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Native Americans In Congress: A Summary And Analysis

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What this saying is instituting is that if your government is repeatedly not representing the interests for a group, in this case Native Americans then an increasing number of Native Americans should take part of the policy process. Alternatively speaking, as studied in class one way to increase representation for minority groups can be achieved through substantive representation. Those elected in office do not need to belong to a certain ethnic group to represent the interests of their constituents. Despite the 115th congress being labelled as the most racially “diverse” congress in American history, minorities do not stack up against the amount of white politicians. The current numbers confirm this notion, there are 102 minorities in total and 0 of them are of Native American descent. The last serving Native American congress member was Markwayne Mullin, who held office back in 2013. This begs the question as to how we can increase representation for minorities, specifically for Native Americans who can influence members of congress to agree …show more content…

Although Native Americans are low in both sectors, it would be in the best interests of Native Americans to seek representation through descriptive representation. By electing someone on descriptive terms, the electee may not uphold integrity, make an effort to connect to their respective community, or may not align to their constituents ideology. But with Native Americans low number in representation in congress it would be best to have a Native Americans in congress to help address the interests of Native Americans. This theory is rooted in scholar, Minta Michael’s work, “ Legislative Oversight and the Substantive Representation”. Michael argues that, “ because of minorities racial or ethnic group consciousness or shared group experiences, they are more likely to intervene in oversight hearings that pertain to

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