As I've mentioned, the problems of the Native Americans is a near one to me due to my ancestry and my experiences working with missionaries on Reservation land. The problems the native americans living on the reservation have are the same problems anyone else that is generationally on the dole.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002648586 MichaelMcGuire (1,175 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
US should return stolen land to Indian tribes, says United Nations
Last edited Sat May 5, 2012, 06:08 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
A Native American at his home on Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, which has some of the US's poorest living conditions. Photograph: Jennifer Brown/Star Ledger/Corbis
UN's correspondent on indigenous peoples urges government to act to combat 'racial discrimination' felt by Native Americans
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 combatting 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......
Continue http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/04/us-stolen-land-indian-tribes-un?newsfeed=true
Some pictures of the poverty facing people in Pine Ridge Reservation.
Wanna know a secret DUmmie, Nobody in those picture owns anything around them. The trailers belong to the government, the land the trailer sits on belongs to the government, everything that has been bought in those pictures was purchased with government money. This is your nirvana...nothing but squalor, teenage pregnancy, teenage suicide, rampant alcoholism and drug use, and little respect for education.
dkf (27,665 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
1. Land by itself doesn't do much. What determines economic gain is what you do with the land.
And that takes connections and savvy.
I see that man with his home...if he had more land, would that in itself make him so much better off?
dkf asks a fair question. He admits someone must be wiling to work the land, which means they would need a reason to try.
polly7 (5,327 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
2. Well ........ yeah.
He could farm, maybe raise animals or vegetable produce to sell, make money from mineral rights, get sponsors or developers to build up a business.......... any of the things other people with land benefit from.
But currently, he doesn't own that land, taking more land that he doesn't own wouldn't improve his lot.
dkf (27,665 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
6. But he has to do something to get that economic gain.
Raising animals or farming isn't an easy life and i doubt that is the way out of financial difficulties, mineral rights...yeah sure the government would give that away, get sponsors or developers...you think the average person can manage that, much less a person who is currently disadvantaged?
It all starts with education. Without that there is no way a person can manage things properly, especially in a way that will help generations down the line.
I've watched as years of young native american men dropped out of high school at 16 got their 14 year old girlfriend pregnant and headed for the liquor store as soon as the government checks started rolling in.
Response to dkf (Reply #6)
Sat May 5, 2012, 01:00 PM
polly7 (5,327 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
9. I've farmed and raised animals ...... it's not all that difficult, and of course Native
Americans could do it just as well as anyone.
My uncle got rich developing a ski-hill, I don't believe he finished high school ...... but he owned the land and was able to attract some very well-off developers.
It seems to me, you're saying they'd just blow it if they had the chance to do what non-native landowners have been making money from for decades.
And ... about this education ... I know up here our First Nations People near me are getting a very good education. For sure and sadly, it's not the case everywhere, but assuming they, as a group are not knowledgeable or educated .. that's just wrong.
Ah, but they don't own the land, and since the federal government gives them enough to exist, they do.
Response to dkf (Reply #1)
Sat May 5, 2012, 01:43 PM
RC (18,040 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
19. Maybe you should read the article
Last edited Sat May 5, 2012, 01:52 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
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.
>SNIP<
"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."
The problem is not just any ol' land, but land that was theirs, the aboriginals, through signed deeds with the United States Government, that were subsequently found to have oil, gas, minerals, or otherwise found to have worth for the White Man and then having the land then taken away from them. The Black Hills is only the most famous of the injustices done to the original inhabitants of this country. The United States Government has kept very few of its agreements.
Edited to add: I can't believe the callus racism of some posters here. If the Native Americans were Black or Hispanic, instead of aboriginals, this wouldn't fly very well. But never mind, they're just injians, so who give a ****, right.
Well I do!
Good gravy, the indians were regularly at war with each other and regularly stole land from each other. Then they ran into a tribe numerous enough to take it and keep it. That is the way of the world.
Response to dkf (Reply #1)
Sat May 5, 2012, 02:29 PM
stranger81 (1,530 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
20. How do you know what this man has done or hasn't done
to improve his own situation? You can't infer that by looking at a picture of him on his deck, IMHO.
If he is sitting on that deck? Then not much. Have you ever known Sioux indians who have left the reservation? They are told when they are moving off that they can never come back.
vaberella (23,175 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
5. And what about Mexico, UN? You seriously think that Mexico would waste it's time with Texas now?
Or Arizona...it might take Nevada though. I would.
Put it to a vote in Mexicao and they would vote themselves Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada back in a heartbeat.
Zalatix (3,672 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
13. Give back what was stolen by force? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
1) Kill the indigenous people.
2) Take over their land.
3) Hold it for 200 years.
4) OWNERSHIP!!!!!
Yep.
Amonester (8,779 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
21. Then Indian tribes should return stolen land to whoever...
(or to whatever) was there before them.
While on the matter, let's go back this way to the Romans, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Chinese, and then way down to the Cro-magnons and the Apes before them...
Careful, that is lousy freeper trollish.
mysuzuki2 (1,995 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
22. It is obviously impossible to return North America to its pre 1492 condition
even if non-native people had anywhere else to go. That being said, we can and should do a helluva alot better than we have done. The conditions at Rosebud and Pineridge are a disgrace and an embarrasment to us all.
Yes, we should disband the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tell the various tribes that the members own clear title and deed to their current residence and have the states offer the same welfare assistance as everyone else. The government money impoverishes them.
The DUmmies answer is more government money. That money has destroyed the proud native American nations in a way in which no gun ever could. Their ancestors were warriors, and thanks to the government handing them enough to exist, they are beggars. Not all the indian reservations have casinos, and I am of rather dubious opinion about where the money from a casino goes.
The Taiwanese were in the same situation a mere fifty years ago. They had lost their land and were sitting on an undeveloped rock with little mineral resource. They built. They had to if they wanted to survive. The Mormons found themselves in a barren desert and built a city. I am glad that my grandparents were kicked out for acting white.
