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This is the latest myth of the white man. Yes we fought but never on the scale of annihilation that the white man brought. It's like comparing a skirmish between a couple of companies of opposing forces to the Battle of Bull Run. The two are not comparable in scale.
there is so much BS in this thread that it's hard to know where to start. Some examples
posters claim that the reservation system should be scrapped and NDNs should just assimilate into white society thereby forsaking their culture and heritage. Meanwhile there are numerous posts in C-D where whites are bemoaning the fact that in a few decades they will be a minority and lose their "white culture" (If there ever was such a thing). So you want the NDN to abandon their culture while saving your culture by denying diversity. Sounds like the usual white man double speak. Promise with one hand and betray with the other.
Drugs and alcohol.
Yes there are drug and alcohol problems on the reservations and it is epidemic in proportion. The white man and the posters in this thread will attempt to paint the picture of the spineless, weak, immoral NDN for the drugs and alcohol. I, on the other hand will claim that ALL drug and alcohol abuse in all races is a symptom of a greater problem and not the core of the problem. There were no drugs or alcohol problems before the white man came. The white man brought these afflictions with them.
The white man will try to whitewash the theft of a continent and essentially exterminating a race of people by claiming that we fought among ourselves and are weak, inferior, morally corrupt individuals who live in dirt piles and are a threat to the white society. This is the final push to finish the job they started centuries ago.
I contend that any and all afflictions experienced by the NDN were brought on and fostered by the white society and the principles of Manifest Destiny. If we had just been left alone with our culture and lands then we would have thrived as caretakers of the continent rather that the concept of exploitation and pillage that the white race brought.
White man, you won. You own the continent and all it's resources. We NDNs have been relegated to a few small patches of useless dirt and a host of problems from having our ancestry and culture destroyed. Just leave us alone. The few paltry dollars you speak of is nothing in comparison to the vast fortunes squandered on the fancies of the white race.
Leave us with the ghosts of our ancestors and the memories of long days and warm nights. Don't demonize the last of us in an attempt to take what little we have left.
Touching. Would that it could be that simple. I'm not living next to Mohawks here, and I know little of Mohawk culture. Kinda out of my area, but, I know plenty about this tribe.
Personally, I don't feel me n mine owe the Indian a thing. I never perpetrated any wrong upon this, or any other tribe, but you would think, by the pervasive attitude, that I have a river of blood flowing through my family tree, with the headwaters in the 1800s. At times, just minding our own business is not good enough. Its tough to stomach getting shot at , just for being white, and being here. If I , rather, resent that special right, of being able to shoot at folks from the Rez side of the line, and not having to worry about folks shooting back,( can't cross that line ya know) pardon me all to hell. NOTHING gives ANYONE a right to play games like that. I don't care what happened, back in the day. This ain't Little Big Horn, I ain't GA Custer, and these clowns ain't Red Cloud.
You state "You won white man". Well, tell me, what did I win? Neither I , nor any of my ancestors, are/were railroad tycoons, cattle kings, gold tycoons or oil men, who coulx afford to buy the services of the Army to deal with indigenous people problems, standing in the way of a cash cow.
I was born here too. I am far from rich and comfy. I scratch out a living at the same whims that dictate life on the Rez. But I'm white. So, I'm the enemy. And, there is NOTHING I can do about it. Save that I can refuse to pander to the past, and bemoan a plight that was not mine, or anyone living today.
I feel, I have as much right, to live here, and travel across this desert, on my horse, without fear of being shot out of the saddle, and my body pitched down an old mine shaft, for the crime of being born white. I have no problem with live and let live, so long as the favor is returned.
An Australian friend and I were having a conversation about aboriginals in Australia. She is very resentful about how they get additional money for various reasons.
I brought up how Native Americans and Inuits get additional money for various reasons but I feel no resentment at all. She seemed to think I am unusual and that she believes that the majority of Americans must be resentful.
An Australian friend and I were having a conversation about aboriginals in Australia. She is very resentful about how they get additional money for various reasons.
I brought up how Native Americans and Inuits get additional money for various reasons but I feel no resentment at all. She seemed to think I am unusual and that she believes that the majority of Americans must be resentful.
So I am asking.
Anytime I've been past/seen any reservation and then return home to my house. . . Nope - don't have any resentment at all
Meanwhile there are numerous posts in C-D where whites are bemoaning the fact that in a few decades they will be a minority and lose their "white culture" (If there ever was such a thing).
hmm - well if there is no White Culture, than I think we can safely say there is no black, red, yellow, bronze, purple, etc culture
I mean not a great way to make any argument, if the first thing you say is that another race doesn't have a culture - yet yours deserves a separate one.
Though i don't worry about losing it. . .as far as I know, American is White culture, everything else is still niches.
hmm - well if there is no White Culture, than I think we can safely say there is no black, red, yellow, bronze, purple, etc culture
I mean not a great way to make any argument, if the first thing you say is that another race doesn't have a culture - yet yours deserves a separate one.
Though i don't worry about losing it. . .as far as I know, American is White culture, everything else is still niches.
Nice catch. I will admit, it was a snarky line. Whites do have a culture just the same as everyone else..
An Australian friend and I were having a conversation about aboriginals in Australia. She is very resentful about how they get additional money for various reasons.
I brought up how Native Americans and Inuits get additional money for various reasons but I feel no resentment at all. She seemed to think I am unusual and that she believes that the majority of Americans must be resentful.
So I am asking.
Being at that stage of life where federal income tax is a significant hit (about 23% of total income), and being responsible enough that I do our own taxes, I do think about these issues. We are desperately trying to save for retirement from our very stressful jobs before our jobs are outsourced, and before declining health stops us from being able to enjoy life. And the difficulty of saving enough for retirement with what's left over after taxes and living expenses, is a nightmare.
So overall, are we resentful of money being confiscated from our paychecks to subsidize women who have multiple babies but no way to pay for them? Yes. Resentful of paying obscene property taxes to a local government that hands money out to a long list of private charities? Yes. Resentful of a growing percentage of the population (including some in my extended family) that thinks there is no need for them to take a miserable, low paying job, because they can make more by simply sitting at home collecting unemployment, or SSI, or welfare? Yes. Most of all, resentful that my spouse and I will have to spend many extra years working stressful and demanding jobs than than we would have otherwise? Absolutely.
First of all, I think charity should be handled in the private sector, where non-profits can be held accountable for keeping their administrative costs low. Non-profits also can be screened to ensure that they are serving a population that deserves help, like someone who is disabled. Non-profits are also not likely to have the large-scale fraud that arises from government programs. I cannot imagine a more ridiculous waste of money, than to give money to government (with massive administrative costs), who then gives the money out to private non-profit charities. And I cannot ignore the huge numbers of people who think there is nothing wrong with sitting at home and collecting government paychecks rather than working. I personally know far too many.
Next, it simply cannot be ignored that generous taxpayer support encourages irresponsibility and increases the problem of "the poor." We now have 72% of black babies born to unmarried mothers, 66% of Native Americans, 53% of Hispanics and 29% of whites (Blacks struggle with 72 percent unwed mothers rate - Health - Women's health | NBC News increase almost entirely a result of welfare requirements. We have spent $15 trillion in the "War on Poverty," but we have far more poor and their prospects are no better. When the taxpayer is sending out checks instead of paying for soup kitchens, we end up paying for luxuries and vices (like soft drinks, cigarettes and alcohol) on top of basic needs.
My spouse and I have worked and saved our whole lives, and we were poor the majority of that time (as the military had us move constantly for the first 5 years, and we started at the bottom of the private pay scale thereafter). In addition, my parents never made much money despite a lifetime of work, and in their retirement they survived on SS and a tiny bit of interest from their life savings. Not once did my parents or my family qualify for a single government give-away program. My parents never even got a break on their property taxes, as the idea of "elderly exemptions" had not yet hit NH before they died.
My years working for local government showed me that the vast majority of the employees of local government are doing jobs that don't need to be done. Of the rest of the jobs that need doing, wages and compensation are far higher than in the private sector.
My years working for the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development showed me that fraud and corruption exists at a massive scale at the federal level. Wealthy private developers became rich, employees (100% minority before my arrival and after I quit) earned good money to come in when they felt like it and watch the TV sets on their desks, while serving a group of inner-city black single mothers who signed up for every subsidy program that came down the line. Later, I would grab a quick lunch at the food court of the local upscale mall and watch these same women (surrounded by their many children), laden down with full shopping bags from the most expensive department stores. I supervised a program that gave out over $1 million a year in grants for assistance with housing, and gave out 100% of the money to this core group of African American applicants--who only constituted about 20% of the local population that qualified for the program.
Consequently, I can only conclude that in the absence of extremely rare "lightning striking" events (like getting hit by a truck and losing your legs after you got laid off and COBRA had expired), responsible people don't benefit one iota from our current overly-generous welfare system. And the cost we pay for it is astronomical.
And for future posters, it would be interesting to note what amount of your total income you pay in federal income taxes (and everyone should know this number). I can certainly see how someone who pays no federal income tax wouldn't be resentful at all.
Just a little payment to keep them on the reservation.
Similar to welfare payments and keeping them in the ghetto.
This is not even a remotely similar situation. Native Americans don't want our money and they choose to stay on the reservations because it is their land. No one is stopping them from moving off of the reservations and plenty of people do.
This is not even a remotely similar situation. Native Americans don't want our money and they choose to stay on the reservations because it is their land. No one is stopping them from moving off of the reservations and plenty of people do.
Must just be all the Indians I've seen.
You seem very well schooled on this matter.
Must just be all the Indians I've seen.
You seem very well schooled on this matter.
I am. Granted, all tribes of Native Americans are different and have diffferent histories and values. I'm from western South Dakota where there are a lot of reservations (Lakota, Sioux, etc) and terrible things have been done to the Native Americans here. As a part of our school cirriculum, we are required to learn about Native American history. My city was about 15% Native American and the only major town close to the reservations so Native Americans are not a stranger to me. My school was about 30% Native American as well so I had friends that were Native Americans and worked with many. I've talked with many about the issues and seen some of the issues first hand and in the news. I know that what this tribe wants is the Black Hills (which are sacred to them) returned. There really is no way that can happen now with how modernized it has become, and they just recently accepted a settlement which they had refused for decades because they don't want our money. But believe me, even though they accepted the settlement, the tensions are not gone and the dispute is not resolved.
We need to think of other solutions than just throwing money at the reservations. Probably one of the best things that's helped race relations in the state is renaming Columbus Day, Native American Day in SD.
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