Indian Treatment Essay, Research Paper

One would think that today, with all the emphasis put on equality and the evils of prejudice, the differences in the treatment of Native Americans now and during the late 1890 s would be drastic. Our country has achieved her manifest destiny. A superpower with a standard policy on just about every issue, America seems strong but are all of our ideals so solid? Looking back to before the turn of the century, our nation was still in her infancy. Wild and erratic, there were not so many checkpoints to ensure constitutionality back then. This allowed many of the obvious injustices committed against the Native American ethnic group that we can see clearly today as wrong. Many now ponder this question, are our actions now as vastly different from our shaky past as we would all like to imagine? The United States has overcome many biases in the past century but in issues concerning racial equality, we often come across examples leading us to believe the opposite and doubt our true status.

Recently, a court case has come about, demonstrating the length that our country has come since the nineteenth century. It used to be that the federal government seized Indian lands without looking back. In this occurrence however the court is working in the opposite direction. Oneida Indians are suing New York for compensation for lands between Utica and Syracuse that they claim were illegally taken from them earlier on in our country s development. The outlook is in favor of the Indians who say that they only want to be paid for what was illegally taken from them, a great change from one hundred years ago. For the Federal government to seriously consider Indian claims and doubt the legitimacy of previous treaties is a big step in the right directions for Indian treatment.

Aside from the new acceptance of Indian land claims there are many similarities bringing one to see an obvious connection today with the treatment of Indians is the last century. The Yankton Sioux, in 1858, entered into a treaty with the United States wherein the Sioux gave up 11 million acres for a 400,000-acre reservation. Later, they gave up an additional 160,000 acres for money. Great amounts of pressure were then put on the Indians to homestead and farm. Today, in South Dakota, this same situation is reoccurring. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) wants to put in a landfill on Sioux lands, within the boundaries of the reservation. The Sioux argue that the tribe has jurisdiction over their own lands, not U.S. government. However, the state and EPA claim the ability to do as they please on the surplus Indian lands. These arguments bear striking resemblance to each other and lead one to question how much out views have really changed in the past 100 years.

Though the United States has undeniably come a long way in the past century in issues concerning racial equality, we periodically see examples leading us to believe the exact opposite and question our true progress. Seen through various court cases today, America still has a long way to go until all of the vitals of prejudice can be considered extinct. Many people like to think that they are colorblind when it comes to others but if events such as those against the Sioux are still taking place, this cannot be true. Our federal government would like us to believe that everyone is treated fairly but Indian treatment exemplifies what obvious propaganda this is.