James, you brought up some interesting points. Native americans did have
complex political structures and many vicious wars(and war crimes) long
before the Europeans came. But does 'right make right' in the taking of
their lands? Of course we did this through a combination of combat,
disease, trade and squatting.
Perhaps in the modern day, American Indians are poor stewards of the land
(in some cases) but in the past they lived in general harmony with it,
knowing instinctively the ecological relationship they had with it. The
mentality of European settlers in many ways shocked them with its
exploitation of the land and strict ownership mentality.
I have heard stories of financial mismanagement by Native American
organizations that have shocked me. Here in Alaska the native corporations
have a flawed but generally much better record I think then their
counterparts in the continental U.S. But in many of the villages
alcoholism, violence, sexual abuse and government dependancy have a strong
hold. Native college students flunk out of college at about four times the
normal rate and to help with that a tutoring and outreach organization is
running strong on campus. There is a native Alaskans engineering
organization on campus that is has been around for a long time. There are
still many very strong Alaskan natives both in the cities and the villages.
I do find it ironic and sad that the state and federal gov't tell the native
people whether or not they can hunt certain animals and to what extent. The
natives got along fine without us for centuries! lol
I can understand how angry feelings have arisen among natives towards
whites. Alcohol was often used to take advantage of them and especially
their women. Our diseases killed many of them. We considered their
religion 'witchcraft' and banned it to be replaced by forced instruction in
our own religions. Starvation was brought upon a large area when a fish
processing company sucked dry all the resources by banning natives from
doing their own fishing! Public outrage from all sides stopped that..
eventually. Stores often had signs saying no dogs or natives. Substandard
medical care and experimentation done without their knowledge. The list
goes on.
Of course, millions of dollars came into native coffers with the discovery
of oil! But that made only certain tribes extremely wealthy. So now you
have some native groups feeling a great deal of envy or even hate toward
those who benefitted so much and only in limited ways 'shared the wealth.'
All natives do have free medical care at a nice hospital just for them here
in Anchorage. Only recently was the building and certain personnel replaced
to make it a strong facility and not a joke like it partially was in the
past. And only some natives get to attend college free though they have
huge scholarship funds that are not tapped as they could be.
I do think that the current generation of young natives are strong as a
whole and will do alright. I hope so. And I consider them native even if
their ancestors did come over the ice bridge! lol
sincerely,
John Grigg
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