History+of+Oppression



The Grandfathers have taught us about sacrifice. We have been taught to pray for the people in a pitiful way. Struggle and conflict is neither good nor bad, it just is. Everything that grows experiences conflict. When the deer is born it is through conflict. When the seed first grows, it is through conflict. Conflict precedes clarity. Everything has the seasons of growth. Recognize - acknowledge - forgive and change. All of these things are done through conflict.

"It is a paradox in the contemporary world that in our desire for peace we must willingly give ourselves to struggle." --Linda Hogan, CHICKASAW


 * About 70 percent of Native Americans live in urban areas, according to the U.S. Census. Many Native people, although sometimes thousands of miles away from their traditional homeland, still speak their languages or maintain ties with their reservation or Indian communities, but often with some struggle.
 * Native Americans today face many different issues. Some are old, some are new and some are on-going. The negative stereotyping, that began so long ago is still prevalent today and serves as an effective vehicle for discrimination and prejudice that inevitably leads to exploitation. Such wrong attitudes and unfair actions can be prevented or changed and corrected only through education.


 * "Great Spirit, give me the courage today to see that struggle and conflict are here to teach me lessons that are a gift from you.(2)**

** Most Native American view the arrival of Columbus as the beginning of a 500 year cycle of diseases, exploitation, enslavement, and genocide. **
 * What began 500 years ago has ramifications that exist today, such as shortened life expectancy due to emotional and health problems.
 *  Most Natives were curious and even friendly toward the invading strangers, but the lifestyles of the Natives were in direct conflict with the homesteads, farms, and industrial activity of the European newcomers. Native Americans believed the elements of the environment were inseparable and could not be owned by individuals. The settlers felt that the Natives did not make good use of the land and that, therefore they should yield it to people who thought they could use the land more productively.


 * Thanksgiving Massacre **



By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.... But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.


 * As colonies were established, settlers began an aggressive policy of expansion based on weakening and wearing down Native Americans. By the time the settlers were entrenched along the eastern seaboard, resentment and antagonism toward Indians had escalated. They were considered a subhuman race that must be religiously converted, removed, or exterminated.
 * The 1744 Treaty of Lancaster established the Appalachian Mountains as the physical boundary between settlers and Natives. As the number of settlers multiplied, Natives were forced westward as they fought a losing battle for land and their survival. Most Native fatalities were caused by diseases rather than warfare, and survivors of disease and genocide were subject to the widespread practice of slavery.
 *  The 1830 Indian Removal Act extinguished Indian land rights east of the Mississippi.
 * Trail of Tears**
 *  The 1830 Indian Removal Act extinguished Indian land rights east of the Mississippi.
 * Trail of Tears**



====In the 1830's, Native Americans still lived in their native lands for the most part. However, white men considered them a threat to peace. So, in 1838, the Federal government had what they called the "Five Civilized Tribes" removed. These tribes were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. They were moved at a forced march up to 800 miles from their homelands to the "Indian Territory", which is modern-day Oklahoma. Under cruel conditions, the army forced the peaceful tribes through the cold, winter weather to their new homes. During this ordeal, known as the "Trail of Tears", over 4,000 Cherokees alone died, out of the 15,000 moved. They died due to disease, exposure, and starvation.==== ====Even when the Indian Territory was reached, the US Government was not satisfied. Slowly, more and more of the land was taken from the Native American tribes. A government who maintained ideas of equality and freedom, were showing that these ideas obviously did not pertain to everyone. In 1902, several hundred thousand acres were cleared out for white settlements. In 1907, the Indian Nations ceased to exist, and when Oklahoma became a state, all Native American territory was assimilated into the Union.(3)====
 * The 1854 Indian Appropriation Act gave Congress authority to establish Indian reservations and provided the legal basis for removal of specific Natives to specific locations. The discovery of gold in the West terminated Indian land rights and resulted in their extermination
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 *  By 1890 the last of the so-called Indian wars was over.
 * The 1887 Indian Allotment Act had eliminated the rights of Indians to hold tribal land in common, exchanging communal property for individualized allotments of 160 acres per head of household, with lesser acreage to individuals.
 *  In less than 100 years, Indian lands had been reduced from all land west of the Appalachian Mountains to desolate reservations totaling less than 4% of the continental United States.
 *  Treaties became the basis used by settlers to legally steal Native lands. Typical treaty negotiations involved giving up huge tracts of land in exchange for reservation areas, food, hardware goods, and annuity payments. However, the government's "perpetual guaranty" of Native lands did not endure; and the delivery of promised food, goods, and moneys failed to take place.

**//"Cage the badger and he will try to break from his prison and regain his native hole. Chain the eagle to the ground - he will strive to gain his freedom, and though he fails, he will lift his head and look up at the sky which is home - and we want to return to our mountains and plains, where we used to plant corn, wheat and beans."//**

**-- Written by a Navajo in 1865**

>  was co-founded by Denni s Banks. The new organization was comprised primarily of young urban Indians who believed that direct and militant confrontation with the US government was the only way to redress historical grievances and to gain contemporary civi l rights; and that the tribal governments organized under the IRA (1934) were not truly legitimate or grounded in traditional Indian ways. By the 1990s, AIM was still active in Indian affairs, but was less involved in militant confrontation > Indian Education Act **-** This Congressional Act established funding for special bilingual and bicultural programs, culturally relevant teaching materials, and appropriate training and hiring of counselors. It also created an Office of Indian Education in the US Department of Education
 * In 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) **-** This Congressional Act revised Public Law 280 by requiring states to obtain tribal consent prior to extend any legal jurisdiction over an Indian reservation. It also gave most protections of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment to tribal members in dealings with their tribal governments. ICRA also amended the Major Crimes Act to include assault resulting in serious bodily harm.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">American Indian Movement (AIM) **-** Shortly after the Minneapolis Anishinaabeg formed an "Indian Patrol" to monitor police activities in Indian neighborhoods, AIM [[image:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Occupy-Denver-Native-American-Glenn-Morris-AIM-Colorado-e1319410081932-615x317.jpg width="429" height="221" align="right"]]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 1970 President Nixon delivered a speech to Congress which denounced past federal policies, formally ended the termination policy, and called for a new era of self-determination for Indian peoples.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties - Over 500 Indian activists traveled across the United States to Washington, DC where they planned to meet with BIA officials and to deliver a 20-point proposal for revamping the BIA and establishing a government commission to review treaty violations. When guards at the BIA informed the tribal members that Bureau officials would not meet with them and threatened forcible removal from the premises, the activists began a week-long siege of the BIA building. The BIA finally agreed to review the 20 demands and to provide funds to transport the activists back to their home. Shortly thereafter, the FBI classified AIM as "an extremist organization" and added the names of its leaders to the list of "key extremists" in the US.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties - Over 500 Indian activists traveled across the United States to Washington, DC where they planned to meet with BIA officials and to deliver a 20-point proposal for revamping the BIA and establishing a government commission to review treaty violations. When guards at the BIA informed the tribal members that Bureau officials would not meet with them and threatened forcible removal from the premises, the activists began a week-long siege of the BIA building. The BIA finally agreed to review the 20 demands and to provide funds to transport the activists back to their home. Shortly thereafter, the FBI classified AIM as "an extremist organization" and added the names of its leaders to the list of "key extremists" in the US.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation **-** At the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Oglala Souix in south Dakota trouble had been brewing between the Indian activists that supported AIM, and tribal leaders who had the support of the BIA. After a violent confrontation in 1972, tribal chair Richard Wilson condemned AIM and banned it from the reservation. In February 1973, AIM leaders led by Russell Means and about 200 activists who were supported by some Oglala traditional leaders took over the village of Wounded Knee, announced the creation of the Oglala Souix Nation, declared themselves independent from the United States, and defined their national boundaries as those determined by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie . The siege lasted 71 days, during which time federal marshals, FBI agents, and armored vehicles surrounded the village. AIM members finally agreed to end their occupation under one condition - that the government convene a full investigation into their demands and grievances.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 1975 Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) **-** Leaders from over 20 tribes created CERT to help Indians secure better terms from corporations that sought to exploit valuable mineral resources on reservations.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act - This Congressional Act recognized the obligation of the US to provide for maximum participation by American Indians in Federal services to and programs in Indian communities. It also established a goal to provide education and services to permit Indian children to achieve, and declared a commitment to maintain the Federal government's continuing trust relationship, and responsibility to, individual Indians and tribes
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 1979 The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Gaming - The Seminole were the first tribe to enter into the bingo gaming industry. Their endeavors encouraged other tribes to begin gaming enterprises on reservations as a step towards greater economic self-sufficiency.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In 1980 United States v.Sioux Nation of - U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Sioux Indians were entitled to an award of $17.5 million, plus 5% interest per year since 1877, totaling about $106 million in compensation for the unjust taking of the Black Hills and in direct contravention of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. TheSioux have refused to take the money and sits in a trust fund in Washington, collecting interest.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">1990 Native American Languages Act**-**This Congressional Act made it US policy to "preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native American languages." Consequently, the federal government encourages and supports of the use of native languages as a medium of instruction in schools; recognizes the right of Indian Tribes to give official status to their languages for conducting their own business; supports proficiency in native languages by granting the same academic credit as for comparable proficiency in a foreign language; and encourages schools to include native languages in the curriculum in the same way as foreign languages. Today, many American Indian languages have been //lost;// less than 100 languages currently are spoken by Indians
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">.Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) //-// The Congressional Act is intended to promote Indian artwork and handicraft businesses, reduce foreign an counterfeit product competition, and stop deceptive marketing practices.
 * Native American<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Grave Protection and Repatriation Act - This Congressional Act required all institutions that receive federal funds to inventory their collections of Indian human remains and artifacts, make their lists available to Indian tribes, and return any items requested
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Indian Law Enforcement Act - This Congressional Act created a unified approach to the BIA's provision of law enforcement service on reservations.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">1999 Shannon County, South Dakota, home of the Oglala Lakota on Pine Ridge Reservation is identified as the **poorest place** in the country.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Despite the recent changes and smaller wars won, the persistent, continuing failure of the federal government to pay destitute Native Americans the millions (some say billions) of dollars due them for the surrender of their water and mineral rights has given rise to lawsuits against government agencies accused of mismanagement.(4,1)
 * **// Although the government and people of the United States express outrage at oppression and abuse of indigenous people in other countries, Native Americans continue to be a dispossessed and disenfranchised minority in their own land. //**

1)http://www.lenapeprograms.info/Articles/brief_bkg.htm (2)http://www.lenapeprograms.info/Articles/brief_bkg.htm (3) http://www.cyberlearning-world.com/nhhs/project/totears.htm (4)http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-timeline6.html

Jeannie Neu