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Living conditions in a modern day Indian Reservation

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A Map of Current Indian Reservations in the United States

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Indian Reservation in the 1800s

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1. Introduction

“Racism springs from the lie that certain human beings are less than fully human. It is a self-centered falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others as we would not want to be treated” - Alveda King

The golden rule for humanity, something our parents have so eagerly attempted to instill in us, is sometimes hard to follow. The loss of naivety brings about a destruction of innocence, leaving most adults with a skewed moral compass. Even the most simple of rules happens to be the most difficult for society to follow. It is time to treat others the way we want to be treated.

All cliches aside, there happens to be a real problem in our society: racism. Over the course of my research report, I have discovered that a certain minority still discriminated against today are the Native Americans. Personally, I was oblivious to the awful and horrifying history of Native Americans. I believe that I represent the general adolescent population with my ignorance on this subject. 

My mission, through this blog, is to uncover the unfair treatment of the native Americans throughout our history and the racism that still exist today.

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10. Conclusion

“Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” - Rosa Parks

Throughout this blog, I have made it my mission to expose you to the still remnant racism that exist in America against Native Americans. My hope is that I have convinced you of this problem and fueled you with desire to make a difference.

Now that you are exposed to the truth about Native Americans and the enduring struggles they have had to persevere through, it is time for the application. We need to ask ourselves the looming question: How are we going to change this? Will we ever change this?

The answer seems uncertain, but I have hope that there is still goodness in the world. I believe there is still a desire to pursue equality, a desire to change for the better. So let’s start now because the key to a brighter future is hope.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

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9. Reservations

“Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is all right to be different. Racism and all the other 'isms' grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class or whatever. You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity.” - Roger Ebert

Modern day Native Americans live on reservations or small plots of land designed to preserve and protect their culture. For years, the government has funded these reservations poorly as they are unkept and poverty stricken. 

The average life expectancy for Native Americans trails that of other Americans by almost 5 years”. About 55% of American Indians rely on the Indian Health Service for medical care and yet, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act only meets about 60% of their health needs.

Due to underfunding, Indian Health Service facilities are non existent in some reservations. This has dramatically impacted the health and welfare of the Native peoples and created a terrible epidemic of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, tuberculosis, and cancer. The statistics are alarming.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for American Indians. American Indians are 177% more likely to die from diabetes, 500% are more likely to die from tuberculosis, 82% are more likely to die from suicide, and Infant death rates are 60% higher than for Caucasians.

Now that you are aware of the terrible living conditions Natives live in currently, I hope that you are inspired to make change. Natives deserve equal treatment and freedom form racial discrimination.

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8. Equal Rights

“Racism oppresses its victims, but also binds the oppressors, who sear their consciences with more and more lies until they become prisoners of those lies. They cannot face the truth of human equality because it reveals the horror of the injustices they commit.” - Alveda King

Many of us forget that events like the Civil rights movement happened not to long ago. You would be shocked to find out that American Indians were not given citizenship until 1924. Even then then citizenship had its boundaries as they did not possess the right for them to vote. Only by 1957 did Natives finally earn full citizenship in the United States, including the right to vote.

The American government has alienated Native Americans historically and not seen them as fully human. This is a severe act of racial discrimination and acts like these by the leaders of America further dehumanized the Natives.

Change does not happen overnight. Racism did not end the day Natives were given full and equal rights. Although this was a major step for America, the fact that we took so long to grant them rights is inexcusable. Only 60 years ago were native Americans allowed to vote. There are American Indians alive today that were at one point not considered American citizens.

As I have previously stated, racism exists in subtle forms today. In my next post I will further discuss how our nation’s government has mistreated the Native Americans by throwing them in ill-equpipped reservations.

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7. The French and Indian War

"The magnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations of reason, and to render those who should have remembered their manhood, the slaves of the basest passions." - James Fenimore Cooper

This quote came from my selected research novel, The Last of the Mohicans. James Fenimore Cooper, the author of this book, effectively illustrates the horrors of the French and Indian War and the devastating effect it had on the Native Americans of the time. He uses real historical events, such as the Battle of Fort William Henry, to prove his point.

In 1761, when America was just at the early stages of this war, the London Magazine published an article about the Battle of Fort William Henry, "The Indian bloodhounds were let loose upon our people. Most of our people were stripped stark naked, killed, and scalped. The children were taken by the heals, and their brains beat out against trees or stones." 

During this massacre, known as the Battle of Fort William Henry, only about 200 settlers were killed by the Delaware tribe and the tribe suffered roughly the same casualty number as they were simply only defending themselves. But the media had implied that thousands of innocent settlers were murdered and labeled all Indians as bloodthirsty and uncivilized barbarians. Sadly, this biased attitude towards the natives pervaded both society and journalism at that time.

The media was only interested in selling newspapers rather than telling the truth. What they didn't realize was that inaccurate depictions of Native Americans such as the ones in the article increased racism while rallying the White settlers against the Indians as a whole versus just the singular tribe who committed the massacre. This lead to an increase in British attacks on more Indian tribes, over 73% of which did not affiliate themselves with the French and Indian war at all. 

Ironically, the settlers became the very savages they were so viciously trying to murder based off of misconstrued fallacies.

Because of the misconceptions the settlers adopted of the Indians, they earned a permanent stereotype of being uncivilized savages. The French and Indian war eventually ended, but a greater battle is far from over: the battle to end racism.

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6. Modern Day Trials

“As I often say, we have come a long way from the days of slavery, but in 2014, discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable.” - Al Sharpton

I think by now you all probably are aware of the fact that racism was extremely present in American history. When we compare what took place many years ago to today, we can have the tendency to dismiss the idea of remnant racism.

Recent events coming out of the Oklahoma Governor’s Mansion have brought the discrimination and racism against Native Americans into the spotlight once again. Nationwide attention was focused most recently on the Fallin family, when Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin’s daughter, Christina, publicized a photo of herself wearing a Native American headdress. 

Now, this may seem like a minor issue and you may think that this is something that doesn't deserve to be classified as racism. But, to many modern day Native Americans, this was a sign of incredible disrespect of their culture and a subtle form of racism.

When the band of Christina Fallin performed at a festival later that week in full Indian regalia, many people stood in the audience protesting the hateful displays of Native American culture. Christina Fallin never admitted fault in her actions or gave an apology for being offensive.

Insensitiveness to a people group’s culture can lead to all kinds of strife. The fact that Fallin brushed off this issue and never acknowledged how it could of been interpreted as discriminatory represents how the general public often times exempts themselves from blame in these issues. Change is never possible if we continue on this path of insensitivity. Change is only possible with the complete destruction of racism.

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5. The Hidden Truth

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke

Now that you have read nearly half of my proposal of the mistreatment and racial discrimination of Indians, I hope you are on a journey to be inspired. With ignorance on this subject comes the triumph of the evil that is racism.

You probably recognize the name Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States. What you probably are completely unaware of is his destructive history with Native Americans. To give you a better picture of how the American Indians of the time viewed him, he was nicknamed “Indian killer” and “Sharp Knife”.

In his brutal military campaigns against Indians, Andrew Jackson recommended that troops systematically kill Indian women and children after massacres in order to complete the extermination. He did this to countless Indian tribes who were utterly defenseless against the more advanced weaponry of the settlers. These peaceful tribes were attacked by the American government and murdered in a savage and inhuman manner. I bet you never learned that in any of your Social Studies classes.

In 1830, a year after he became president, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which removed 46,000 Native Americans from their homelands east of the Mississippi. Their removal gave 25 million acres of land to white settlement. In the Trail of Tears alone, over 5,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.

Innocent and nonviolent Native Americans were forced out of their homes, which had been owned by their ancestors for hundreds of years, and into small reservations.

Often time, we glorify our country’s founders, but we fail to expose the hidden truth about their lives and the corruption they held within themselves. With this knowledge of how the American government has historically destroyed the culture of the Natives and taken their land, I hope you, the reader, are beginning to understand the injustice that has taken place on the American Indians throughout our nation’s history. 

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4. Inside Look

“Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.” - Heraclitus

I can sit here and type out thousands of words about this issue and still you may choose to disregard everything I have said. Most of you reading this, including me, probably haven't felt firsthand the effects of racism. That is why I have to bring in another source, an eye witness, who can attest to my argument.

In elementary school, Carrie Wright, currently a third year student at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, N.J., enjoyed creating a Native American puppet for a project on her ethnic background. When she presented her project at school, her teacher failed her for the assignment and told her: "Native Americans do not have a flag, so your puppet does not count." Wright chokes back tears even today when she recalls her first memory of being discriminated against as a Native American. She still has the puppet.

When interviewed, Wright stated, "I just think it's insulting to native people. It boils my blood because Natives were treated like garbage and that's never really out there for people to understand." You may choose to not listen to me, but modern American Indians like Carrie Wright deserve your attention.

In a final statement, Wright explained her frustration with modern American Society: "There is this ignorance about Native problems and problems on reservations. It almost feels like Native Americans are the country's dirty little secret."

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3. Statistics

“It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.” - George Bernard Shaw

Now, here comes the somewhat boring part of our journey: statistics. Although these can seem monotonous and at times unnecessary, they are necessary in uncovering the truth. I promise you, an in depth look at these statistics will open your mind and inspire you to make a change.

1.7 percent of all people in the United States are identified as American Indian.

Over 1.2 million Native Americans live on tribal lands or reservations.

The overall percentage of American Indians living below the federal poverty line is 30%.

There are 90,000 homeless or under housed Indian families, and that 30% of Indian housing is overcrowded and less than 50% of it is connected to a public sewer.

About 55% of American Indians rely on the Indian Health Service for medical care. Yet, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act only meets about 60% of their health needs.

These are just a few of the shocking statistics about American Indians. It is imperative that every non-Native American is aware of the current living conditions and the life Native Americans hold in the United States. Unfair and unequal treatment of American Indians is far from over and without us becoming aware of the racism against Native Americans that still exists today, I fear this will never change. 

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2. Uncovering the Truth

“You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you mad.” - Aldous Huxley

It is time to uncover the truth. It is time to educate ourselves on the impending issue of racism. It is time to change our society.

Most of you who are reading this probably find this over dramatized. You probably think that this really isn’t a big deal. This is most likely due to the fact that we aren't exposed to this racism. Our education system briefly speaks of Native American history and customs and tends to ingrain in our minds that the history of American started in 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. This is not the case.

America is not an old country. We like to flatter ourselves with the idea that we are above the rest of the world, but at best, we are intruders on the long and rich history of our planet. We are intruders of the sacred land that has become the United States. We stole something that for centuries belonged to the Native Americans.

Nevertheless, We as Americans still exempt ourselves from the blame of this theft and hold ourselves in such high regard, that we consider this land inherently ours. A society built on peace was destroyed by intruders who misunderstood the customs of the indigenous people and chose to murder and destroy instead of communicating.

So take a seat at your computer, grab a snack, and open your minds to enlightenment. It is time to uncover the truth.