The General Native American Discussion Thread

[L.Y.S.]

You do know that they are US citizens right? As for voting, well look at residents of Washington DC for people who can not vote. BUt I guess they are black so no one cares about them.

Keep making irrelevant racially motivated arguments; they don't stand against the legal precedent already established earlier in this thread. Remain upset, but do so at the expense of the law. The law is the one who distinguishes average citizens (you and me) from federally recognized tribes and registered members. It is not my conscious decision to do so, and America was founded on this basis. Or to go further into detail, America was founded on the separation between citizen, slave, and native. Only one of those separations has been neutralized legally, and that is the separation of slave and citizen. However, the separation of native and citizen is still a clear and distinct boundary, though many indigenous do enjoy a type of "dual-citizen" and of course different laws apply on the reservation and off the reservation. So if you do not wish to have to grant the sovereignty which is guaranteed under U.S. law, then you must repeal all laws and over turn all court decisions that make the native separate from that of the citizen.

I would also like to add that many indigenous pre-occupy a legal status which is uncertain. So while many individuals are griping over why natives should not get federal assistance, the law defines native national entities as “"domestic dependent nations”. They are separate yet apart of the U.S. and I suspect that this will remain their permanent status. As of now, no individual has offered reasonable a explanation of why there should not be American investment on reservations. The BIA is fairly underfunded, and most indigenous would do good with some economic development.

 

[varwoche]

Nor would I. And that said, it's not my sense that the locals consider the word indian to be insulting when spoken by non indians. When the next opportunity presents, I'll ask and report back.

I asked an acquaintenance (Puyallup tribe) and was told that they routinely refer to themselves either as Indian or Native. I didn't specifically ask if tribe members were offended by non Indians using the term Indian but I got the sense it was a non issue. I'll be more explicit next time.