Posted on 10/08/2017 5:15:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
There is a move afoot to cast Christopher Columbus as an evil person instead of the person celebrated as the first to traverse the Atlantic Ocean, discovering there were two major continents not previously known to the world as it existed in 1492. In another feel-good moment, some cities are renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day. American Indians are desperate for real help, not placating moments.
Naomi Schaefer Riley has defined how bad things are for American Indians and how Washington, D.C., bureaucracy is destroying the lives of these Americans in her terrific and terrifying book "The New Trail of Tears." Ms. Riley traveled all over the country seeing and hearing the experiences of these citizens and conveys that in her book. One of the fascinating aspects of her book is how the Canadians mistreat their Indians (called First Nation People in Canada). Interesting to know they are just as inept in adapting their people to modern society as we are in the States.
You don’t need to go far into Ms. Riley’s book to begin to grasp how bad matters are for American Indians. According to statistics maintained by the federal agencies (that are supposed to be helping), the estimated three million American Indians have the highest poverty rate of any minority group – almost twice the national average. They also have the highest rate of crime, suicide, alcoholism, gang membership and sexual abuse. The rate of child abuse is twice the national average. Indian women report being raped at 2.5 times the national average. As staggering as these figures are they are even higher for the one million American Indians living on reservations.
Lest you think these American citizens are not just a group of social deviants, it is fair to say that if one lived under the control of the American governmental entities as they do one might exhibit some of the breakdowns in social behavior that American Indians have.
That brought me to ask Ms. Riley whether the mission of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) was actually helping or hurting the people they supervise. When speaking of the BIE, Ms. Riley said “They are terrible. They have gone through 33 directors in 32 years with many directors fired for misconduct. The educational system for American Indians needs real reforms.”
Ms. Riley went on to say “They are spending $20,000 per student and they cannot even keep the roofs on the buildings. A lot of the problem is nepotism in tribal schools. They could really use charter schools.” Riley’s book goes in-depth into the horrifying conditions of the educational systems for American Indians and how that is central to challenges they face as a people.
Riley answered a question I have been asking for years: Why are people living on reservations in the year 2017? She said “Most people will say to protect the Native Americans. Part of it is the tribal leadership telling families they don’t want to mix with mainstream America.”
The Indians live under intolerable restrictions. Individuals cannot get a loan to build a home because the tribal land is held in trust. Everything is owned by the Tribe and has to be approved by multiple layers of the federal government. Thus nothing ever gets done. Though they have mineral and/or oil rights on their land, they need to go through a multitude of approvals to produce from these assets.
Ms. Riley said the most surprising thing she found “was the sheer shock of the living conditions these people are living in. They have housing shortages and live in broken down trailers. They are far away from where the rest of us live, so we never experience the squalor.”
The Indians are then led to focus on certain businesses. As Riley stated “Gambling, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs – who would not want these businesses to form the economic backbone of their community?” Once you review the decision-making process and the control by the BIA or BIE and the Tribal leadership, you come to conclude they are actually living in a Communist system. This system has failed as badly as any other Communist system anywhere in the world.
This all leads to the ultimate negative impact. On the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Ms. Riley cites “The average life expectancy for men on the reservation is 48, and for women it’s 52. Suicide and poor health are partly to blame for these numbers, but so is violence.” That violence is within the community, and not from outside.
I could go on, but why further depress you. You should read first-hand "The New Trail of Tears." You will learn that many focus on false solutions that do nothing to help except to assuage their own guilt.
I contacted Major League Baseball to find out what they are doing to help American Indians. This is because Commissioner Rob Manfred has pressed the Cleveland Indians to rid themselves of their long-time symbol, Chief Wahoo. What has MLB actually done to help Native Americans? A couple of teams have held Native American Heritage Games, and there are a couple of players of Native American descent. Overall, this is another feel-good moment that does nothing to solve the problems or focus leaders on the challenges facing American Indians.
City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell led the charge to change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day in Los Angeles. Mr. O’Farrell’s office could not identify that there are actually any American Indians who live in his district or the city of Los Angeles. When asked what Councilman O’Farrell has done to help Americans Indians as they struggle to overcome the hurdles placed in front of them by government, we were told of some other acts of placating, feel-good legislation offered by the Councilman.
Tomorrow some will celebrate Columbus Day while others celebrate Indigenous People’s Day. Indigenous People’s Day will make some people feel good about themselves but will harm the American Indians who need real help. Americans will be diverted because of these feel-good acts. It’s time for actual help to be delivered to these American citizens.
The venerated practiced human sacrifice and slavery. The despised? None practiced human sacrifice and few owned slaves.
My first client was a full blooded Indian. She lived in Upstate NY, owned a house and a small business.
In another feel-good moment, some cities are renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day.
...
America has no indigenous people. They settled here first, but originated elsewhere.
The only place with indigenous people is Africa.
My guess is assimilation would be best to improve their lives. Treating them as something different is keeping them in their dire situation.
What would the USA look like had white man not have come? Would the indians have created an advanced society on their own?
I don’t believe so.
And all this naming was done to promote the Indian Heritage. The present Indians will annihilate themselves in seeking their "separatist" status.
Why do we have a BIA in the first place?
Indians run massive farming operations here and there around the country, and resorts, and casinos. They’re not stupid, they’re very capable of doing their own thing. They don’t need the BIA to manage their interest, and they don’t need 200 year old treaties and such to hide behind.
If you get rid of the corrupt BIA then maybe the corrupt “Elders” of the tribe will be dealt with on their own. Let them figure it out themselves.
When I finished my paper I mailed it to him as I had promised. He had been replaced with another guy who called me and asked me where I had gotten all my information. I told him I had interviewed the previous director and I had found all the other info in a few libraries. The guy was not happy that I had scrounged up this info that stressed how important it was for people to rely on themselves and not the government for everything.
It was like stepping in a fire ant's nest by mistake.
Charles Maund Toyota has now come up with their ad:
American Indians are desperate for real help,...
With untold millions and millions flowing into Indian casinos every day tax free, they need govt help like an Eskimo needs snow!
NA not indiginous. That’s why the name is bogus and the. Also, look what Europeans returned this into. They had superior weaponry, technology, laws, and cultures. Get over it. If you look at the slams on columbus it is coming from mexicans and he had nothing to do with mexico.
Indians can go to school and get jobs just like anyone else. They live the life they choose. this is the same as people who wallow in the slave meme because their great-great-was a slave.
While the federal government has made Native Americans virtual plantations slaves living off federal handouts, some tribes have done far better than others. I live only a few miles from a small reservation that sports a casino complex that rivals any in Vegas and provides tribe members not only huge payouts, but the very best public safety and recreation facilities which they gladly share with the local non Indian community. I work out at a tribal health and fitness center and buy my gas at a tribal store at considerable savings. Tribe members have huge luxury homes supporting local construction businesses. On the other hand in my home state of South Dakota the Pine Ridge Reservation has the most poverty of any county in the entire country. The Indian Health Services offers almost third world level medical care and is the worst example of any government run health system you can imagine. Indians will shun free medical care at IHS hospitals and on reservations the word is don’t get sick at the end of the month as the IHS has squandered their budget and can’t even provide aspirin
Very True. Agree!
I have lived most of my life in the south west; you always knew when you entered Reservation lands, the pavement on the roads (where there was pavement) was really crap, and the piles of litter and trash along the roads would rival any big city dump.
You generally get what you are willing to put up with.
I wonder if we'll ever stop believing the totally false "FAKE" story?
First off, Eric The Red and his son, Leif, and about 30,000 Vikings lived in Greenland a freaking thousand years before Columbus 'sailed the Ocean Blue. "
Eric and other sailed and explored up and down the coasts, had 'winter harbors' in places like Cape Cod - explored the Hudson for a place but after a bitter winter there, gave that up. ... The Eastern seaboard was explored ...
Then a HUNDRED years before 1492, Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, the second most powerful man in Scotland, next to the King - and wealthier than the king, sailed his ships with about 750 Knights Templar and families to Nova Scotia - where he ALREADY owned land - to escape the encroaching attacks from England, to get the ancient treasures and themselves out of reach. They also knew about Greenland and the earlier Viking's establishment.
Nova Scotia celebrates The Sinclair landing.
"Monument to the alleged landing site of the Sinclair Expedition, Guysborough, Nova Scotia"
Columbus married into a famous map-maker family. He had the map that showed the eastern seaboards of N. and S. America. His theory, the he sold to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand was that he could find a safer and shorter route to India and the riches of the spice trade by sailing BETWEEN the two continents. He never set out to discover, nor claimed to, 'discover' a new land. However, there were no known explorations or maps showing the CENTRAL America was in the way.
He hit the Islands and at first,thought he had reached the back end of India-and named the natives"Indios" (Indians).
He did realize his mistake, but by then had discovered the natives and gold and gold and silver - and the genocide began...killing millions and wiping out Taino Tribe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o51LPfrjsqQ&index=3&list=PLWtYzeXtcs1hLrZLL1yTlDFy_hV2gWDDT
Following is 3rd voyage, he was, on orders of the Queen, hauled back to Spain in chains...not for what he did, but because he was planning on setting himself as the ruler of the Islands.
"Columbus Day" was not a holiday for hundreds of years after. And the FAKE NEWS still reigns. Rather like most of our school kids are still taught - and depictions continue to show. still 400 years later - that the Pilgrims dressed in black and white. FAKE NEWS.
The scary part is that we are just as gullible today - even some Freepers - in believing FAKE NEWS.
Does no one ever research anything?
Live link next post - to make it easy...
to go with post #59
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o51LPfrjsqQ&index=3&list=PLWtYzeXtcs1hLrZLL1yTlDFy_hV2gWDDT
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