Contemporary Native American issues in the United States

Many issues stem from the subjugation of Native Americans in society, including societal discrimination, racism, cultural appropriation through sports mascots, and depictions in art.

Native Americans have also been subject to substantial historical and intergenerational trauma that have resulted in significant public health issues like alcohol use disorder and risk of suicide.

[6] Communities have consistently formed governments that administer services such as firefighting, natural resource management, social programs, health care, housing and law enforcement.

Is this not the equivalent to black face?While many universities and professional sports teams (for example, the Cleveland Indians, who had a Chief Wahoo) no longer use such images without consultation and approval by the respective nation, some lower-level schools continue to do so.

[29] From the arrival of white settlers, explorers and colonizers, Native Americans have suffered from genocide, introduced diseases, warfare, and the legacy of environmental racism persists in modern day.

The Mescalero Apache welcomed the proposal to have a monitored retrievable nuclear waste storage facility built on their land because over one-third of the tribal citizens were unemployed, and they lacked enough housing and any sort of school system.

[30] Jamie Vickery and Lori M. Hunter have stated that the natives are being coerced into accepting the nuclear waste storage facility by their own economic hardships, which in turn has been caused by the US government direct exploitation and marginalization.

Hooks' and Smith's study also found that the risk assessment code commonly used to measure the danger levels of a site may underestimate the damage it inflicts on Native American communities.

[39] Kelly Morgan, the Standing Rock Sioux's tribal archeologist, has voiced concerns that the water crossings destroy land used for burials and other important historical and cultural information, including several stones and markers.

Among the most prominent of these were Elbridge Ayer Burbank, George Catlin, Seth Eastman, Paul Kane, W. Langdon Kihn, Charles Bird King, Joseph Henry Sharp and John Mix Stanley.

For years, Native people on U.S. television were relegated to secondary, subordinate roles relative to the white protagonists as shown in notable works like Cheyenne (1957–1963) and Law of the Plainsman (1959–1963).

The "sympathetic" yet contradictory film Dances With Wolves (1990) intentionally, according to Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, related the Lakota story through a Euro-American voice for wider impact among a general audience.

The documentary portrayed the conflict as a struggle between different value systems, which included not only the Pequot, but a number of other Native American tribes in Massachusetts, most of which allied with the colonists.

Accordingly, public safety in tribal communities is a top priority for the Department of Justice.Emphasis was placed on improving prosecution of crimes involving domestic violence and sexual assault.

Some PL 280 reservations have experienced jurisdictional confusion, tribal discontent, and litigation, compounded by the lack of data on crime rates and law enforcement response.

[83] On June 6, 2012, the Justice Department announced a pilot plan to establish joint federal-tribal response teams on 6 Montana reservations to combat rape and sexual assault.

Casinos operated by many Native American governments in the United States are creating a stream of gambling revenue that some communities are beginning to use as leverage to build diversified economies.

As of 2004, according to the United States Commission on Civil Rights: "Native Americans die of diabetes, alcohol use disorder, tuberculosis, suicide, and other health conditions at shocking rates.

[92] Acknowledging that prohibition has not worked, in a major change in strategy since the late 20th century, as of 2007, 63 percent of the federally recognized tribes in the lower 48 states had legalized alcohol sales on their reservations.

[111] The social work approach to suicide prevention among Native Americans identifies and addresses the individual's immediate clinical needs, community/environmental influences, and societal risk factors.

Historical trauma is described as collective emotional and psychological damage caused by traumatic events in a person's lifetime and across multiple generations according to Dr. Laurelle Myhra, an expert on Native American mental health.

Experts in Native American trauma and culture Braveheart-Jordan and DeBruyn propose the land is the origin of the people, who came out of the earth, and is the interdependent and spiritual link to all things.

A study looking at two generations of American Indians and their relationship to psychological trauma found that participants who experienced traumatic events early in their lives usually abused substances to cope.

[127] Use of illicit substances and excessive consumption of alcohol are unhealthy coping mechanisms that many Native Americans learn to use at a young age by observing parental practices.

[129] Peter Menzies, the clinical head of Aboriginal Services at the Center for Addictions and Mental Health in Toronto, also proposes that government-sanctioned boarding schools are a key proponent of intergenerational trauma for Native Americans.

[134] Due to general inefficiency in handling outbreaks of diseases, many native children died at the boarding schools, often without having their parents notified or having been able to contact any family.

[130] In response to the psychological and intergenerational trauma caused, the National Boarding School Healing Project (NBSHP) was launched as a partnership to document these experiences and their effects on Native Americans.

[132] When some participants were asked about potential healing methods to their trauma, they suggested that communities in general should return to traditional Native American spiritual practices while former students of boarding schools specifically should attempt forgiveness to release internal turmoil and hatred.

[136] Some of these views include interconnectedness of the mind, body, and soul, the connection between humanity and nature, internal self-discipline, and appreciation of the present while the future is received in its own time.

[125] They maintain, however, that intergenerational trauma will not be healed until their traditional relationship to the land is restored in order to ground the tribe's "immortal connections" back to their place in the world.