Native Americans: Centuries of Struggle in North America
The Conflict
Native Americans believe that they have been dislocated from their land by invaders—European colonizers—and demand independence for their nations. The U.S. government provides for limited independence within the context of the United States.
Political
- Native Americans believe they compose distinct nations who have not voluntarily joined the United States and should have sovereignty. They believe the United States has duplicitously broken treaties.
- Legal issues include forest management, mineral development, water rights, and reparations.
- The United States provides special rights, including limited autonomy, to Native Americans, which it does not provide to any other groups within the country.
Ethnic
• Ethnic discrimination has limited the achievements of Native Americans.
Economic
- Native Americans feel marginalized and impoverished by the United States and have been removed from valuable land.
- Native American organizations have sued the U.S. government's Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century, Vine Deloria, Jr. wrote: "The federal-Indian relationship … is like no other in the world… Indian tribes appear to have the same political status as … independent states … yet they … seem to be forever mired in a state of political and economic pupilage." During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Native Americans in the United States have experienced a cultural and economic renaissance after the devastation their culture experienced triggered by events brought about by the European colonization of North America centuries earlier.
