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The quote in there from Chief Plenty Coup really resonates with me. I grew up in that part of the world, and attended high school with a member of the Crow trib
by peatmoss 11y ago
The quote in there from Chief Plenty Coup really resonates with me. I grew up in that part of the world, and attended high school with a member of the Crow tribe. He was the nicest, hardest working kid I knew. His parents drilled the idea into his head that he'd have to work twice as hard as the white kids to be half as successful.
Even by the 90s, when I knew Crow kids, "second class" doesn't even begin to describe the discrimination they faced. "Prairie nigger" is a term that got thrown around--and wasn't objected to by a sitting US senator.
As far as I can tell, things haven't improved. My nephews' dad is native by race, but was raised by adoptive white parents. Looking "half Indian" nets all kind of assumptions--some innocuous but cringeworthy, others pretty ugly.
I don't know what the right answer is, but the US needs to figure out how to be less shitty to its indigenous peoples. New Zealand is far from perfect, but from my observations there, engagement with Māori is miles better than anything here.
- protomyth 11y agoSomethings have improved (the Tribal Community College system), and some things haven't or have gotten worse (Indian Health Service). The DoD money that helped build some industry dried up with the defense cuts in the 90's and never came back. Also, it probably doesn't help that certain institutions of higher learning don't recruit from the tribal schools and then give scholarships meant for Native Americans to non-natives (proof of tribal enrollment is quite easy to get). Also, some of the federal districts will not bring charges against non-natives who commit robbery on the reservation, and at the same time will not do the due diligence in investigating native-on-native crimes. Enforcing the rules, continued support of the expansion of tribal colleges, understanding state money rarely gets to tribes regardless of what the bill says, and actually funding the healthcare might be a nice step forward. Please note, whatever your opinion on the PPACA, it excludes tribes (yes, I read the whole bill). Also, understanding that no bank is going to loan money for housing on a reservation and doing something at the federal level might be a nice thing. There are some amazing bright spots, but the northern plains is a bit far from them.
- coredog64 11y agoAFAIK, banks can't loan for reservation housing because enrolled members don't own the land, they have a long term lease.
- protomyth 11y agoNo, the tribal members do own the land, its just unlikely that a bank could ever foreclose because of the tribes involvement and how tribal land works. Non-tribal members get leases. The federal land rules are archaic and work against the tribal members.
- jessaustin 11y agoHave some of the wealthier tribes fixed this problem for themselves? If they can't create a tribally-funded financial arrangement that makes a bank happy, couldn't the tribe just do the lending? Of course, not every tribe has a casino, but if those that do had innovated in this area, we'd have a better idea of the best direction for federal funding.
- protomyth 11y agoEven tribes with casinos aren't rich[1][2], and yes the tribes that have cash generally give enough to their members to build the houses without loans or do some short term loans. Some have their own banks / credit unions. Sadly, a lot of the plains tribes are not in that situation. 1) most tribes were sent away from cities which makes casinos problematic, but it didn't hurt on the natural resource front for some 2) I still think the tribal pact with North Dakota that you cannot directly pay members (imagine a business that couldn't pay its owner) is the purest form of evil
- kafkaesq 11y agoPrairie nigger" is a term that got thrown around--and wasn't objected to by a sitting US senator. Which Senator? (For my notes).
- peatmoss 11y agoConrad Burns: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/19/opinion/weirder-and-weirder.html http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/19/opinion/weirder-and-weirde...
- scrollaway 11y agoThis guy is a comically nasty piece of work. His wikipedia article lists a bunch of controversies ranging from racism to corruption, and including... removing criticism from wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Burns#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Burns#Controversies
- kafkaesq 11y agoFascinating. Thanks!
- krapp 11y ago>New Zealand is far from perfect, but from my observations there, engagement with Māori is miles better than anything here. There appear to be are more Maori per capita than American natives (according to Wikipedia about 14.6 percent in the latter case and less than 2 percent in the former - I'm assuming these numbers are true but in general it's probably correct if they aren't) so that's not surprising.
- whatusername 11y agoAustralia's treatment of it's indigenous population is a bit of a contrast to NZ's. (And I think it speaks in support of your comment -- the population is far closer to 2% than 14)
- fit2rule 11y agoAustralia's treatment of its indigenous population is really shameful - something that I think really needs to be discussed more openly. Australia got away with some of the most heinous racial cleansing programs to come from the modern world .. forced sterilizations, forced adoption of indigenous children to white families 'to shake the black out of them', and so on. These were government-funded and -supported programs, and continued even up until the 80's. And by 'got away with it', I mean, seriously got away with it. Its not like Australia is held to the same standards as Germany is today, with regards to its racial prejudice and general malaise within the white population towards the history of the indigenous people. I think thats because Germany started a war over their racial policies - Australia just quietly swept it all under the rug in the meantime ..
- honua 11y agoIt's pretty coarse to use the full N word, even in quotes.
- csihar 11y agoLife can be pretty coarse, my white friend.
- zhemao 11y agoWhat would be the purpose of censoring it out? Everyone would know what term was being used anyway.
- honua 11y agoThe point is that > it was used just about every time a Black person was whipped, chained, beaten, insulted, spat upon, raped, lynched, or otherwise humiliated and mistreated by White folks. Since everyone would know what term was being used anyway, why NOT censor it, given it's vile origins? Why continue to say it?
- function_seven 11y agoPrecisely because it is vile. Why did you have to use the word "rape" in your comment? Couldn't you have just said "sexually assaulted"? Or r-ped? I appreciate it when people don't nerf their language, personally. It's just more honest.
- strasser 11y agoah, another America hater!
- ArkyBeagle 11y agoIt always made me sad that that was the case farther North. I grew up in what used to be Indian Territory and there wasn't any of that that I knew about. Not much you can do about individual people, but my experience is much more optomistic.