Hello friends and Hivers. Today I will talk about a couple of subjects about Native American injustices. It's Native American Heritage this month in the States so writing about this topic is a good contribution to it. Don't get me wrong I'm very interested in thier heritage and cultures, it doesn't need to be November. My latest vacation back in August I spent quite a bit of it seeing and learning about it.
I think many know what happened to the Native Americans in the centuries from the past by European immigrants. If not, they were pushed from their lands, promised different lands than taken that away. Many treaties were set up to prevent war but than again they were broken. A great nation of tribes were dismantled and reduced in population via wars and battles between the government. Also during this time the buffalo population decreased drastically because of the white settlers pioneering in the area. A great part of the Native American lifestyle was envolved around the buffalo.
Two things I will talk about are things that have happened not so long ago. One will be the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act. The other will be about standardized sterilization of native women. A lot of people aren't aware of these problems that Native Americans have faced in recent years.
The video above is a local news article from here I seen about Karen Hardenbrook, a Omaha Tribe member. At 6 months old, she was taken from the Winnebago reservation in 1958. This was some 20 years prior to the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act.
A church group reported inadequate living conditions than she was removed from her home and became a ward of the state until she was adopted. According to Hardenbrook,"The government's main wording was 'for the betterment of the child' She also mentioned that not being married could meet that definition.She said that they had marriages but wasn't that piece of paper. Growing up in South Dakota I seen a few foster parents of Native Americans. I hope they weren't of this nature but I will never know I guess. The one difference for sure is they knew they were Native Americans.
The horrible thing I see in this story is she was not told of her Native beginnings. Her foster parents kept her from knowing who she really was. When asked at a very young age what she wanted to be when she grew up she said, "An Indian" not knowing she was of Native blood. To me that is remarkable because even if we don't know where we came from we may still dream about it. I just think if you know something about your child that is of great importance you have to tell them. Doesn't matter if your a birth or foster parent.
I can imagine it was hard to come back home to her real way of life not knowing all she
should know. I'm sure she was nervous and scared knocking on her grandmother's door. In the end her dream came true with her grandma welcoming her into the house.
The Indian Child Welfare Act protects children from being removed from there native cultures. If removed they are placed with others of the same tribes. It's shocking that there families were separated to begin with. The Act was recently brought up to the Supreme Court this past June. Fornately it was ruled to leave the act intact. It's hard to believe that Native Americans to this day have to deal with struggles.
The second topic, I'll be honest I really didn't know about it. I actually found out about it watching the thriller series Dark Winds. I researched it a bit and I'm saddened by what I have found. The information I found was all from the source listed below.
In the 1970s, doctors in the United States sterilized an estimated 25 to 42 percent of Native American women of childbearing age, some as young as 15.
Source
According to the article many were done without consent or under great duress. It's really something for a government to control a women of a particular race reproduction capabilities. From what I gather the implementation was on a local front much depending on actions, responses, and engagement of the Natives there. Population control how sickening right,especially if its aimed at a particular race of people.
The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare brought on new regulations that offered protection for these women. They went into effect in 1979.These new regulations would have not happened if Native women would not have organized independently forming, Women of All Red Nations(WARN). This group took on these sterilization abuses. This led the U.S. Government Accountability Office to begin investigations in 1976. The report stopped short of saying government divisions performed these no consent sterilizations, it did however raise some concerns about the consent process. To me, that means we did it so we will stop doing it by enacting some new regulations. Let people live peacefully, respect their way of living, and treat them properly!
Both of these issues were happening up to the late seventies. It's crazy those things were happening. A Government should not have population control on there agenda, especially towards a particular group of people. If there is a true population issue there needs to be ways to support it, not decreasing it or pulling them apart from one another. A citizen regardless of their differences should be treated just like any other citizen.
This it for today, take care, be safe and enjoy the weekend. Until next time!
