18 May 2010

You Asked: Do American Indians Govern Their Own Lands?

 

As the first American Indian to chair the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Campbell worked with Indian tribes on legislation aimed at addressing Indian health, education, economic needs, sovereignty, self-governance expansion, probate reform, arts and crafts protections, and energy development. In addition to his work in politics, Campbell designs Indian jewelry.

Former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, now with Holland & Knight law firm, is one of 44 chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.

By Ben Nighthorse Campbell

This essay is excerpted from the Living Book You Asked.

Before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, the indigenous population of North America numbered in the tens of millions, perhaps more than 100 million. These inhabitants had no concept of land “ownership.” They believed the “Creator” provided the land for their survival, and to honor the Creator for this gift, they honored and cared for “Mother Earth.”

Europeans had a different view of land. Having fought long territorial wars, they sent expeditions seeking new lands to be claimed in the name of their sponsoring governments without regard for the occupants of their “discoveries.” They had weapons unfamiliar to indigenous people and carried diseases to which the people were not immune.

Initially, the Indians, named for the country the explorers originally had sought, were taken as slaves. They resisted but were no match for waves of settlers entering the Creator’s lands, and they continually were pushed further west.

Later, Indian people fought in the U.S. Revolutionary War, and their tribal governments are among the four sovereignties — along with the U.S. government, foreign governments, and state governments — acknowledged in the U.S. Constitution. The United States signed peace treaties with many tribes, but eventually all were broken.

As the U.S. population expanded, westward settlers increasingly encroached on Indian hunting grounds. When tribes fought with settlers, the U.S. government sent the military to defeat the Indians and protect the settlers, who were citizens, voters, and constituents of those in power. Their influence carried more weight than paper treaties.

 

Wounded Knee, North Dakota, is part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, perhaps the best-known American Indian reservation. The area was the site the 1890 massacre of Lakota Chief Big Foot and 350 followers in a government crackdown on Indian uprisings. In 1973, it was the site of an armed confrontation between Indians and the government in a series of complicated and still partly unresolved events.

Indians in 1973 at Wounded Knee, North Dakota, march toward the burial ground of their ancestors who died in an 1890 massacre there.

Eventually, wars, sickness, and starvation shrank the American Indian population to less than 250,000. Tired, and with no hope of victory, most tribal leaders accepted new conditions from the government. Tribes were herded onto barren outposts of land given to them with guarantees that staying on these “reservations” would bring peace. Most reservations were not good for hunting or farming.

A paternalistic governmental belief that the Indians were not competent to handle their own affairs led the United States to accept a “trust responsibility” to provide for the Indians. This responsibility protects tribal lands and guarantees the rights of tribes to use and govern those lands. It also ensures tribes have adequate food, medicine, and access to education. Today, these trust responsibilities fall primarily on the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service.

The Dawes Allotment Acts of 1887 divided Indian lands among individual Indians in hopes that they would become farmers and ranchers and assimilate into society, relieving the United States of trust responsibility. But the lands were not ideal for farming, and most Indian people had no background in agriculture. Many sold their allotments to non-Indians, and more lands were lost.

In 1924, American Indians were granted U.S. citizenship. In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act, a “New Deal” for Indians, reversed the Dawes Acts, restored many tribal lands, and allowed tribal governments more control over their assets. In the 1950s, the Termination and Relocation Acts ended dozens of tribal governments and relocated many members to urban areas for job training. However, many could not find jobs and were stranded in cities away from their people. For this reason, some U.S. cities today have large Indian populations.

In the 1970s, after many failed policies, President Richard Nixon championed “self-determination,” allowing Indian tribal governments more control over their affairs, including the power to contract for services and form compacts. Today, some tribes who lived on what seemed to be uninhabitable land have found their lands contain natural resources, including oil and gas. Other tribes on reservations near urban areas, interstate highways, or resorts have been successful at legal gaming operations. Indians now number more than 2 million.

Hearing these American Indian success stories, some may assume that all now is well in Indian country. However, economic success has come to only about 10 percent of the population. The other 90 percent still struggles with unemployment rates of 50 percent to 80 percent and high rates of drug and alcohol abuse and diabetes.

While things are improving, we have a long way to go. One hundred million Indian people once were sovereign over 100 percent of what is now the United States. Today, 2 million Indians are sovereign over 2 percent of the land. This was a high price for the U.S. government’s “use” of their lands.

Despite these inequities, Indians are fiercely patriotic Americans whose military service is higher per capita than any other ethnic group in this melting pot we call America.

Retired U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell is one of 44 chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe and is a Native American jewelry designer. He served in the Senate 1993–2005, in the House of Representatives 1987–1993, and in the Colorado state legislature 1982–1986. He was the first American Indian in history to chair the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. He is a three-time U.S. judo champion who was captain of the U.S. team at the 1964 Olympics and later coached the team.

What would you like to know about the United States? Tell us here. We’ll get experts to answer.