The Dying Underclass

In Part 9 of our readings, the section starts out with a passage written by a native woman to an unspecified patronizing individual. This passage attempts to use plain language to dispel the stereotypes often associated with being of native ancestry. She tries to make it clear that she will not give lofty spiritual advice, nor will she show any of the customs that are often expected of natives. She wants only to be left alone and unmolested by the outsider, and refuses to share anything but her contempt for how she is being treated.

This stands in stark contrast from what our culture traditionally assumes about natives--about their naivete towards outsiders and willingness to share ancient wisdom and lore with anyone who asks. Instead of the friendly savage that is so often portrayed in media we see a cynical, indifferent woman whose people have been oppressed since they day they were first encountered by Europeans, who have written and signed countless treaties only to see every one of them broken, and who have seen their domain which once spanned North America reduced to a few hundred square miles. Even in my own home, I can remember our personification of "Indians" as whooping savages with feathers in their headgear who were masters of the bow and lived in tepees Never mind that, for even the tribes that once lived a comparable lifestyle, much of this culture has by now been lost, and the true station of the native today tends to be on a reservation,[slum] a dependent of the state, with a long history of poverty, illiteracy, and substance abuse. Her cynicism and apathy can only be expected in light of these facts, and the pretense of the outsider is evident from the perspective of a native. For someone who even today, after 500 years of oppression, is implicitly viewed as less than human, her response is perhaps too gracious.

Recently President Obama addressed all native tribes about making them more involved in the political process and decision making. Though this is certainly high minded, it is perhaps too little too late. The time for such actions was clearly 200, 100, or even just 50 years ago. If there is one group in America that remains almost as hopeless today as it has ever been, it is the Native Americans. Whenever there was a need for "progress" and the natives stood in the way, American interests inevitably trumped any sense of humanity or duty towards previously made agreements. Be it displacing thousands for gold, killing buffalo for railroads, or, today, destroying sacred sites for oil, without exception the land, livelihood and history of Native Americans has been viewed as nothing more than one more obstacle to the needs of the average American. Casinos and reservations are not even a pittance for the loss of homeland, sacred sites, and cultural heritage. Be it the driving of natives from the southeast by Andrew Jackson, or, more recently, Al Gore's liscensing of the destruction of ancient sites sacred to the Kitanemuk tribe, American policy has always treated Native Americans as "in the way." Perhaps if he follows through where so many other American leaders have failed by affording Native Americans the dignity they deserve, he will have staked out at least a little change we can all believe in.