The History of Aboriginal Communities

The history of aggression between Aboriginals began in 1824 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs was founded with the War Department. The tone however changed slightly with the Fort Laramie treaty which drew boundaries on the land that belonged to the Lakota Nation in 1851. The land was regarded as a sovereign nation and should have been regarded as such. This treaty was however broken in 1861 when President Lincoln released white settlers into native land in what was then called the Homestead Act. When there was an uprising in 1863 by the Santee Sioux in Minnesota, it was ended with the execution of 38 Sioux men (Vingerhoets & Iburg, 2004). This execution was under the direction of President Lincoln himself. Surprisingly, this occurred only two days after the president had signed the Emancipation Proclamation (Huey, 2010).

In 1866, the US government started its plans to create railway lines and trails that passed through the Lakota Nation without any regard for the treaties that had been signed. In response, three groups joined hands and fought and defeated the US army. 1868 saw to the signing of a second Fort Laramie Treaty. This treaty again confirmed the sovereignty of the Lakota Nation along with the Lakota rights to the Black Hills which are considered sacred in the community. The government actually conceded all the requests that had been made by the Lakota community including additional land on the neighboring lands. At this point, the Lakota closed Powder River Country to whites (Huey, 2010).

In 1869, the construction of the transcontinental railway was complete. Its completion saw to the complete disregard for the Lakota Nation. It started transporting hunters into the Lakota nation to hunt buffaloes extensively. This saw to the elimination of the very factors that saw to the provision of food and clothing to the community. The Indian Appropriation Act of 1971 made all lands that belonged to the Aboriginals a part of the Federal government. Indians were also placed in reservations and prohibited from leaving these reservations (Huey, 2010). They were officially declared prisoners of war on their own land.

In 1874, gold was discovered in Lakota territory. This created a need for the US government to officially find means of ending the treaties that it had signed with the communities. War broke out and the blood was shed on both sides of the war. Sadly, as the war continued, the Lakota community was both blackmailed and deceived. A few Sioux men and leaders were required to sign a treaty that saw to the removal of the Fort Laramie Treaty. In return, they would continue getting food from the US government. This was in contrast to the Fort Laramie treaty requirement that land would only be signed away by at least 75 % of the community. In this case, only 10 percent of the men in the community signed. This would imply about 5 % of the community signed this treaty (women included), a mere 15 times less than would be required (Huey, 2010).

In 1887, the Dawes Act of communal land was ended. The land that initially belonged to the Lakota community was divided into 160 acre parcels which were given to individuals. The remaining land was then disposed off to other individuals. This made it possible for the land to be further demarcated in the future so that eventually the size of available land would be too small to inhabit. In this move, millions of acres of land were lost. Again, this land went to white ranchers (Huey, 2010). In the words of Huey, the good land went to wasichu (non-Indians or individuals who take the best due to greed).

1890 is the year of the Wounded Knee Massacre. This massacre saw to the killing of Chief Big Foot and another 300 hundred Indians who were considered prisoners of war. This was done by the use of advanced weaponry and led to the award of 20 medals of war from the congress. This is the largest number of medals that the congress has ever issued and one that saw to the slaughter of children and women. The Massacre also saw to the end of the Indian wars and their dream of sovereignty. This massacre was the last talk about treaties. The US government wanted to do away with everything that the Indians represented; their culture and their treaties included. By 1900, the Indian population was less than 250,000; too low compared to the 8 million of 1492 (Huey, 2010; Cicarelli, 2012).

With these events as they are, the 20^th century saw to a lot of difficulties to the community of Aboriginals in the US. First, they were forced to take their children though a system of education. The system of education provided for them was not acceptable by any means. First, rather than providing them with skills and knowledge and help them alleviate poverty, the education was tailored in such a way that it removed them from their culture so that they behave d less Indian or archaic and more white or civilized. The education system was intended to remove the children from their Aboriginal ways and into more Americanized ways.

Second, the education system made the children available for unethical research and practices. Aboriginal children who were considered inferior in the society were exposed to food and nutrition test in the early 20^th century without being asked to consent to the research. In the present age, it is a requirement that anyone doing research with human subjects follow certain regulations. These regulations were not followed in the research of these children. While there are arguments that the research was important to the advancement of medicine, there is neither evidence to support this claim nor justification for doing this without the consent of the children. The education system was a barrier to the advancement of the community and led to the destruction of the unity that existed between them.

In the early 1900s, the percentage native women in jails were rather proportional. According to Sangster (1999), the proportion of native women in jails was approximately 2%. While this is higher than the population proportion of 1%, the worst situations have been the increase of this proportion to approximately twice every ten years. It was therefore noted that aboriginal women comprised 4% in the 1930s, 7% in the 40s and over ten percent in the 1950s (Sangster, 1999).

The increase in the proportion could be attributed to two factors. First, the poverty levels of the Indian communities were not impressive (Sangster, 1999). They therefore engaged in criminal activities like theft and prostitution to supplement their incomes. As the communities continued to live in the situations of poverty, everyone had to participate in activities that provided a supplementary income to their family. On the other hand, the desperation that came with the poverty poked holes in the lives of these people hence making them to engage in drug use.

Another reason that contributed to the high rates of incarceration was the factor of education. The system of education provided a departure from their culture (Aboriginal Issues in the CJS, n.d). While their cultures openly prohibited acts of prostitution, theft and drug use, the departure from this culture made them more likely to engage in criminal activities. Moreover, the activities of self defense they had engaged in during the war years may have created a traumatic community and one that did not see the need to obey the American law.

In the 1980s, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the community and determined that the Fort Laramie Treaty had been violated when the US government relocated the community into reserves and gave the rest of their land to prospectors. In this regard, the Court determined that the community should be compensated along with the interest. The compensation amount was determined to be $106 million. This amount met with a cry of refusal as the community argued that they did not want to sell their land. Specifically, they did not want to sell the sacred Black Hills (Huey, 2010).

Presently, the Indian population lives in an ugly state of affairs. The community has an unemployment rate of between 85% and 90 %. A big number of them are either homeless or living in unhealthy and congested conditions. The community is infested by disease and the infant rate is far higher than the national average. The community’s school dropout rate is higher than 70 % and the population has high rates of drug use (Huey, 2010).

In conclusion, Aboriginal groups have been through a history of injustice. The community land that belonged to them was then taken from them after it was discovered to contain natural resources. As this community continues to suffer, the nation continues to benefit from the resources that belong to them. The injustice is one that needs to be resolved once and for all. The community should be in a position to be self dependent if the injustices are resolved.

References

Aboriginal Issues in the CJS (n.d) Aboriginal Issues in the CJS: Educating the Indian, 1840 -1996. Historical perspectives

Cicarelli, J. (2012). Economic Thought Among American Aboriginals Prior to 1492. American Journal Of Economics And Sociology, 71(1), 77-125. doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.2011.00817.x

Huey, A. (2010). America’s native prisoners of war. Retrieved from http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2010X/None/AaronHuey_2010X-480p.mp4

Sangster, J. (1999). Criminalizing the colonized: Ontario native women confront the criminal justice system, 1920-60. Canadian Historical Review, 80(1), 32-60.

Vingerhoets, T., & Iburg, L. (2004). Aboriginals. Arnhem: Ellessy.