In response to Raleigh Tiahrt’s opinion column last week about government bailouts: His comparison of American Indians to the poor money-managers of AIG is degrading and uninformed.
To say that American Indians cannot manage all the money being “thrown” at them is a fallacy and inherently anti-Indian.
Yes, throwing money at a problem has not worked and will not work. But, the “reparations” money that Tiahrt claims is being given away to 18-year-old American Indians in the thousands of dollars is but a fantasy.
Obviously all the “reparations” money that the federal government has “thrown” at America’s historic “Indian problem” should make South Dakota one of the richest states in the nation, given our large Indian population.
Embarrassingly, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Buffalo County, or Crow Creek Indian Reservation, is currently the poorest county in the nation. In the top 10 poorest counties, five are located in South Dakota and all are on Indian reservations.
Yes, there are casino tribes that give thousands of dollars a month to enrollees in per capita payments.
Not all tribes are that way. Most tribes have casinos, but make little revenue. And the few tribes that greatly profit from casino money have very small enrollment numbers. Casinos are a private enterprise of the tribe and the revenues do not come from the federal government.
There’s a greater ideological problem here.
If money could have fixed all of the problems facing American Indians if managed right, then one would think that money would be of intrinsic value for Indian people. That is simply not the case.
Take for example the Black Hills a sacred site for South Dakota’s Indian people. In the 1950s the U.S. government began uranium mining in the Black Hills.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order declaring the four-state region around the Black Hills a “National Sacrifice Area” for uranium mining and nuclear power. Though this would have been a lucrative financial investment for the state, Natives and non-Natives successfully resisted the incursion.
Not to mention the Black Hills have never been officially “sold” and are in fact still held in trust with federal government. That money is sitting in a bank account that has been collecting interest for last 100-plus years and was awarded to Sioux tribes on July 23, 1980. But the tribes refused accept the money. Today the total worth has been estimated at being somewhere near $900 million.
Think about it. The poorest people in America have refused to accept a single penny for their sacred lands and yet that land is being exploited by federal and private firms for its natural resources.
If anything, money has been the biggest problem for Indian and white relations. The Western world has historically held the dollar above the health and sanctity of people and their relationship with the land.
There are competing world views here. The Western worldview places money above people and land. The Indigenous respect land.
The myth that all American Indians live for “free,” go to school for “free,” and receive “hand-outs” from the federal government is shameful. It seems too often people only focus on the negative stereotypes of American Indian people, and in effect they contribute to a long history of anti-Indian sentiment.
Tiahrt’s sweeping generalizations about Indian people also perpetuate a stereotype about South Dakota; a stereotype that South Dakota is an archaic, white supremacist state that would rather perpetuate colonial attitudes of subjugation and denigration of Indian people than place contemporary social problems within the framework of a historically oppressed people.
Nick Estes
USD Graduate Student and USD Undergraduate Alumnus
GUEST COLUMN: American Indians are not AIG
Published: Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, April 8, 2009
10 comments
for free in fact I'm 30, 000. in debt to student loans--thanks for pointing out the racist rhetoric that SD
is known for and pointless coverage it gets, I swear it's like hearing the KKK speak.
Well put, Nick.