The Power Of Non-Native People

Throughout history, the Native people of North America and the Europeans have continually had arguments and disputes over land. To this day there are still issues trying to be resolved. Twenty years ago, the beginning of one of the most violent and intense land disputes in present day Canada occurred. This event is now referred to as the Oka Crisis, named after the town Oka in Quebec. This crisis caused a confrontation involving the Quebec provincial police, the Canadian armed forces and the Mohawk people.1 The stand that the Mohawk people took in the town of Oka became a major revelation for the aboriginal people spreading awareness of aboriginal rights across Canada.

(Horwitz,2). Now 547 tribes have to wait around to be able to protect those around them. “Can you imagine responding to call where there is clear evidence of a crime committed by an individual and you cannot arrest them? I think the community felt cheated,” Michael Valenzuela, the police chief of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Culp-Ressler,1). The quote shows how hopeless those who would normally have power to help can not, and though Native Americans are suppose to have sovereignty it seems to not be a true sovereign nation. If it is a claimed sovereign nation, then congress has to let them deal with all issues on tribal land no matter what the race and right now that is not happening. Once it does, maybe they can be better off and not have to worry as much.

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

Not just for Native Americans but for blacks, Muslims, Jews, and others, but even now we are dealing with Native American invasion and taking their land again, this time known as the Dakota Pipeline which is currently going on in North Dakota. The Dakota Pipeline is a large oil transmitting pipe that supplies oil across the United States but will be built on protected Native American land. The contractors have taken a look and have said that the pipeline would be a significant amount away from their land, but would be built under their water supply from Lake Oahe and would be at the closest 95 feet under the lake. But the Standing Rock Sioux haven't given up hope they have burought up that there have been over 3,300 incidents in which pipes have had leaks that have affected the environment drinking water and much more. The contractors have said that they have taken extreme precautions and have safety tested everything the Sioux aren't going to take any chances. Even as the Sioux and over 50 other tribes have protested there have been no clear winner of the battle on the Dakota Pipeline. The tribes have been protesting for months and though few have gotten violent many Natives and others with them have been arrested and thrown in jail, which is just another way people can attack the Native People to this

Thomas Flanagan disapproves the idea of Native sovereignty ever coexisting with Canadian sovereignty. Flanagan identifies the flaws in Townshend’s arguments referring to them as a theoretical approach and not a practical approach. It is true that the sharing of jurisdictional power is the essence of the Canadian state but this cannot apply to the Aboriginals of Canada. One reason a third level of government cannot work in Canada is “In the 10 provinces, Canada has over six hundred Indian bands living on more than 2200 reserves, plus hundreds of thousands of Métis and non-status Indians who do not possess reserves,” (Flanagan 44). Flanagan draws the fact that “No one has proposed a workable mechanism by which this far-flung archipelago could

Power can be viewed as the ability to influence and/or control others. Another flaw about reservations is the fact that they are not totally governed by Native American representatives. The U.S. government actually has tight control over the majority, if not all, reservations (Perry, 2002, p 233). This tight control has left the Native American population powerless in terms of self- regulation. Despite the fact that Native American government do exist,

Our nation’s history has been deep rooted in the conflict involving Native Americans, ever since the beginning of America and it is one hard to get rid of even as the days go by. The impact of colonialism can be seen in Native American communities even today, and it can only be understood through a cultural perspective once you experience it. Aaron Huey, who is a photographer, went to Pine Ridge reservation and it led him to document the poverty and issues that the Sioux Indians go through as a result of the United States government’s long term actions and policies against them. One must question all sources regarding these topics because there is a lot of biased and misinformation about Native American struggles, and sometimes schools do not thoroughly teach the truth so students can get an insight. There are also different sociological perspectives in this conflict, along with many differing opinions on how to approach the problem and deal with it. This is where ideas clash because people believe their views are right regarding how to handle it.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.

It is widely known that for centuries Native Americans have been oppressed, used and discriminated against. A sort of hatred towards our government and our people transpires among the Natives, and rightfully so. There are many reasons for the Natives to feel exploited, yet protesting the pipeline and fighting back to the American political system can give Natives a feeling of triumph and accomplishment if they are able to successfully halt the construction of the pipeline. Murdoch specifically states that “the last time Native Americans gathered and the nation notices was in 1973” therefore we know that the building of this pipeline is very strongly opposed and quite important to the Natives. There are many underlying factors that the Native

According to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affair, the native people of America make up approximately 1.7% (5.1 million) of the diverse United States population. While that may not seem like much, it does not mean the indigenous are any less valuable or important than the rest of the population. The indigenous people are a group made up of native people whose line of ancestors started here. Their ancestors were native to, and had a claim to this land before North America was claimed to be discovered by Christopher Columbus. Since this “discovery” of America, the natives of this land have been viciously exploited and oppressed.

King (2014) argues that settler Canada and the United States validated the genocide of Native Americans by fabricating the narrative that Indians are incompetent and underdeveloped in their way of life, but anti-Native efforts ultimately failed to eliminate “the Indian.” Indigenous traditions and demands for sovereignty and respect overcame early colonialism; North American Indians and their cultures remain dynamic and active to this day (King, 2014, p. 98). The best method to ensure respectful, sincere, moral, intelligent Native Americans, is to respect their rights to invest in their communities and determine their own lives. However, the U.S. and Canadian governments did not want respectful, self-reliant Natives; they wanted incompetent

I’m sure most people have followed the news on the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline, this may even be the largest (recent) news event that is involved with indigenous rights. However, there are several other recent news events that cover indigenous rights within the United States in particular. Many of these news events revolve around land (monument statuses, and rightly ownership), and cultural appropriation. These factors play into the larger scheme of structural violence and general perceptions of Native American people.

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

When oil was discovered on the north slope of Alaska, congress was faced with another “Indian problem.” Just how was it going to send an 800-mile pipeline right through the middle of Indigenous lands successfully without completely ignoring Native rights? ANCSA was the answer to that question. In 1971, due to ANCSA, 100 shares were given to every Alaska Native that could prove they had a quarter-blood of Alaska Native heritage and lived in a local traditional Alaskan native village. These shares were considered payment for the pipeline. However they did not take on the form of money like most lands do. These land shares could not be traded or sold. They could only be handed down through inheritance. The federal government also put a requirement on the ANCSA formed corporations which were to turn a profit. This was a way for the federal government to ensure economic advance. The way the federal government would ensure this is, if the ANCSA formed corporation could not turn a profit, the federal government could go in and seize the land and dismantle the corporation for breaching their duty to profit the land. Not only was this a way of ensuring economic advance but it was another way the federal government could gain land. Because of these steep requirements some native lands have been seized by the federal government, and those who have not already been lost have either gone bankrupt or merged with other ANCSA corporations to keep their land. Other native corporations have

The pipeline not only poses a threat to one of only 326 Native American reservations left in this country, but also to the environment as a whole. Regardless of where you stand, the wrongdoing on the part of the United States Government is undeniable. The Dakota Access Pipeline is corrupt at its core and the dangers surrounding its construction have the potential to be catastrophic to the dwindling Native population by threatening their only source of water. A significant saying within the Sioux tribe, especially in times of protest, is a simple one, but one that is clearly not understood by some, and that is “water is