From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Sun Mar 19 2000 - 15:13:19 MST
On Sun, 19 Mar 2000, Technotranscendence wrote:
>
> The one difference, however, with Native Americans, is that their nations
> are still recognized. The right thing to do in their case, would be to give
> as much land as is possible back to them and allow them to find their way in
> the world. We can't undo the last 500 years, but we can give all that
> Federal land in the US back to them -- where it can be proven that it is
> their land. Then recreation (skiing, boating, etc.), mining, and logging
> concerns would have to pay a more equitable price for its usage and be less
> likely to damage it in the process.
This is a rather simplistic view of the issue.
For one, the Native Americans were quite busy doing their own empire
building as recently as the first half of the 19th century. This was
documented by American and European explorers in addition to tribal
histories. As far as I know, this has never been taken into consideration
and is the reason that you find tribes that are clearly from the Great
Plains living in the Pacific Northwest and other odd distributions of
related tribes. It is interesting to note that the Warrior-Merchant tribes
were among the most economically successful, both before and after European
domination and controlled relatively large sections of North America at
various times. The historical patterns of Native American politics and
conquests closely mirror European history in many respects.
As for Native Americans being better stewards of the land, this concept is
largely a cultural myth. In fact, some of the most egregious acts of
environmental destruction I have ever seen were perpetrated by Native
Americans on their own land. They are no better or worse than anyone else
at environmental conservation. In my experience, small private
agricultural and forestry concerns run by ordinary Americans have among
the best records for good environmental management (necessarily -- many
of these people have been earning a living off the same lands for many
generations, something that mandates excellent conservation practices).
Additionally, I am strongly against making "reparations" to the Native
Americans in general. A lot of people don't realize that the U.S.
government has already paid enormous sums of "reparation" money to many
of the tribes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars per person.
I grew up on a couple different Reservations, and I have a lot of
first-hand experience with the Native American communities. Most of them
*grossly* mismanage their assets and money. The reparations to date have
done nothing but turn most Native American tribes into welfare cases writ
large, waiting for their next big check from the evil white government.
Their have been some movements within some of the Native American
communities to get everyone off their collective asses and to become
productive members of society, but most have failed.
And lastly, to pick a nit, the Native Americans/Indians are no more
"native" than I am. The current "native" Americans occupying the
contintental U.S. are, to my understanding, invaders who pushed the
previous occupants south.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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