutionally recognized government-to-government relationship with Indian tribes which has been the cornerstone of this Nation’s official Indian policy;

the Congress specifically acknowledges and reaffirms the trust responsibility and obligation of the Inited States Government to Indian tribes, including Alaska Natives, for their preservation, protection, and enhancement, including the provision of health, education, social, and economic assistance programs as necessary, and including the duty to assist tribes in their performance of governmental responsibility to provide for the for the social and economic well-being of their members and preserve tribal cultural identity and heritage; and

the Congress also acknowledges the need to exercise the utmost good faith in upholding its treaties with various tribes, as the tribes understood them to be, and the duty of a great Nation to uphold its legal and moral obligations for the benefit of all of its citizens so that they and their posterity may also continue to enjoy the rights they have enshrined in the United States Constitution for time Immemorial.”

-100th Congress H.Con.Res.331

Some version of these words, a general aspiration to fairness and justice toward the original inhabitants of these lands, has existed for as long as our Republic. And for as long as this Republic has existed, these words have failed to be honored, in either word or spirit. The multitude of hundreds of different indigenous cultures, whether they are referred to as Indians, Native Americans, Indigenous peoples, etc., have been an inseparable part of the American story, helping to craft the Constitution, to fight in the wars of this nation, to shape our society at every level. And while there may be a story here and there that reaches the American mainstream, such as the Navajo Code Talkers or ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, Native communities are often treated as an afterthought in our culture, a relic of a bygone era. But they remain millions strong and growing, even if they are too often ignored by most politicians and media outlets. To understand the unique challenges facing this community, is to understand some of the darker sides of American history.

What the first peoples of the Americas experienced when the Europeans arrived was truly apocalyptic. Thriving civilizations wiped out in the blink of an eye, disease and human cruelty working hand-in-hand to eliminate entire cultures in such a short amount of time. Individuals with hopes and dreams, stories to tell, lives to live – just gone. The survivors left to pick up what pieces remained.

And even after the initial conquest had ravaged millions, the destruction did not end. Boarding schools worked tirelessly to erase even the memory of these societies, encouraging abuse ranging from sexual, physical, mental, and emotional, with mass graves in both America and Canada still being discovered today. Reservations continue to be encroached upon by corporations working to extract natural resources, polluting the lands and leaving thousands sick, with no means by which to receive anything resembling adequate care. Congressman Molinaro even voted to do this very thing just last year (H.Amdt. 568 (Crane) to H.R. 4821). Museums continue to hoard Native artifacts and remains, and opaque bureaucracies stonewall any attempts to document past wrongdoings. Attempts to resist were met with brutal responses from the military, and the cost of integrating was far too often the loss of an ancestral identity.

Native women especially have been targets of immense cruelty, subjected to horrifying rates of rape and sexual violence inflicted upon them by nonnatives, including by workers extracting resources on reservations for some of the most powerful companies in the world. Denied a path to justice thanks to a wrongfully decided Supreme Court case, these crimes have become routine with no consequences for the perpetrators.

Perhaps the most shocking and evil crime inflicted upon Native women in recent history was the sterilization campaigns of the 70s where reportedly 25%-42% of tribal women (and girls as young as 15) were subject to forced and/or coercive sterilizations by the federal government, by federal physicians, in federal hospitals. Not the 1870s either, 1970s! It’s hard to even wrap your head around this. A genocidal tactic used by the Nazis in Germany being used by the American government on people it is sworn to protect as recently as 50 years ago is unbelievably wrong.

I want to bring attention to this history not to elicit pity or guilt or trauma, but to provide a more complete perspective. A nation founded on the principle of freedom cannot continue to oppress the people who have the greatest claim to these lands, nor can it continue to pretend that the American Indian no longer exists, relegated to the pages of history textbooks. We also cannot claim to be better than the leaders of our past if we continue to allow this ongoing evil to extend any further into the 21st century.

These are communities that have endured so much unnecessary pain and suffering. It is being caused by our government and must be ended by our government.

What every Native American is entitled to, is the same as what every human being is entitled to. The right to liberty, to the unalienable guarantees of equality and justice. The self-determination that comes along with those values, and the pursuit of happiness that it all contributes toward. When the power of our government is used to oppress rather than empower, to uphold systems of pain and poverty for the purposes of exploitation, those values are degraded, as is the moral strength of our country. The hurt that has occurred, and continues to occur, cannot be healed through passivity or by pretending that American Indians no longer exist. It requires changes to the systems of discrimination that have led to millions of people being treated as though they don’t belong in their own country, and that their very existence must be ended.

The 100th Congress was correct in its assessment in the resolution above, but what is required is actually following through with those words. There is an enormous area for our government to undo its discrimination toward Native Americans and communities, and to follow through on previous commitments. Cracking down on polluters and industrial wrongdoing, especially on tribal lands is a top priority, as is protecting tribal sovereignty and resources such as water. Returning artifacts and ancestral remains will go a long way toward healing a 500-year-old open wound, as will clearing roadblocks currently preventing investigations into boarding schools and other locations of generational trauma. Perhaps most importantly, Native communities must have enough power, enough voice in society to contribute to the body politic without relying upon a paternalistic system that has let them down time and again, sabotaging their lives without remorse. The Cherokee, by treaty, should have a full representative in the House, but they currently do not. We should not only make this a reality but look into additional areas of representation at the highest levels of government for tribal communities. Helping tribal governments build clean energy, provided it is done with the consent of the community, the jobs created are union, and the capital generated is reinvested in the community, is an exciting area of improvement as well.

When we begin to change this colonial relationship into one of equals, as our treaties obligate, we bring ourselves closer to the ideals we were founded on. We can correct the mistakes of our past leaders, and write a new chapter where all of us can thrive, where we can contribute to the betterment of each other. Despite everything that has happened to these communities, they have survived. Resisting where they could, and contributing to this nation at every stage of our shared history. I want this to be the generation that turns 500 years of cruelty into 500 years of prosperity and happiness. That power and that choice is ours to make, we just have to fight for it.

Policy List

The issues facing Native Americans are unique and stem from a centuries-long relationship of abuse from our government and powerful institutions. In addition to honoring long-neglected treaties, we can undo discriminatory policies, allow for tribes to have greater power and autonomy to protect themselves, as well as working to heal some of the past wounds through the repatriation of remains and artifacts.

Provide tribes with tools such as subpoena power to investigate abuses of boarding schools and other institutions (proposed in legislation such as the “Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act”)
Prioritize tribal needs over land use and resources as opposed to leasing the land to destructive corporations
Fulfillment of the promise of a delegate to the House of Representatives with full voting rights and participation for the more than 450,000 people of the Cherokee nation
Creation of a Congressional panel to examine the potential of additional delegates to the House and Senate for the Tribal communities in the U.S.
Creation of new sanctuaries and land protections headed by tribes like the Chumash marine sanctuary in California
Granting special preference and providing necessary expertise to tribal climate projects (such as wind and solar energy), focusing on ownership from within the community, that does not disrupt current residents, and employs tribe members and allows them to form labor unions.
Requiring companies who used tribal lands to clean up left behind equipment, pollution, and waste
Closing the legal gaps which allows non-natives to commit crimes on tribal lands with near impunity