Social recognition Issues of the Sioux Tribe
The Sioux Tribe, as well as various others have been struggling for recognition by the federal state government. The Sioux Tribe itself has only been just recognized since the year of 1975 since the USTDC had administered and approved the social and economical development of these people (Daniels 7). The USTDC may have approved this act, along with broadening various new programs to socially enhance the Sioux and other tribes, but would not have the power or ability in order to push past the thoughts of people who opposed the idea of accepting Native Americans into modern society. Due to the social isolationism, whether or not the Sioux Tribe would want it or not; the tribe experiences poverty and unemployment causing the people to have economical downfalls as they travel deeper into a spiraling depression. The Sioux tribe also deals with radicals who oppose any type of rights to be reserved for Native Americans, some will go as far as to push Natives, such as the Sioux tribe from their own sacred, belonging land.
The federal government has pushed for acts involving educational development as well as economical growth within the tribes, in hopes of increasing benefits to fight health issues as well as depressions within the Sioux tribe and others. Native American men who realize the social troubles in the Sioux tribe usually must leave their sacred lands in hopes of finding education and employment in the modern world in order to financially support their families. Many children struggle with the absence of a parent, causing the average of the Native American teenager to have the highest suicidal rate out of any racial group. The Sioux Tribe may have been recognized by the federal...
... middle of paper ...
...nd acceptance or encouragement of becoming a productive citizen with an education in the modern world.
Works Cited
SIRS Database
Daniels, Roger. “Immigration, Ethnic, and Refugee Organizations.”
American Immigration: A student companion. 01 Dec. 2001: R.P.
Encyclopedia
Griffin-Pierce, Trudy. “The Encyclopedia of Native America”: Indians Today.
New York: Michael Friedman publishing, 1995. 176-187.
Encyclopedia
Toynton, Evelyn. Growing up in America, 1830-1860. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook, 1995.
SIRS Database
Ramirez, Renya: “Healing, violence, and Native American Women.”
Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 Spring 2004: 103-116.
Unknown. “SOUTH DAKOTA v. BOURLAND.” n.pag. SIRS Government Reporter.
Web. 22 March 2010
Johnson, Susan. “From Wounded Knee to Capitol Hill.” State Legislatures Oct./ Nov.
1998: 14-19. SIRS Researcher. Web. 22 March 2010.
The Sioux Indians are a tribe of Native Americans that have endured persecution, segregation, and isolation. Though they suffered greatly, they stuck together and fought for their beliefs and religion. They are a diverse people ranging from warriors to holy men to farmers. The Sioux were a culturally rich and kindhearted people who were not afraid to stand up for what they believed in.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was an abuse of power exerted on the Indian tribes residing in America by the people of the colonies as well as presidents at the time of their removal. Many Indians affected lost their lives, their loved one’s lives’, and the land they thrived on dating back years to their ancestors. This act would be later named “the trail of tears” because of the monumental loss the Indian tribes had endured during their displacement, and the physical and psychological damages of these people (TOTWSR).
However, Lakota people must engage in the economic venues opened to them by the federal government as a federally dependent nation. Factory and wage work make up the bulk of Lakota employment, as well as handicrafts catering to tourist tastes. Naturally, making “arrows, arrows every day” is “really boring” (21) for many Lakota, but risks of developing asthma, blisters, broken bones and severe burns in wage work is high. Over the years, the business propositions open to South Dakota Indians have included a “fishhook factory, moccasin factory, arrow factory and electronic circuit factory in Pine Ridge,” and the destructive nature of factory work threatened the physical health and well being of every individual fortunate to gain employment (18). As the majority of Lakota men and women are forced to seek work outside of the reservation, many parents abandon their families in cramped, over crowded housing units. As dependence on cash instead of land increases, and average job spans for Lakota men consist of 3.
In regard to law, Deloria defines the relationship between the US Government and the Indians as paternalistic. The US Government treated and governed the Indians as a father would by providing basic needs but without given them rights. There has been some improvement with the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. This act allowed the return to local self-government on a tribal level and restored the self management of their assets. By allowing the Indians to self govern it encouraged an economic foundation for the inhabitants of Indian reservations. Unfortunately only a few tribes have fully taken advantage of this act, while others continue to struggle for survival.
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
Deloria defines the relationship between the US Government and the Indians as paternalistic. The US Government treated and governed the Indians as a father would by providing basic needs but without given them rights. There has been some improvement with the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. This act allowed the return to local self-government on a tribal level and restored the self management of their assets. By allowing the Indians to self govern it encouraged an economic foundation for the inhabitants of Indian reservations. Unfortunately only a few tribes have fully taken advantage of this Act, while others struggle for survival.
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
In our day and age where our youth are becoming more aware of the history of the country and the people who inhabit it, the culture of Native Americans has become more accessible and sparks an interest in many people young and old. Recent events, like the Dakota Access Pipeline, grab the attention of people, both protesters and supporters, as the Sioux tribe and their allies refuse to stay quiet and fight to protect their land and their water. Many Native people are unashamed of their heritage, proud of their culture and their ancestors. There is pride in being Native, and their connection with their culture may be just as important today as it was in the 1800’s and before, proving that the boarding school’s ultimate goal of complete Native assimilation to western culture has
Historical trauma has brought psychological effects on the Native American community. Many suffer from alcohol and drug abuse, depression, and poverty. I wondered why they do not get help from the government and after watching the documentary California’s “Lost” Tribes I began to understand that in any reservation the tribe is the government, so they do not have the same rights as a city outside the reservation. Many of the the reservations were placed in areas where they could not do any form of agriculture, so they did not have a source of income. Many of this reservations have to find ways to get themselves out of poverty and many of the reservations within California have found a way to get out of their poverty by creating casinos
The United States Government was founded on the basis that it would protect the rights and liberties of every American citizen. The Equal Protection Clause, a part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, provides that “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. Yet for hundreds of years, the US government and society have distressed the Native American people through broken treaties, removal policies, and attempts of assimilation. From the Trail of Tears in the 1830s to the Termination Policy in 1953, the continued oppression of American Indian communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension and gave the native peoples a reason to fight back. In 1968, Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, and Russell Means founded the American Indian Movement to address issues concerning the Native American community and tackle the situation and position of Native Americans in society. Over the next few decades, the movement led to a series of radical protests, which were designed to raise awareness to the American Indians’ issues and to pressure the federal government to act on their behalf. After all of the unfair and unjust policies enacted by the U.S. government and society, all of the American Indian Movement’s actions can be justified as legitimate reactions to the United States’ democratic society that had promised to respect and protect their people and had failed to do so.
In 1887 the federal government launched boarding schools designed to remove young Indians from their homes and families in reservations and Richard Pratt –the leader of Carlisle Indian School –declared, “citizenize” them. Richard Pratt’s “Kill the Indian… and save the man” was a speech to a group of reformers in 1892 describing the vices of reservations and the virtues of schooling that would bring young Native Americans into the mainstream of American society.
The Dakota sioux is a Native Indian Tribe. Their are just over 21,000 Dakota Sioux members living today. In the 19th century, these indians lived in the Great plains. Located in the mid west, this area was filled with grass plains, hills, lakes and rivers. We know refer to this area as Nebraska, North/ South Dakota and parts of Minnesota. Their climate in this area was normal warm summers and cold winters which they relied on each other as a community to help others in need since they did not have a designated doctor until closer to the end of the 19th century. These people relied on their land to support them for food and when the game went scares they travelled around. This is why they are so spread out because of the fact that when some
Native Americans have felt distress from societal and governmental interactions for hundreds of years. American Indian protests against these pressures date back to the colonial period. Broken treaties, removal policies, acculturation, and assimilation have scarred the indigenous societies of the United States. These policies and the continued oppression of the native communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension. Governmental pressure for assimilation and their apparent aim to destroy cultures, communities, and identities through policies gave the native people a reason to fight. The unanticipated consequence was the subsequent creation of a pan-American Indian identity of the 1960s. These factors combined with poverty, racism, and prolonged discrimination fueled a resentment that had been present in Indian communities for many years. In 1968, the formation of the American Indian Movement took place to tackle the situation and position of Native Americans in society. This movement gave way to a series of radical protests, which were designed to draw awareness to the concerns of American Indians and to compel the federal government to act on their behalf. The movement’s major events were the occupation of Alcatraz, Mount Rushmore, The Trail of Broken Treaties, and Wounded Knee II. These AIM efforts in the 1960s and 1970s era of protest contained many sociological theories that helped and hindered the Native Americans success. The Governments continued repression of the Native Americans assisted in the more radicalized approach of the American Indian Movement. Radical tactics combined with media attention stained the AIM and their effectiveness. Native militancy became a repertoire of action along with adopted strategies from the Civil Rights Movement. In this essay, I will explain the formation of AIM and their major events, while revealing that this identity based social movement’s radical approach led to a harsher governmentally repressive counter movement that ultimately influenced the movements decline.
As a White American, I have been virtually unaware of the harsh living conditions that Native Americans have been enduring. This past summer I was fishing and camping at a resort in northwestern Minnesota with my family. I realized that this resort was located on the White Earth Indian Reservation. As I drove around the towns that the resort was near, I saw that the Native Americans were terribly poverty-stricken. Besides the resort that my family and I were staying at and a small casino that was nearby, most of the buildings and houses were in poor condition. The majority of the houses were trailers and not something that I would call “livable.” This raised a few questions in my mind: Why are people on Indian reservations living this way and what other things besides housing are Native Americans lacking? As I began research on these questions, I found three major issues. Poverty, health, and education are three tribulations that, at this point, remain broken on American Indian reservations.
A long family tree of mistreatment and undue suffering in addition to present lack of resources and poverty has resulted in considerable distress among tribal members and families living within the majority of reservations today. As a result of such distress and despair, many Native American families living in reservations have been torn apart as alcohol, drugs and family violence have become rampant within their communities. Furthermore, the inaccessibility of most reservations combined with lack of resources proves challenging to provide proper housing for families. In addition, the American Indians make up a minority of the least educated, sickest and poorest people within our country. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for Native American youths in the 15-24 age group and 2.5 times the national rate.