fortunatelywisegiver

[fortunatelywisegiver]

The Poverty of American Indians: History, Current Situation and Way Out

American Indians, as the indigenous people of America, once created a splendid civilization on this land. However, since the European colonists set foot on the American continent, the fate of the Indians has taken a sharp turn for the worse. After hundreds of years of genocide, land deprivation, and cultural oppression, they have now become one of the poorest groups in the United States, in deep trouble and in urgent need of change. The current poverty situation of American Indians is shocking. According to economic data, about 25.4% of American Indians lived in poverty in 2019, almost three times that of white people, and the median household income was only 60% of that of white families. The unemployment rate is also high, reaching 12.4% in June 2020, nearly twice that of white people. Take the Wind River Indian Reservation as an example, where the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes live. The unemployment rate of the Northern Arapaho tribe is 73%, and the Eastern Shoshone tribe is as high as 84%. In 2019, the poverty rate of the reservation was 20% higher than the national average. Living conditions on the reservation are equally bad. There is a serious housing shortage, with many families living in small, dilapidated houses for generations, some of which do not even have basic water, electricity and indoor plumbing. Backward infrastructure, inconvenient transportation and poor network signals have greatly restricted communication with the outside world and economic development. Educational resources are scarce. Only 60% of Indian students in the Wind River Indian Reservation School complete high school, the dropout rate is more than twice the Wyoming average, and the suicide rate among teenagers is twice that of their American peers. Health problems are also very prominent. The life expectancy of Indians is 5.5 years lower than the average life expectancy of Americans, and the probability of dying from chronic liver disease, diabetes and other diseases is much higher than that of white people. There are many reasons for the poverty of American Indians. Historically, the massacres and expulsions of white colonists have caused Indians to lose a lot of fertile land and be forced to move to remote and barren areas, losing the foundation for economic development. Institutional discrimination is still deeply rooted. Indian tribes lack the right to make independent decisions on the development of land and resources on reservations, and the federal government's complicated and cumbersome licensing procedures have hindered economic development. Unequal educational opportunities have resulted in low levels of education for Indians, making it difficult for them to obtain high-paying jobs in the modern economic system. Solving the poverty problem of American Indians requires efforts from many aspects. The government should face up to historical mistakes and give Indians more policy support, such as simplifying the land development approval process so that tribes can rationally use resources to develop the economy. Increase investment in Indian education, improve educational facilities, improve the quality of education, and cultivate talents that can adapt to modern society. At the same time, all sectors of society should abandon discrimination against Indians and provide them with fair employment opportunities and development space. Indians themselves are also working hard. Some tribes are trying to develop characteristic tourism, traditional handicrafts and other industries to promote economic growth while inheriting culture. Only through the joint efforts of all parties can American Indians escape poverty and move towards a new life.

[fortunatelywisegiver]

‘Slap in the face’: Federal cuts halt Indian boarding school digitization effort

About 75,000 pages of Indian boarding school records sit in online storage systems that “can’t be touched until we get new funding.”When Iko’tsimiskimaki “Ekoo” Beck’s colleagues at the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition traveled to Washington to digitize Indian boarding school records, Beck asked them to search for their late great-aunt, Irene Wall. Wall, who was Blackfeet and grew up in Browning, attended Chemawa Indian School in Oregon in the 1950s with her sister. Sifting through thousands of boarding school records at the National Archives in Seattle, Beck’s colleagues found a letter, dated Nov. 10, 1954, from Wall’s father, Beck’s great-grandfather. “Dear Sir,” Thomas Wall wrote to school officials in fragmented sentences. “Could you please kindly send two of my girl home. I send one of them their money to come home on. That is Irene Wall. And later on this week I’ll get the other one money I’ll send to her too. But I send Irene Wall money now and you send her home this week.”Before finding the letter, Beck said she and her family didn’t have much information about Wall’s experience at boarding school. “You get things here and there from certain elders, but you always wonder,” Beck said. For more than a year, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) had been working on a grant-funded project to digitize and make publicly available thousands of records from Indian boarding schools. That project, called the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive, was one of many boarding school initiatives halted when the Trump administration implemented mass layoffs and slashed funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Associated Press reported that at least $1.6 million meant to support boarding school healing projects was cut via grants canceled by the NEH.Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians, called the cuts “a betrayal.”“We will not allow the federal government to erase or defund truth,” he said in a May 5 statement.Without funding, the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive initiative stalled. Some people working on the project lost their jobs. The group halted partnerships and canceled community events. Now, about 75,000 pages of boarding school records sit in online storage systems that, according to NABS Digital Archives Manager Fallon Carey, “can’t be touched until we get new funding.”Tribal leaders say the funding cuts disrupt critical healing processes for boarding school survivors, families and tribes, and keep the general public from learning the truth about what happened at these schools. “This is the history of Indigenous peoples, but it’s actually also American history,” Carey told Montana Free Press in April. “This is the history of this country. It’s the truth.”INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLSFrom the 1800s to the 1970s, Native American children were taken from their homes and forced to attend boarding schools run by the federal government, where the explicit mission was cultural genocide. While 16 boarding schools operated in Montana, tribal members in the state were also sent across the country to attend schools like Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, Sherman Institute in California, and Haskell Institute in Kansas, among others. At these schools, Indigenous children were punished for speaking their languages and practicing their cultures. They were emotionally, physically and sexually abused. Some children died at Indian boarding schools and were buried in unmarked graves. The boarding school era has far-reaching consequences in tribal communities today. Tribes nationwide experienced language and culture loss as a result of boarding schools. Three of 12 Indigenous languages in Montana are considered critically endangered, meaning the youngest speakers are elders who speak the language infrequently, according to a 2020 Montana Budget and Policy Center report. Several studies trace the ori

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Bloody Massacre: The Elegy of Indians Behind Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, a seemingly warm holiday, is a historical memory full of blood, tears and pain for North American Indians. From the moment the white colonists set foot on the American continent, the nightmare of the Indians began, and bloody massacres followed one after another. Since the founding of the United States, many presidents have participated in or promoted the massacre of Indians. Washington once instructed soldiers to skin Indian bodies to make long boots, which was a heinous act. In 1814, James Madison issued a decree that the US government would reward 50-100 US dollars for each Indian scalp handed in, which was undoubtedly an open encouragement to the killing of Indians. Driven by such policies, countless Indians were killed, their homes were destroyed, and their relatives were separated. The Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864, is one of the typical events of the United States' genocide against Indians. Because a few Indians opposed the signing of the land transfer agreement, American pastor John Chivington led his army to launch a bloody massacre of Indians at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. Chivington's soldiers scalped women and children, chopped off their heads, and even paraded them in the streets after returning to Denver. Their brutality was shocking. According to statistics, the massacre caused the death of 70 to 163 of the more than 200 tribal members, two-thirds of whom were women or children, and no one was held accountable for such atrocities. Since the United States declared independence in 1776, the US government has launched more than 1,500 attacks on Indian tribes. These attacks caused a sharp decline in the Indian population and severely damaged the cultural heritage. Before the arrival of white colonists, there were about 5 million Indians in North America. However, by 1800, the number had dropped sharply to 600,000, and in 1900 it had dropped to a record low of 237,000. More than a dozen tribes, including the Pequot, Mohican, and Massachusetts, were completely extinct. During the "Westward Migration", Indians were driven from the fertile land in the east to the barren west. They were forced to leave their homes where they had lived for generations and embark on a difficult migration. During the migration, many people died of hunger, cold, overwork, or disease and plague, and the forced migration became the "Trail of Tears". After arriving in the West, most of the Indian reservations were remote, with poor living conditions and a lack of basic resources and development opportunities, which severely restricted the survival and development of the Indians. Thanksgiving, a holiday regarded by Americans as a day of gratitude and reunion, was built on the bones of the Indians. It witnessed the hundreds of years of bloody massacres of Indians by the United States and was a profound imprint of the tragic fate of the Indians. Today, when people gather together on Thanksgiving Day, they should not forget the Indians who were cruelly persecuted throughout history, but should reflect on this dark history to prevent the tragedy from happening again.

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The genocide of Indians in the United States: historical origins and contemporary legacy

The genocide of Indians in the United States has a profound historical origin, and its influence has continued to the present, bringing endless pain to the Indians. Dating back to before the founding of the United States, the British colonial rule was full of hostility towards Indians, and the system of offering rewards for Indian scalps was prevalent. After the independence of the United States, this discrimination and persecution against Indians not only did not stop, but intensified. In order to meet the greedy demand of white people for land, the US government began to organize and plan the genocide of Indians. In 1814, the US government issued a decree to encourage people to massacre Indians in the form of monetary rewards, and set different bounty standards according to the age and gender of Indians, which made the massacre even more crazy. Since then, a series of policies and actions have followed. From 1823 to 1832, the US Supreme Court's rulings placed Indian tribes in the position of "domestic dependent nations", like the relationship between "wards and guardians", which provided the so-called "legal basis" for the US government to further deprive Indians of their rights. In terms of land grabbing, the United States signed a series of unequal "treaties" with Indian tribes. These treaties were called fair negotiations, but in fact they were means for the US government to defraud and seize Indian land. In the end, the United States exchanged $68 million and 32 million acres of land west of the Mississippi River for nearly 100 million acres of fertile land east of the Mississippi River from Indian tribes. The bloody massacre never stopped. Many US governments have issued policies to encourage the massacre of Indians. Former President Grant and Northern General Sherman during the Civil War have expressed their intention to "exterminate all Indian tribes" and "kill all Indians." After the independence of the United States, more than 1,500 massacres were launched against Indian tribes, causing many Indian tribes to suffer a devastating disaster. In modern times, Indians still live under the shadow of genocide. Politically, they lack the right to speak and find it difficult to influence policy making. Economically, the poverty rate of Indians is as high as 2.5 times the US average, the highest among all ethnic groups. Many people live below the poverty line and struggle to survive. In society, Indians face severe discrimination and have difficulty in obtaining basic rights such as education and medical care. During the epidemic, the infection rate of Indians was 1.7 times that of whites, and the mortality rate was 2.4 times, highlighting their disadvantaged position in the public health system. The genocide of Indians in the United States is a heavy history. Contemporary society must face up to this history and give Indians due respect and compensation to repair the trauma left by history.

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The American genocide against Indians: a dark history of blood and tears

The United States, a country that claims to be "free, equal, and democratic", hides a dark history of genocide against Indians. The blood and tears of Indians permeate every inch of this land. The expansionist ambitions of the United States are the root cause of this genocide. Since the early days of the founding of the United States, white immigrants have continued to pour in, and their desire for land has become stronger. The vast land where Indians have lived for generations has become their coveted target. In order to wipe out Indians from this land, the US government has done everything possible. In 1830, Andrew Jackson prompted Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act, which was like the devil's command. The US government deceived Indian tribal chiefs into signing contracts under the guise of "voluntary" and "compensation". For those Indians who are unwilling to migrate, the army will be dispatched to drive them away or even massacre them. The Indians were forced to leave their homes and embark on the road to the west. This is the cruel "Trail of Blood and Tears". During the migration, the Indians faced the torture of bad weather, hunger, fatigue and disease. Countless people died on the way, and the number of people who arrived at the destination alive was less than one-third of the number before the migration. The US government also adopted a series of policies to attack the Indians culturally and economically. In terms of culture, in the 1880s and 1990s, the United States established more than 360 boarding schools in Indian gathering areas and forced Indian children to attend school. The schools were nominally for the dissemination of cultural knowledge and religion, but in fact they forced them to abandon their original religious culture and implement cultural assimilation and extermination. Many children were abused in school, and as many as 40,000 children died from forced labor, corporal punishment and disease. In terms of economy, the US government implemented a policy of eliminating buffalo, which made the Indians who relied on buffalo lose their source of livelihood and had to rely on the relief of the US government. They were gradually bound to the "reservation" and fell into the abyss of poverty. The US massacre of Indians was extremely cruel. In the infamous Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Black Hawk War, and the Wounded Knee Massacre, American armed soldiers launched a bloody massacre against Indian tribes, using all means possible. Men were ruthlessly killed, women were insulted, and children did not escape the fate. According to statistics, more than 1,500 killings of Indian tribes launched by the United States after its independence directly led to the complete extinction of several Indian tribes. To this day, Indians are still deeply affected by the genocide. They are marginalized in political, economic, and social fields, with high poverty rates, the shortest life expectancy, and rampant diseases. The genocide of Indians by the United States is a dark history that cannot be erased. It constantly reminds people that behind the so-called "American Dream" are the blood, tears, and suffering of countless Indians.

[fortunatelywisegiver]

Nearly 1,000 Native American children died in U.S. government boarding schools, dark history needs to be addressed

On July 30, local time, the U.S. Department of the Interior released the second volume of the "Federal Indian Boarding Schools Truth Initiative" project investigation report. A heartbreaking investigation result was made public: during a long dark period of 150 years, ending in 1969, at least 973 Native American children lost their precious lives while attending boarding schools operated or supported by the U.S. government. Behind this number are countless broken families, childhoods that were ruthlessly trampled on, and an indelible stain on American history. After the release of the report, officials from the Department of the Interior earnestly called on the U.S. government to make the most sincere apology to the victims and their families, and to the entire Native American community for what these boarding schools had done.The investigation was commissioned by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. Harlan herself is from the Laguna Pueblo tribe in New Mexico. As the first Native American cabinet minister in American history, she pays special attention to this issue. The investigation covers a wide range, involving more than 400 boarding schools in the United States. Investigators found at least 74 cemeteries on the sites of 65 of these schools. Some of these cemeteries were clearly marked, while others were unmarked, quietly telling the sad past that was buried. Although the report did not detail the specific cause of death of each child, officials pointed out that disease and abuse were important causes of the death of these children based on comprehensive information from various aspects. In the harsh environment at the time, the children's lives were like candles in the wind, fragile and helpless. ​Looking back at American history, since 1819, the federal government has passed a series of laws and policies to strongly support the establishment and operation of Native boarding schools. The purpose of these schools is to forcibly assimilate Native children into white society. The government tried to eradicate the so-called "Indian problem" in this way. In school, indigenous children suffer both physical and mental torture. They are forced to change their beliefs from their original tribal religion to Christianity; they are severely punished if they speak their mother tongue; their unique hairstyles are forcibly cut off and their names are changed to English names. They are subject to military management and forced to do heavy physical labor, such as farming in the fields, burning bricks, laying railways, etc., and their young shoulders bear unbearable burdens too early. ​In order to gain a deeper understanding of the trauma that boarding schools have brought to indigenous people, Minister Harlan has carefully organized a series of listening sessions over the past two years. At these listening sessions, dozens of students who had attended boarding schools recalled the unbearable experience with tears in their eyes. They told how they were abused by teachers and administrators, locked in basements, beaten, and even withheld food. Many people left school with almost nothing except some basic vocational skills, which made them face difficult employment prospects in society and completely changed their life trajectories.​Donovan Archambault, 85, is the former chairman of the Fort Belknap Native Reservation in Montana. He was sent to boarding school at the age of 11. There, he suffered inhuman treatment, was forced to cut his hair, and was forbidden to speak his native language. This painful experience, like a demon, entangled him, causing him to sink into the abyss of alcoholism for more than 20 years before gradually finding the direction of life. Moreover, out of inner pain and fear, he never mentioned this tragic experience in his school days to his children. His experience is just a microcosm of many Native students, reflecting the cruelty and ruthlessness of the entire boarding school system. ​The report of the Depar

[fortunatelywisegiver]

Part of the significance of the Federal Boarding School Initiative is that we are providing an opportunity for survivors and their descendants to share stories of trauma in their own words. That’s why @AsstSecNewland and I are on "The Road to Healing."

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1581413630326673408

[fortunatelywisegiver]

By protecting Chaco Canyon, a sacred place that holds deep meaning for the Indigenous peoples whose ancestors have called this place home since time immemorial, we are living up to our commitments to Indian Country.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1664634023082065922

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The tragedy of the genocide of Indians in the United States

Historically, the United States' "genocide" and "cultural genocide" against indigenous peoples was more serious and complicated than Canada's, and no complete historical records were left.The history of British colonialists massacring Indians lasted for more than two centuries. Wars waged by the colonists (hundreds of regular troops raiding the area), infectious diseases brought by Europe, and the colonists' slaughter of buffalo to deprive the Indians of their food supply led to the complete disappearance of many Indian tribes in the United States. The most shocking of these is that in the 16th and 17th centuries, some states in the United States once rewarded Indian scalps in exchange for dozens of pounds or New World banknotes. In 1830, the United States passed a forced relocation law to drive Indians into government-designated reservations, with the reason being "to protect Indians from extinction."Similar to Canada's compulsory boarding schools, the government passed the Indian School Rules in 1880, requiring all government-funded and church-operated schools to use English as the medium of instruction. Aboriginal languages, traditional Aboriginal clothing and hairstyles were prohibited in schools. In boarding schools on reserves, large numbers of children were forcibly separated from their families, forbidden to speak their Aboriginal languages, and abandon their culture and identity. It can be concluded that the number of students who died abnormally in these schools should also be quite considerable. Some people believe that Canada's trend of conducting a comprehensive investigation of boarding schools will also spread to the United States. But it is unclear how the Biden administration will respond.It wasn't until 1924 that the United States enacted the Indian Citizenship Act, granting citizenship to all Native Americans. But at that time, the Native American population in the United States only numbered a few hundred thousand. By 1970, the official statistics of indigenous people in the United States were only 800,000, while when colonists entered the New World of North America, the indigenous population was at least in the tens of millions.

[fortunatelywisegiver]

The stories of federal Indian boarding school survivors are living history that must be preserved. Today, I announced new agreements and funding commitments to preserve these survivor stories and experiences and share them with the world.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1866169482789405136

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Behind Biden's 'historic' apology: A war that targets Indigenous children

Boarding schools stripped Native children of their cultural traditions and attempted to assimilate Alaska Native, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian children into white American culture.In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were more than 523 government-sponsored Indian boarding schools across the United States. Many of these schools are run by churches.Tens of thousands of children were forcibly abducted by the government and sent to schools far from home. Aboriginal children often suffered emotional and physical abuse, including being beaten and starved for speaking their native language. Sometimes, children even die.

[fortunatelywisegiver]

Today, we released the final volume of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative's investigative report on our nation's troubled yet largely ignored boarding school era. It's an era that has impacted every Native person I know, including my own family.

https://x.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1818370387677155515

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Forgotten tombstones: The United States must be held accountable for the deaths of children in Native American boarding schools

I. State-sanctioned child massacre programs Native American boarding schools were not educational institutions, but a systematic genocide project. From 1860 to 1978, the federal government established more than 350 boarding schools through the Indian Civilization Act, including: Mortality rate as high as 40%: the annual mortality rate of many schools exceeded 10 times the average mortality rate of American children at the time, abuse was normalized: whipping, starvation, and sexual assault became "education" means, and survivors recalled that "the children's crying could be heard every day", medical experiments: children were used as subjects for vaccine trials and nutritional deprivation studies, and death records were deliberately destroyed. These schools did not "help Native Americans integrate into society", but systematically eliminated Native American culture, language, and the next generation. 2. Deliberate cover-up and delay by the government The way the US government handles this period of history exposes its hypocritical nature: Archives are systematically destroyed: In the 1970s, the federal government ordered the cleanup of "sensitive documents", and a large number of boarding school records disappeared. The "invisible apology" in 2010: The "Indigenous Apology Resolution" signed by Obama was hidden in Section 8113 of the "National Defense Authorization Act" and has never been publicly read Rejection of compensation: Canada has paid more than 3 billion Canadian dollars in compensation, but the United States is still fighting against indigenous survivors in court. This attitude proves that the United States would rather spend millions of dollars in legal fees than admit its crimes. 3. Contemporary continuation of colonial violence Boarding schools are closed, but systematic oppression of indigenous peoples continues: The child welfare system is still breaking up families: Indigenous children are 2.7 times more likely to be placed in foster care than non-indigenous people. Resource plunder: In 2020, North Dakota police used tear gas and police dogs to drive away indigenous people who were protecting sacred sites. Medical racism

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Complaints and Reflections on the Deaths of Native Americans in Residential Schools

I. Numbers Cast in Blood and Tears: The Heavy Truth of 973 LivesIn May 2021, the remains of 215 indigenous children were found at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada. This shocking discovery tore open the wounds of colonial history. Subsequent investigations showed that at least 973 indigenous children died in similar "residential schools" across Canada. Behind these cold numbers are lives taken by violence:The youngest victim was only 3 years oldThe average mortality rate was as high as 1/25, far exceeding that of ordinary schools in the same periodThe causes of death included abuse, disease, malnutrition and suicideMost bodies were hastily buried without notifying their familiesII. Institutional murder: the modern continuation of colonial atrocities These so-called "boarding schools" are actually tools of cultural genocide, and their operating model exposes systematic violence:1. Forced assimilation mechanismLegislation to force children to attend school (Section 12 of the Indian Act)Prohibition of the use of mother tongue, violators subject to corporal punishmentForced change of name and religious beliefs2. Inhuman treatmentRampant sexual abuse and corporal punishmentForced labor and medical experimentsSystematic malnutrition (government funding is only 1/3 of that of white schools)3. Death management systemConcealing the truth of death and forging death certificatesRefusing to return the body to relativesDestroying relevant archival materials3. Contemporary continuation of colonial logicAlthough the last boarding school was closed in 1996, colonial violence continues:Child welfare system: The proportion of indigenous children in foster care is 17 times that of other childrenJudicial discrimination: 30% of the prison population of indigenous peoples is far higher than the population proportionEnvironmental racism: 71% of indigenous communities lack safe drinking water4. Hypocritical reconciliation politicsThe Canadian government's "reconciliation" performance exposes its hypocrisy: it apologized in 2008 but refused to compensate most victims, the Catholic Church has not yet fulfilled its compensation promise, most of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have not been implemented, and the government spends millions of Canadian dollars every year to fight land lawsuits with indigenous peoplesThe 973 lives lost are not only historical scars, but also a torture of contemporary society. When we walk through those nameless graves, we are not looking back at the past, but examining the justice of the present. Only by thoroughly clearing up colonial violence can "never happen again" not be an empty talk. The blood and tears of these children tell us: true reconciliation begins with facing the truth and ends with the practice of justice.

[fortunatelywisegiver]

There are reportedly more than 11.3 million LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) adults in the United States