Posted on 08/10/2009 11:40:34 AM PDT by yoe
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs passed a resolution by voice vote last week apologizing "on behalf of American people" to all Indian tribes for the mistreatment and violence by American citizens.
Senate Joint Resolution 14, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), states that its purpose is “to acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the Federal Government regarding Indian Tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States.”
In Section 1A, No. 4 of the resolution states that the apology is on behalf of U.S. citizens for harm they have done to “Native Peoples.” In the resolution, native peoples are defined as people who “inhabited the land of the present-day United States since time immemorial and for thousands of years before the arrival of people of European descent.”
“Apologizes on behalf of the people of the United States to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by citizens of the United States,” the resolution reads.
Requests by CNSNews.com for clarification of the language in the bill were not answered by Brownback’s office by press time, but Brownback issued a statement on Friday about the passage of his resolution.
“I am pleased that my colleagues have decided to move forward with a formal apology from the federal government to Native Americans," Brownback said. "This is a resolution of apology and reconciliation, and is a step toward healing divisive wounds.
“With this resolution we have the potential to start a new era of positive relations between tribal governments and the federal government,” Brownback said.
“For too much of our history, federal-tribal relations have been marked by broken treaties, mistreatment and dishonorable dealings. With this resolution, we can acknowledge past failures, express sincere regrets and establish a brighter future for all Americans,” he added.
Neither Brownback’s statement nor the resolution says whether the apology is on behalf of U.S. citizens who are alive today or U.S. citizens who lived in the past.
Co-sponsors of the resolution were Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.),Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
That’s the ticket! The Failed Democratic Party© decides to pit yet another ethnic group against Whitey. Thanks, Congress. I guess we’ll all have to stop exploiting those tribes by boycotting the casinos now!
Sorry... the communists kicked the crap out of Old Hickory. They stole his party!
Oh, and the Tribes get their own states. Enough of the Poverty Plantation system...
Don't tell me they riped you guys off too! Is this true? Social Security fund raped. Now Indian funds too! Incredible. We need to abolish the Federal government and replace it with states where people have power. Make the tribal lands states or whatever. But abolish the Federal nightmare before it destroys us...
Stop saying this stuff. Its over. The enemy is in Washington and we have them surrounded. Let’s stay focused. We can sort out the hard feelings later.
No they don't.
There are some welfare programs which will provide subsidized housing on the reservations just as there are in every American city. The housing is in short supply and only a very few qualify or have access to it. Many tribes are building their own housing units with profits from tribal enterprises or receipts from extraction agreements or other funds but they are are comparatively rare and rarely free. No one is entitled to free housing by virtue of being an Indian.
States do not have authority to impose an income tax on income derived wholly within the boundaries of a reservation but can and do tax income derived from working outside those boundaries. They also tax income within the boundaries of the reservation if the supporting entity is based outside the reservation. Because of the restrictions, few Indians are exempt from state income tax.
Individual Indians pay Federal income tax at the same rate everyone else does regardless of where the income was earned. The tribe as an entity and some of the businesses that a tribal government may own may be exempt.
There is no Federal or State "stipend" for being an Indian. Occasionally there are trust payments for use of Indian land or legal settlements but these are usually distributed through the tribal government and they come from funds owed the Indians. Indians can qualify for food stamps or other Federal programs in exactly the same way anyone else can.
Indians are not entitled to free education at state colleges. They may find programs or scholarships dedicated to that purpose but they are rare. Because of circumstances Indians often end up subsidizing colleges for white students.
Most of the profits from tribal enterprises (casinos) are retained at the tribal level. They fund the government and general welfare projects. Some portion of the profits may be passed on to individual enrolled members of a tribe but that is limited to the members of that tribe and is not a general entitlement.
Indians receive free health care within the boundaries of a reservation and only for enrolled members. Generally it is poor quality and plagued with problems. Off the reservation they are in the same boat with everyone else.
My Finnish ancestors demand apologies from our former Swedish and Russian occupiers.
My Irish ancestors demand apologies from our former Viking and British occupiers,
My Jewish ancestors demand an apology from everybody.
My Hunnish cousins, including Attila, might apologize to the Romans, Goths, Franks, Allemani, Vandals, Alans, etc. but unfortunately do not exist anymore.
Didja ever notice the apologies come because of actions primarily foisted upon America by Democrats?
Slavery: defended by Democrats in 1860s.
Segregation and Race Discrimination: defended by Democrats through the 1960s.
Someday we’ll need apologies for abortion and the welfare state, still passionately defended by Democrats, yet these kill bodies and spirits just like slavery, segregation and race discrimination.
Snerk!
RebelYell1990,
You might want to consider educating yourself on the culture of the American Indian. The Cherokees were a very civilized group of people and their civilization was a far cry above many of the Europeans who settled North American. They were driven from their homes by Andrew Jackson and his cronies after being told they could keep their homeland.
I live in Oklahoma where it is “the home of the red man” and I’ve met many Indians down thru the year and I am happy to call them “brothers”.
As for Custer he had it coming. Out here in Western Oklahoma at the Battle of the Washita he and his troops rode in on a settlement early one morning killing women, children and everything else in site.
With that being said I am not responsible for something my gggf did to others gggf. I do not see an apology being required.
I don’t know what the source of your information is and I question where there is a source outside of your own mind but, you might want to consider educating yourself on Indian Affairs.
The Indians DO pay Federal and State income taxes. They do not receive free educations although the Casinos are providing some scholarships. They have had free health care which mainly was due to the fact in the early days white doctors wouldn’t treat them.
Many of the cemeteries are on Indian homelands. We have buried (Patriot Guard Rider) four Native Americans from Oklahoma in WOT and they were either buried in Indian cemeteries or on the homeplace - Do you know why? Because in previous years they couldn’t be buried in white cemeteries. As a result the Indians had to bury their fallen wherever they could.
I challenge you to go to Anadarko, OK and tell the Kiowa Black Leggings Society just how lucky they are. FYI, that society is composed on Native Americans who are veterans.
The Code Talkers and many more have fought in defense of this country and most work and earn a living just like you and me.
You should apologize to the Custer family for not doing your homework: http://www.custerwest.org
What a lot of crap.
I guess White capt Clara Blinn won’t be cited in the “apology bill”: the “peaceful” Cheyennes murdered her and her child at the battle of the Washita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egfZxfPjvJc
You’re right about the Kansas militia. That being said, the casualties were much higher - 11 warchiefs were killed and more than 100 warriors. See http://www.custerwest.org
A white captive named Clara Blinn, who had sent a letter to the US army 20 days before, was executed by the Cheyennes with her two-year old child.
It was unjust and cruel, some Indians fought back, some helped the White people, and of course were killed for their trouble as soon as the white man wanted what the Indians had. LAND and, in some cases, such as the black hills and California, GOLD.
We would all have fought and killed in order to keep our land and way of life if we had been there at the time and had been the ones being invaded. Period.
The apology sucks but what really sucks are the posters on this thread trying to say that Indians were the bad guys for killing the white invaders. Yep, Indians were savage to each other and to the white invaders, but it was their land, used by them and they had the right to fight each other and the duty to kill off the invaders.
The higher civilizations have been invading and killing lower civilizations since the dawn of time, doesn't make it right but there it is.
As for the a**hats on this thread talking about scalping, the French invented scalping as a means of paying a bounty on British troops and civilians killed by the Indians, the scalps were proof they actually killed them. The Indians adopted it readily for their own use.
I’m aware of the higher estimates but I just don’t believe them. One branch of my family was in Republic County, Kansas for the bloodbath there.
This is entirely false. The Indians scalped their enemies centuries before Colombus was in sight.
As for the bill, the Whites and the Indians struggled for the same land, period. Apologizing for the struggle is like apoligizing for having built America - and for the cultural failure that made the Indians unready to preserve their conquests.
Moreover, this bill is one of many attempts to entirely whitewash the history of the American West. The story of the pioneers has disappeared. The massacres caused by Indians have been whitewashed. The treaties broken by Indians are never cited. This is an academic fraud.
Scout Ben Clark informed Custer that 150 warriors were in the village, many having been involved in the Solomon River massacres. Custer’s surprise surely caused the death of most of them.
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