This week was my favorite in class. i say this because I feel like my understanding of the Native American plight was fully understood and presented to me. I really now understand how crappy the services that the government provided were and how many people suffered because of these terrible treaties and Acts that would drive natives to take action and to suffer the consequences. The question "Can you be Indian and live in the modern times?" really shines through with what we learned in respect to World War II, Termination, Relocation, Reserved Sovereignty, Red Power Movements, and the rising problems and conflicts of the BIA and OIA.
The Red Power Movement was very interesting to me. I felt that it was very ironic that Dillon Myer, who apparently had been in charge of developing and maintaining, the U.S. Japanese interment camps during World War II, could be in charge of so many Indian programs. I feel that these times were rampant with corruption in government and with government officials. With all his new things that he brought to the table, such as the Relocation Program in 1948, from 1950-1970 seventy-five percent of the Indian community ended up moving to cities on their own terms, increasing Native communities in the cities.
All in all, this week was important in my understanding of Native peoples plights for equality and life outside of the U.S. expectations of them. However, its important to note that some Natives did try to conform and live in their new lives without their previous connection to their homelands.
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I don't know if it qualifies as corruption, but I thought I would pass on an interesting story I learned from my grandmother. My great great grandmother was part Native American, and several of her husbands were Native America. Yes, several. This would have been in the late 1890's, and early 1900's. One of her husbands was out one night, drinking, and was shot by a white man for some unknown reason. But instead of arresting him, the family just paid her off to forget the charges, and murder. This seemed to be an acceptable practice for law enforcement. Not sure where, but they lived in Oklahoma and Arkansas area. Maybe it applied to more than just native american victims, I don't know. The family has a big genealogy book and I should read more about it when I get home.
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