By Kien-Ling Liem, Editor, Trinity College Student
The injustices towards Indigenous Americans is possibly one of the most unfair. With their land being stolen from them by colonizers, they have been mistreated, executed and still lack the proper representation today. The Indigenous Americans should have the right to their own land and be given back their resources, but instead are having their culture erased and mocked; the inequity towards them are also silenced. These people deserve justice, not suppression.
In the 1960s and 70s, the Indian Health Service (IHS) located in the United States forcibly sterilized around 3,400 to 70,000 indigenous women with the goal of decreasing the population of indigenous Americans. This had been performed on 1 out of 4 indigenous women without their knowledge or consent, and even on minors as young as 11 years old. This was not only for indigenous women - white, upper class Americans sterilized those that were poor, people of colour or generally perceived as foreigners or immigrants. Doctors also wanted to practice their gynecology skills, and did so on these indigenous women. Medical personnel were actually brainwashed to believe that they were helping these women. By having less children, families would be more financially secure. The effects of this forced sterilization are still felt within tribes today as it became harder for them to survive, and those who could still bear children are forced to, or their blood would be extinct. Today, there are only about 100,000 indigenous women who can bear children.
Another historic moment of the injustices against Indigenous Americans is the mass execution of Dakota men. When Anglo settlers invaded Sioux territory, the U.S. government forced indigenous tribes to relocate to a smaller reservation near the Minnesota river. At the reservation, corrupt federal agents pushed natives to the brink of starvation by refusing to distribute food. Rightfully, the Indigenous Americans retaliated, resulting in the Sioux uprising of 1862. Consequently, the U.S. military sentenced 305 Dakota men to death by accusing them of participating in war, and on December 26, 1862, Abraham Lincoln ordered 38 of these men to be hanged. 16 of the prisoners were sentenced to prison. This was the largest recorded execution in American History.
The Indigenous Americans were also used in the military. During both world wars, the military used indigenous people in signal communication operations. For decades, their work remained classified until in 2002, the U.S. passed the Code Talkers Recognition Act which highlights the importance of indigenous soldiers in saving countless lives. These people kept the lines of communications secure, yet were not awarded or given any veteran privileges.
The United States has also stolen almost all of Indigenous American land. Since the beginning, the U.S. made approximately 800 treaties with multiple tribes; the colonizers refused to ratify over 400 of them. Out of those which were approved, all of them were violated by America that resulted in extreme land theft and the subjection of Indigenous Americans to the unfair power of U.S. law. This completely defies America’s morals of justice and liberty - they only want freedom when it is convenient to them. The intent of the treaties, which are legal instruments that regulate agreements between nations, was completely infringed; the Americans have blood on their names before they even began to settle. When tribes tried to seek their deserved justice in 1828, the American Supreme Court gave rulings that justified white domination and laid principles that allowed for future domination and theft through Congress. As a result of this, ‘legal myths’ were created. These myths were based on old-fashioned, racist ideologies that depicted the natives as an inferior form of human who needed to be ‘raised’ to European standards of civilization. As a result of this, Indigenous Americans have no right over their own resources. Instead, the government holds ‘aboroginal title’ on behalf of the Natives - they cannot have their own land like normal citizens.
The effects of all of this are still visible today. Indigenous Americans are still not being treated like real human beings - only as relics of the past. Today, they lack proper representation in the media, and American schools are not teaching the correct facts about them. They are constantly stereotyped, seen as ‘savages’, and are also affected by systemic racism. For natives, it is often harder for them to get jobs and houses in a modern society as others see them as from a lower social class. Similar to the discrimination of black people and their names, Indigenous Americans are less likely to be considered because of their native-sounding titles. Indigenous children are also being illegally pushed into the foster care system to rid them of their culture and origin.
Indigenous Americans deserve justice and freedom. The American system has completely robbed them and defied their own ethics; what they have done is unfair and they owe it to the natives. Every American citizen today is forever in debt to the indigenous tribes, but not because of what they have given them, but for what they took from them. The damages of this are irreversible, and they still have not been paid for or justified.