Opinion of Shannon County, South Dakota

[minionofmidas]

The last time a US Government tried active assimilation policies, it led to actual acute starvation conditions at Menominee and Turtle Mountain, two of the three large communities chosen as a pilot project (Klamath was a qualified success, actually, and the numerous tiny communities pressganged into the project were much more assimilated into mainstream America before, and thus suffered far less). And that was in the 1950s. "Stockholm Syndrome" indeed.

[minionofmidas]

I drove through just to check it out when I was in the neighborhood, touring the Badlands. It was quite desolate and depressing, like most rural areas. What was notably different was that many Natives were out walking around along the Highway, something no non-Native rural would be caught dead doing in their neck of the woods. FWIW, the tour guide at Rushmore said the gov't has given the tribe a bazillion dollars (precisely) in compensation for screwing them over back in the day regarding the Black Hills. But the Injuns won't take the money, so it just sits in an account somewhere getting bigger day after day. And yet they all live in squalor. Go figure out a Native.

Yes, two cents an acre plus 5% p.a. for the past 105 years (it was then; 135 now) for the entire southwest corner of the state, all of which is land the U.S. Government recognizes it had no title whatsoever to when it started offering it to settlers after Little Big Horn.
Not that the Government offered any of that of course -  they fought it tooth and nail - unless you use a technical definition of "Government" that includes the judicial branch.

[minionofmidas]

The last time a US Government tried active assimilation policies, it led to actual acute starvation conditions at Menominee and Turtle Mountain, two of the three large communities chosen as a pilot project (Klamath was a qualified success, actually, and the numerous tiny communities pressganged into the project were much more assimilated into mainstream America before, and thus suffered far less). And that was in the 1950s. "Stockholm Syndrome" indeed.

I don't think they ought to try active assimilation policies. I believe that the Bureau of Indian Affairs should be scrapped and the tribes left free to govern themselves without the intrusion of the federal government.

Right, which would solve reservation poverty how?

Some BIA intrusions certainly deserve to go. I'd love to see citizenship reformed to where it would be possible to have variable blood quantum requirements depending on whether somebody actually lives at or near the community or not, for instance.

[minionofmidas]

The last time a US Government tried active assimilation policies, it led to actual acute starvation conditions at Menominee and Turtle Mountain, two of the three large communities chosen as a pilot project (Klamath was a qualified success, actually, and the numerous tiny communities pressganged into the project were much more assimilated into mainstream America before, and thus suffered far less). And that was in the 1950s. "Stockholm Syndrome" indeed.

Could you elaborate? I'm not familiar with this.

I don't feel like writing something; so I'll copy and paste from the BIA's own rundown of its history:

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Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/bureau-of-indian-affairs#ixzz2EMLkXiUw

1961 is really wrong; the official change in policy was in 1962 IIRC (but it's quite possible I'm wrong and they're right on this point) but actual change was very slow in coming, certainly didn't begin to hint at the possibility of a difference until Lee Harvey Oswald put competent management into the White House (and caused a bit of a revolution of rising expectations that would lead down to the leaden AIM-Nixon years... of course Leonard Peltier grew up on Turtle Mtn during the time the BIA illegally withdrew services to get the council to agree to termination.)


The BIA needs to approve all changes to tribal constitutions; kind of like preclearance except without the threat to its constitutionality and with most Nations not having the funds to entertain, or realistically threaten, legal action to get their way. Most of them thus for practical purposes take their constitutions as givens they cannot change.

[minionofmidas]

I'm not at all familiar with the workings of their tribal gov't, but I bet many of those people would like some of that money but are being denied by their own tribal leaders

Not so much their leaders (they vote them out almost every election anyways), but yeah there's a definite vibe of talking about taking the money being "not done" as it's viewed as vaguely traitorous now, and there being a larger-than-you'd-think-from-public-statements support for it.
Though, of course, it's not as if any outside forces are at all unhappy with the current state of affairs, or as if it were even remotely clear how the money would be distributed. Would it go to the tribal council, or to individuals? Are there any people not registered as Oglala (Rosebud and Lower Brule people, for instance) entitled to a share? Etc?

[minionofmidas]

It still has relevance - it shows you can be socially Conservative, as Lincoln though not Stevens certainly was, without being an evil bastard.
It just doesn't have relevance to the question of what party one should support today.


But what's that silly question doing in this thread? The extinction of wild buffalo certainy wasn't a partisan issue in the 19th century, and neither were concentration camps for Native Americans.