Discrimination Against Native Americans Continues
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ma ... -tribes-un
US should return stolen land to Indian tribes, says United Nations
UN's correspondent on indigenous peoples urges government to act to combat 'racial discrimination' felt by Native Americans
Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 May 2012
A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combating continuing and systemic racial discrimination.
James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said no member of the US Congress would meet him as he investigated the part played by the government in the considerable difficulties faced by Indian tribes.
Anaya said that in nearly two weeks of visiting Indian reservations, indigenous communities in Alaska and Hawaii, and Native Americans now living in cities, he encountered people who suffered a history of dispossession of their lands and resources, the breakdown of their societies and "numerous instances of outright brutality, all grounded on racial discrimination".
"It's a racial discrimination that they feel is both systemic and also specific instances of ongoing discrimination that is felt at the individual level," he said.
Anaya said racism extended from the broad relationship between federal or state governments and tribes down to local issues such as education.
"For example, with the treatment of children in schools both by their peers and by teachers as well as the educational system itself; the way native Americans and indigenous peoples are reflected in the school curriculum and teaching," he said.
"And discrimination in the sense of the invisibility of Native Americans in the country overall that often is reflected in the popular media. The idea that is often projected through the mainstream media and among public figures that indigenous peoples are either gone or as a group are insignificant or that they're out to get benefits in terms of handouts, or their communities and cultures are reduced to casinos, which are just flatly wrong."
Close to a million people live on the US's 310 Native American reservations. Some tribes have done well from a boom in casinos on reservations but most have not.
Anaya visited an Oglala Sioux reservation where the per capita income is around $7,000 a year, less than one-sixth of the national average, and life expectancy is about 50 years.
The two Sioux reservations in South Dakota – Rosebud and Pine Ridge – have some of the country's poorest living conditions, including mass unemployment and the highest suicide rate in the western hemisphere with an epidemic of teenagers killing themselves.
"You can see they're in a somewhat precarious situation in terms of their basic existence and the stability of their communities given that precarious land tenure situation. It's not like they have large fisheries as a resource base to sustain them. In basic economic terms it's a very difficult situation. You have upwards of 70% unemployment on the reservation and all kinds of social ills accompanying that. Very tough conditions," he said.
Anaya said Rosebud is an example where returning land taken by the US government could improve a tribe's fortunes as well as contribute to a "process of reconciliation".
"At Rosebud, that's a situation where indigenous people have seen over time encroachment on to their land and they've lost vast territories and there have been clear instances of broken treaty promises. It's undisputed that the Black Hills was guaranteed them by treaty and that treaty was just outright violated by the United States in the 1900s. That has been recognised by the United States supreme court," he said.
Anaya said he would reserve detailed recommendations on a plan for land restoration until he presents his final report to the UN human rights council in September.
"I'm talking about restoring to indigenous peoples what obviously they're entitled to and they have a legitimate claim to in a way that is not devisive but restorative. That's the idea behind reconciliation," he said.
But any such proposal is likely to meet stiff resistance in Congress similar to that which has previously greeted calls for the US government to pay reparations for slavery to African-American communities.
Anaya said he had received "exemplary cooperation" from the Obama administration but he declined to speculate on why no members of Congress would meet him.
"I typically meet with members of the national legislature on my country visits and I don't know the reason," he said.
Last month, the US justice and interior departments announced a $1 billion settlement over nearly 56 million acres of Indian land held in trust by Washington but exploited by commercial interests for timber, farming, mining and other uses with little benefit to the tribes.
The attorney general, Eric Holder, said the settlement "fairly and honourably resolves historical grievances over the accounting and management of tribal trust funds, trust lands and other non-monetary trust resources that, for far too long, have been a source of conflict between Indian tribes and the United States."
But Anaya said that was only a step in the right direction.
"These are important steps but we're talking about mismanagement by the government of assets that were left to indigenous peoples," he said. "This money for the insults on top of the injury. It's not money for the initial problem itself, which is the taking of vast territories. This is very important and I think the administration should be commended for moving forward to settle these claims but there are these deeper issues that need to be addressed."
US should return stolen land to Indian tribes, says United Nations
UN's correspondent on indigenous peoples urges government to act to combat 'racial discrimination' felt by Native Americans
Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 May 2012
A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combating continuing and systemic racial discrimination.
James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said no member of the US Congress would meet him as he investigated the part played by the government in the considerable difficulties faced by Indian tribes.
Anaya said that in nearly two weeks of visiting Indian reservations, indigenous communities in Alaska and Hawaii, and Native Americans now living in cities, he encountered people who suffered a history of dispossession of their lands and resources, the breakdown of their societies and "numerous instances of outright brutality, all grounded on racial discrimination".
"It's a racial discrimination that they feel is both systemic and also specific instances of ongoing discrimination that is felt at the individual level," he said.
Anaya said racism extended from the broad relationship between federal or state governments and tribes down to local issues such as education.
"For example, with the treatment of children in schools both by their peers and by teachers as well as the educational system itself; the way native Americans and indigenous peoples are reflected in the school curriculum and teaching," he said.
"And discrimination in the sense of the invisibility of Native Americans in the country overall that often is reflected in the popular media. The idea that is often projected through the mainstream media and among public figures that indigenous peoples are either gone or as a group are insignificant or that they're out to get benefits in terms of handouts, or their communities and cultures are reduced to casinos, which are just flatly wrong."
Close to a million people live on the US's 310 Native American reservations. Some tribes have done well from a boom in casinos on reservations but most have not.
Anaya visited an Oglala Sioux reservation where the per capita income is around $7,000 a year, less than one-sixth of the national average, and life expectancy is about 50 years.
The two Sioux reservations in South Dakota – Rosebud and Pine Ridge – have some of the country's poorest living conditions, including mass unemployment and the highest suicide rate in the western hemisphere with an epidemic of teenagers killing themselves.
"You can see they're in a somewhat precarious situation in terms of their basic existence and the stability of their communities given that precarious land tenure situation. It's not like they have large fisheries as a resource base to sustain them. In basic economic terms it's a very difficult situation. You have upwards of 70% unemployment on the reservation and all kinds of social ills accompanying that. Very tough conditions," he said.
Anaya said Rosebud is an example where returning land taken by the US government could improve a tribe's fortunes as well as contribute to a "process of reconciliation".
"At Rosebud, that's a situation where indigenous people have seen over time encroachment on to their land and they've lost vast territories and there have been clear instances of broken treaty promises. It's undisputed that the Black Hills was guaranteed them by treaty and that treaty was just outright violated by the United States in the 1900s. That has been recognised by the United States supreme court," he said.
Anaya said he would reserve detailed recommendations on a plan for land restoration until he presents his final report to the UN human rights council in September.
"I'm talking about restoring to indigenous peoples what obviously they're entitled to and they have a legitimate claim to in a way that is not devisive but restorative. That's the idea behind reconciliation," he said.
But any such proposal is likely to meet stiff resistance in Congress similar to that which has previously greeted calls for the US government to pay reparations for slavery to African-American communities.
Anaya said he had received "exemplary cooperation" from the Obama administration but he declined to speculate on why no members of Congress would meet him.
"I typically meet with members of the national legislature on my country visits and I don't know the reason," he said.
Last month, the US justice and interior departments announced a $1 billion settlement over nearly 56 million acres of Indian land held in trust by Washington but exploited by commercial interests for timber, farming, mining and other uses with little benefit to the tribes.
The attorney general, Eric Holder, said the settlement "fairly and honourably resolves historical grievances over the accounting and management of tribal trust funds, trust lands and other non-monetary trust resources that, for far too long, have been a source of conflict between Indian tribes and the United States."
But Anaya said that was only a step in the right direction.
"These are important steps but we're talking about mismanagement by the government of assets that were left to indigenous peoples," he said. "This money for the insults on top of the injury. It's not money for the initial problem itself, which is the taking of vast territories. This is very important and I think the administration should be commended for moving forward to settle these claims but there are these deeper issues that need to be addressed."
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http://wiinimkiikaa.wordpress.com/minin ... -under-us/
i just was reading where mining companies get special tax credits.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
indian people of north and south america have been some mistreated by outside forces it is unreal to learn about all that has happened and all that the natives went through and still today have huge challenges ahead of them; what with the thumb of the government over them making it difficult to breathe
i love the badlands, dakotas, wyoming and montana, the southwest and the northwest, including canada and alaska. these are very interesting people of the earth and they are very proud people and very gifted and kind people.
i am very intrigued by native american indian artwork. it is fascinating.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
Well said, Chadwick. The American Indian has been screwed over since the day Europeans arrived and it hasn't stopped since.
I don't know if we'll ever have an American Indian president but we should at least acknowledge some of the greats among us- Sherman Alexie to start with.
I love the artwork too! It's so cool,
For the Book People, :geek: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bury_My_Heart_at_Wounded_Knee
I like this statement a lot.
This. ^
I say it all the time, but I think the vast majority of Americans really have no concept of what life is like for the Native people of this country, particularly life on the reservations.
Yep. The Navajo Nation has been totally fucked by uranium mining. To this day, they still have hundreds of abandoned mines that have yet to be cleaned up. I've visited some of them. It's so sad.
And who here has heard of the Church Rock uranium spill? Not many people have. Though it released more radiation than Three Mile Island, it got little press or clean-up support. Just one difference between living in white vs. Native communities in this country. :(
'Matthiessen presents a convincing case not only for a retrial of Leonard Peltier but also for a re-examination of the real cost of the American Dream - in human lives, mockery of justice, and a squandered earth.' - USA Today
''By the time I had turned the final page, I felt angry enough . . . to want to shout from the rooftops, 'Wake up, America, before it is too damned late!' For Matthiessen, in this extraordinary, complex work, powerfully propounds several large and disturbing themes which the white majority in America will ignore at extreme peril.'' - Washington Review
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Excellent! And just about anything by Vine Deloria, Joseph M. Marshall III, Adrian C. Lewis and Sherman Alexie. And of course Dee Brown's book as mentioned.
Australia...GUILTY!!!
Not a competition anyone should feel proud of winning, but I doubt any country did a better job of screwing its natives than us;
we stole their land
stole their culture
stole their dignity
then stole their children off them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtYJBJSp110
http://www.upworthy.com/a-journalist-we ... ever?c=to2
'A few years ago, Aaron Huey journeyed to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to photograph members of the Oglala Lakota Nation. The disarming stories of deceit, heartbreak, and violence he heard there changed his life forever.'
fuck that
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
HFD
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cmhr-rejects-genocide-for-native-policies-217061321.html
THE Canadian Museum for Human Rights will not use the word "genocide" to describe Canada's aboriginal policies during the last century, including the residential schools system and forced relocations.
That's despite a growing academic consensus Canada did indeed commit genocide, and repeated calls by aboriginal leaders -- including, most recently, Phil Fontaine -- for the federal government to recognize its role in the destruction of indigenous culture and institutions.
Was it genocide?THE United Nations defined genocide in 1948 as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Those acts include:
■Killing members of the group.
■Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
■Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
■Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
■Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
"It's a shame. I think the museum needs to be a leader, not a follower on this," said University of Manitoba Prof. Adam Muller, a genocide expert. "You look at colonial activity in the Americas and it seems clear to me, at the end of the day, they were trying to destroy a group and way of life."
Those familiar with the museum's plans to tackle indigenous issues understood the word would be included in its exhibits. But after what spokeswoman Maureen Fitzhenry said was extensive internal debate and an ongoing process of revision, the museum's senior staff decided not to use the word. The decision was made about a month ago.
Fitzhenry said the museum is not a court or government -- the two bodies that have traditionally decided what counts as a genocide. And she said academic research is still evolving.
"We don't want to be seen as advocating or involving ourself in a debate that is still playing out," said Fitzhenry.
She also said that, as a Crown corporation, it's important the museum's terminology align with that of the federal government, which has not recognized Canada's aboriginal policies as a genocide.
Parliament recognizes five official genocides -- the Holocaust, the Holodomor, the Armenian genocide and the atrocities in Rwanda and the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
In a recent column in the Toronto Star, former national grand chief Phil Fontaine called on Canada to add a sixth to the list, especially in light of recent revelations Ottawa conducted nutritional experiments on malnourished First Nations adults and children in the 1940s and '50s.
"It is time for Canadians to face the sad truth. Canada engaged in a deliberate policy of attempted genocide against First Nations people," wrote Fontaine, originally from Sagkeeng First Nation. "And the starvation experiments were only the first of a litany of similar such attempts to control, delegitimize and, yes, even annihilate First Nations to suit the needs of a growing dominion."
University of Manitoba scholars -- some of whom are organizing an international conference on indigenous genocide in Winnipeg next year -- say there is little academic debate left over whether the word "genocide" applies to Canada's Indian policies. Instead, scholars are arguing about how it happened. And the debate has moved beyond a legal definition of genocide that centres on a government's clear intent and on the physical extermination of one group. Broader, more cultural definitions of genocide, which look at how language, institutions, religion and family ties were eradicated, are now widely accepted.
"What matters in genocide is not that it's a lot of killing," said University of Manitoba sociology Prof. Andrew Woolford. "What matters is that it's an assault against a group, on their ability to persist as a group."
Underlying the genocide question are persistent allegations -- some made by former museum staff -- the CMHR's federally appointed board routinely interferes in content decisions in an effort to tell more "positive," politically palatable stories.
Fitzhenry said the decision to avoid the word "genocide" was made by senior staff, not the board.
She said the museum will not shy away from exploring Canada's colonial legacy, including the epidemic of missing and slain aboriginal women, the disastrous relocation of Manitoba's Sayisi Dene people, land and treaty rights and residential schools.
Indigenous history will be tackled throughout the museum's 11 galleries.
"We're committed to dealing with Canada's human rights history in an unblinking way," Fitzhenry said.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
But no, the CMHR is told that the government doesn't recognize it as genocide, so they can't either, being PART OF THE GOVERNMENT.
:fp:
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
no, it's not. on the way to my wife's family cottage, we drive through reserve country. it's disgusting. and I'm not saying that in an insulting way, just the truth. they live in dilapidated shacks with rusted out cars in the yard and sheets up for windows. right across from the big fucking casino. yeah, that will help the poverty situation.
fuck.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
indian folk are the real deal. they are being & have been taken advantage of since way back when. sad as shit.
these lands, usa, canada, australia, spain & others have messed over countless millions of people & throughly destroyed their lives & cultures all because of greed & being on a power hungry trip
i'm embarrassed
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
that's actually a very good question, Chad. Whose idea was it? The Natives? The governments?
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Well said...i worked in the oil business for several years. We measured their oil for them. I know for a fact a few are being paid well. While others live in shacks.
A few years ago I asked a local American Indian bookstore customer what American Indian authors he could recommend. He said, "Well, there are a awful lot of Indian books written by white men who think they know an awful lot about Indians but if you really want to learn something, read books written by American Indians."
Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoKXo1Vg2qM
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vnAGsDsySc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bp5BAJfk4Q
That's pretty funny. But racist?
The reservations I have worked on here in the U.S. really are no different. The politicians are corrupt; it's all about getting in office so you can get your family members and friends installed into certain positions as opposed to those who are actually qualified for those positions. Everything is then poorly run and the average individual pays for it.
The situation on the reservations in the U.S - at least in the 1970's when all the trouble was flaring - was that the reservations were divided between the traditional Indians and the 'progressives'. The traditionals were always full-bloods, while the 'progressives' were mixed blood. The progressives were basically just functionaries in the pocket of the government and F.B.I, who wanted access to the rich mineral deposits in the black Hills.The leader of the progressives, or Bureau of Indian Affairs (B.I.A) at that time, Dick Wilson, was knee deep in corruption, involving embezzlement of funds, and intimidation of the traditionals through the use of his goon squads, who were responsible for hundreds of murders of men, women and children. And of course, they had the full support of the government and the F.BI.