Thursday, April 1, 2010

Native American Issues

For my spring break this year, I went on an alternative spring break to the four corners region. It was a gorgeous area, and we had a lot of opportunity to hike, camp, and explore, but our main focus was volunteering and working with Native Americans.
The first reservation we visited was Zuni, a pretty small reservation in New Mexico. We were educated by the people on their ways of life, and then we did some weeding on their farms to prepare the fields for planting.
The second reservation we went to was the much larger Navajo reservation, in which we stayed in a family's Hogan (traditional 8-sided Native American building) for three days, working to build a sheep corral for the Nez family. They were the kindest of people, and extended their generosity not just in the form of letting us stay in the Hogan, but inviting us into their home for dinner as well and teaching us about their lifestyle. They also took us on a a trek across a canyon to ancient ruins that are unknown to the public. The ground was littered with untouched artifacts such as arrowheads and broken pottery, and being taken there by the Nezs' was truly a wonderful experience.
The sad part of this visit, however, was how apparent Native Americans are still struggling to live in coexistence with their tribal past and the rest of the United States. Obviously there was much harm to them by our government in the past, but harms are still being done today, such as one of the major rivers flowing to Zuni being damned. The land in Zuni is great for farming, but this lack of water causes them to struggle to continue with a way of life they've known for hundreds of years. It was comforting to see that most of the people on reservations were attending universities, as a result of getting scholarships from the government, but that is one small right to fix many wrongs. Many Native Americans also live on welfare and receive food stamps, which sadly has contributed to a problem of obesity in their culture that was never their before. Being introduced to all our food products without proper nutritional education really has taken a toll on their health; even the father of the Nez family, Jim, was so large he had to use a cane to walk everywhere.
Many believe that wrongs done to Native Americans are a thing of the past, but this is not the case. On the reservations, many of the people still had much resentment towards any white people, in which we were treated with disdain, while others regarded us as normal people. This trip this year was the first of its' kind (at least through CU) I think it would be great if there were more outreach programs of students working in reservations, trading knowledge to hep these people as well as understand their way of life so it is not lost in our country.

To learn more about Zuni and Navajo culture:
http://www.ashiwi.org/
http://www.navajo.org/history.htm

10 comments:

  1. I completely agree that much more needs to be done to help the native americans. Although the US will never fully compensate for the wrong doings that were done in the past, we owe it to them to do as much as we can to learn about and help protect their unique culture which has been largely destroyed by western expansion. University scholarships are a great way of helping the native people but currently laws are extremely strict on who qualifies for these scholarships. Many people of native descent do not qualify for these benefits because they are considered to not have enough native blood which is ultimately decided by the US government, which leaves many native americans unable to go to school. Overall, there is a lot more to be done.

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  2. Good post. I took a native american history class last semester and before that I had no idea exactly how much racism has been written into our laws during that time period of eradication of native peoples. If we as a society want to bring equality to this demographic, we must rewrite many of the colonial legalities from our past.

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  3. It is unfortunate that there has remained such a cultural separation between Native Americans and the more modern, urban lifestyle prevalent in much of the U.S.. The Native American culture and its associated history has certainly been largely neglected since reservations were first constructed.

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  4. FROM JUDITH:
    Fabulous spring break experience – lucky you. The US has no excuse for the treatment given to our native people; I mean, we are the colonizers… The hope for a solution, though, needs to come from within the populous – the new college graduates returning to their tribes with solutions. Other than that, we are still the bad guys thinking that we can just pour in money and that will make all of the historical inequities fine… We are the cultural imperialists.

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  5. Great post. I grew up living only miles from a reservation and have many close Native American friends. This is a great concern of mine. as Judith said above, we are the cultural imperialists. In many many ways we have completely destroyed their beautiful and peaceful culture. Across the nation reservations are very much how you described. I feel that especially in the Native American youth there is understanding of their ancient Cultural beliefs and their rich history. It is something we as a society do not pay enough attention to. How often in school do we learn about Americans other than the white guys who wrote the constitution and explore the "unchartered territories of the West"? If i recall it was a Native American Woman who led them through much of the tough and treacherous land and help them survive in the harsh conditions. Although the US government has done some to help the Native American reservations, their outreach is very little. I imagine this is a result of the low voter turn out (as a cause and a result of itself) and the small amount of the overall voter population they represent. I definitely agree that states should do more to help the real Americans live better lives. The reservation which I grew up near has done a lot for itself and its future as a result of these problems; setting up its own k-12 school, an elaborate casino/golf course/hotel/RV park, and a result of the funds from the casino, they have been able to invest in other infrastructure like a new high-tech telecommunications headquarters.

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  6. Last Semester I took a Native American religious studies course. One area affecting the Native American culture is alcoholism. Native Americans have experienced substantial problems with alcohol since its introduction to their culture by early European settlers. Data shows that elevated morbidity and mortality can be attributable to alcohol abuse among this population, and it is rising at epidemic levels. It is a tragedy that after all the Native Americans have been through alcohol is also tearing apart the reservations. Alcohol is often referred to as "fire water" on the reservation, and I feel that more help should be offered to the already struggling Native American tribes.

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  7. I work with a non-profit organization that you might be interested in helping out with called Conscious Alliance, that works to re-distribute food and resources to Native American reservations. Many of the reservations do recieve food-aid from the government, however it is appalling to see the small amount of food that is avtually supplied. Not only could the food package that is intended to feed five people for a month small enough to fit in your book bag, but the nutritional value is close to nothing. This makes it very rewarding to see the excitement filling a food pantry, or a propane tank to heat their homes, brings to the Natives.

    However there is a bigger issue than poverty and hunger on reservations. Since the arrival of British colonialists, Native peoples have been a victim of genocide. Although not as obvious as the genocide of Nazi Germany, or Rwanda, the Native population is rapidly declining as a direct response to U.S. policy. Through tactic tools such as sexual violence and environmental racism, the U.S. government is able to suppress Native culture and people to a point where it will soon be non-existant if there is not a huge paradigm shift in the attitudes of western imperialists to the Native communities.

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  8. Although I was aware about the extremely negative impacts colonists had on the Native American people in the past, I have not had much exposure to current problems of this sort. I don't understand why there isn't more media attention brought to this situation. When I was traveling around New Zealand last summer, I was both shocked and delighted at how they celebrated the native Maori people of New Zealand. They recognize and appreciate their differences instead of stifling the Maori heritage and culture. In one of the hostels I stayed at I had access to a television and I found a station that was completely designated to showing Maori culture, and I learned quite a bit. I'm not sure why such a trend has not caught on here in the United States.

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  9. Great post and what an interesting spring break! At home, I am within miles of many reservations and a few houses down from a Native American Chief. When talking with him, he mentions the struggle modern-day Native Americans have with preserving their culture while also maintaining their rights. He believes one small change to help this problem is educational based. It would include learning about Native American culture and religion from a historical aspect to overcome the racism and stereotypes from the Media. The US government has made and continues to make horrible decisions on the treatment of Native Americans and this is a great cause to get involved with because of that!

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  10. Preserving Native American culture must be a difficult task given the limited resources that they have to work with. Their culture was based on the land and now the land is being developed and destroyed around them.

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