Native American civil rights

Assorted laws and policies of the United States government, some tracing to the pre-Revolutionary colonial period, denied basic human rights—particularly in the areas of cultural expression and travel—to indigenous people.

Many tribes that live on Indian reservations are currently facing the destruction of surrounding environments and water sources, depressed economies, sexual violence against women, and substance abuse.

[3] These concerns include the omnipresent, invisible universal force, and "the three 'life crises' of birth, puberty, and death", spiritual beings, revelations, human intercessors into the spirit world, and ceremonies that renew communities.

[3] In 1585, an American Indian tribe on the eastern coast of North America made contact with English explorer Richard Grenville, who set up a settlement called Roanoke Colony.

In 1607, decades after the interaction between the tribe's folk and Grenville, Captain John Smith established the colony of Jamestown in the middle of the Powhatan confederacy in what is now Virginia.

[4] Chief Powhatan wrote in a letter to John Smith:I have seen two generations of my people die...I know the difference between peace and war better than any man in my country... Why will you take by force what you may have quietly by love?

We are unarmed, and willing to give you what you ask, if you come in a friendly manner, and not so simple as not to know that is it much better to eat good meat, sleep comfortably, live quietly with my wives and children, laugh and be merry with the English, and trade for their copper and hatchets, than to run away from them and to lie cold in the wood, feed on acorns, roots, and such trash, and be so hunted that I can neither eat nor sleep... Take away your guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy, or you may all die in the same manner.In the winter of 1609 through 1610, the residents of Jamestown had little food or effective shelter as they experienced the Starving Time.

In response, the colonists raided and sacked the Paspahegh capital, which was a tributary tribe to the Powhatan, killing at least 15 Natives, and kidnapping the wife of the village chief and their children.

[11]: 5 [12] English missionaries developed "praying towns" to create "orderly Christian communities filled with model converts who were living and working under the watchful eye of a priest or pastor".

[13] Within these communities, converts to the Christian faith would be placed in a separate area from the remainder of the tribe in order to prevent regression back to their native beliefs.

According to the federal government at that time, reservations were to be created in order to protect the Indians from increasing numbers of White Americans moving to the West.

Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow Nation in Montana and Alfred Kiyana of the Meskwaki Settlement in Iowa spoke to historians, anthropologists, and journalists through translators to criticize the idea of "American progress" and to express pride and faith in the identities of their own cultures.

In 1902, Gertrude Bonnin told the Atlantic Monthly that the traditions of her tribe, the Yankton Dakota Sioux, were not only equal to European Americans, but that their values were superior.

[15] In 1903, Charles Eastman, a Santee Dakotan and Native representative, was requested by Theodore Roosevelt to help Sioux people choose English names in order to protect their lands from being taken.

Lands registered with the birth and natural names of Natives were often lost due to confusion the United States government employees had with filling paperwork.

Following this, he and other citizens of Pacific Northwest tribes organized all the Tulalip agency reservations and several off-reservation communities into the Northwestern Federation of American Indians with the goal of redeeming promises made in treaties.

The organization members were young and had grown out of a summer program that brought students from all around the U.S. to Boulder, Colorado, and introduced to the Southwest Regional Indian Youth Council so that they could learn about the Native state of affairs.

The organizations' members, people such as Clyde Warrior, Melvin Thom, Vine Deloria Jr., and Hank Adams, rejected beliefs that Natives were unable to help themselves or that they needed to adopt American society as their own.

[17] The ICRA supports the following:[18] Other civil rights such as sovereignty, hunting and fishing, and voting are still issues facing Native people today.

Many Native American tribes and people believe the pipelines threaten their water supply,[21] could damage cultural and religious sites,[22] and violate treaties guaranteeing "undisturbed use and occupation" of tribal land.

This process was noted in the 1976 Final Report to the American Indian Policy Review Commission, Task Force Eleven: Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

During the Progressive Era from the 1890s to the 1920s, a "quasi-theocracy" reigned in what federal policymakers called "Indian Country"; they worked hand-in-hand with churches to impose Christianity upon Native Americans "as part of the government's civilizing project".

It was during this time that the government "discouraged or imposed bans on many forms of traditional religious practices, including the Sun Dance, use of peyote in ceremonial settings and observance of potlatch rituals.

The Native American Church has had a long struggle with the government of America due to their ancient and deeply spiritual religious practice using peyote.

Rather it is considered a unifying influence on the Native American life because it provides the "basis for Indian friendships, rituals, social gatherings, travel, marriage, and more.

[46] In 1988, the United States government passed a federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which provides the legislative basis for protecting Native lands for their community health and economic growth.

For example, in December 1893, Governor John E. Osborne of Wyoming wrote a letter to the BIA protesting that Indians from Fort Hall, Lemhi, Wind River, and Crow Reservations were leaving illegally.

For example, the Central Pacific Railroad in Nevada had granted Indians the privilege of riding on the roof and flatbeds of rail cars without tickets, in exchange for the right-of-way through their reservations.

"[53] Angry Indian agents, who wanted the Paiutes to stay under their jurisdiction, wrote letters urging the BIA to stop this free travel.

Thus, Native Americans' relationship to the U.S. government continued to be similar to that of people in an occupied land under the control of a foreign power.