USA: discrimination of native americans continues

[Vilkas09]

Lawsuit Claims Some Schools Hostile To Native American Students

In December, the ACLU also filed a complaint asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate racial discrimination against Wiyot students at a Humboldt County elementary school. According to the complaint, the principal at Loleta Elementary grabbed a Native American student by the ear and asked, “See how red it’s getting?” and another staff member referred to Native American students as “goats” and “sheep.”

http://www.mintpressnews.com/schools...awsuit/176888/

wow. It seems that this country has some kind of blood thirst. The rates of discrimination and abuse of ethnic minorities are phenomenal.

Sadly, international community is so corrupted and pro-us orriented that they basically allow those mass murderers to continue their genocide politics towards indians.

[justicar5]

it's not genocide. It's nasty and racist but it isn't genocide.

[Garbarsardar]

While the suffering of Native Americans in the hands of illegal immigrants is an unquestionable fact, equating the propagation of racist stereotypes in a classroom, to genocide, is an insult to both language and history.

[Vilkas09]

it's not genocide. It's nasty and racist but it isn't genocide.

I am sure it is genocide.

Genocide is "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group"

what we see according to the article is that there is systematic cultural genocide across entire country. Government official know about problem for decades and they doing nothing. Why? Simple. They want natives to dissapear.

[Tankbustaz]

Staff member being rude to people == Genocide
Forcible starvation of millions of people
+ blocking access to food supplies == Racism.

Yep, Seems about right.

[Vilkas09]

and here another piece of evidence of systematic genocide by the government

South Dakota commits shocking genocide against Native Americans(June 3, 2013)

Genocide is not too strong a term for what is now happening in South Dakota. The huge, shocking violation of legal and human rights being carried out by the state is tantamount to genocide against the Native American nations, the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Sioux, residing within its borders. It is the abduction and kidnapping by state officials, under the cover of law, of American Indian children.
This is a gross violation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978. Further, these abominable kidnappings are being upheld by the courts of that state.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/south-da...ive-americans/

[justicar5]

and here another piece of evidence of systematic genocide by the government

South Dakota commits shocking genocide against Native Americans(June 3, 2013)


http://www.peoplesworld.org/south-da...ive-americans/

More sources please, but yes that is more troubling than the racism of a few teachers.

[sumskilz]

and here another piece of evidence of systematic genocide by the government

South Dakota commits shocking genocide against Native Americans(June 3, 2013)


http://www.peoplesworld.org/south-da...ive-americans/

It's funny how willing people are to believe complete BS when it fits their ideological vision of the world. Here's an NPR review of the original source of these allegations: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2...ling-gone-awry

I wonder though if anyone at People's World recognizes the irony in alleging abuses which if true would have been made possible by the exact type of state institutions they advocate for.

[conon394]

It's funny how willing people are to believe complete BS when it fits their ideological vision of the world. Here's an NPR review of the original source of these allegations: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2...ling-gone-awry

I wonder though if anyone at People's World recognizes the irony in alleging abuses which if true would have been made possible by the exact type of state institutions they advocate for.

Nice to a news site that grilles its own reporting so hard - does Fox have an ombudsman at all?


That is an epic beat down

[Vilkas09]

More sources please, but yes that is more troubling than the racism of a few teachers.

few teachers? I like this wording. Few teachers in 2013 discriminate ethnic minorities, few soldiers in 1850 wiped out a dozen of villages killing few thousands non-whites.

So now we can justify many crimes just by saying "few"? Actually these few are representatives of federal government.

It's funny how willing people are to believe complete BS when it fits their ideological vision of the world. Here's an NPR review of the original source of these allegations: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2...ling-gone-awry

I wonder though if anyone at People's World recognizes the irony in alleging abuses which if true would have been made possible by the exact type of state institutions they advocate for.

unbelievable. Have you at least tried to read some comments under this dirty political propaganda?

Ok, specially for you I will pick up few:

After taking time to read and digest the entire critique of these broadcasts, and even listen again to the originals as aired, I feel compelled to offer a voice of dissent here. As a former journalist, now a psychotherapist working in clinic that serves people living in poverty -- many with children who've been taken into foster care -- and having personally had many encounters with Washington state CPS social workers over the years (a state with many Native American tribes), I find in your report a number of unfair criticisms aimed at Laura Sullivan, Amy Waters and the NPR Investigations team. What's worse, to my eye, they look like the product of state bureaucrats trying to twist data to attack the original stories, which though they may have had technical errors involving budgetary figures, did speak very much to the psychological truth of encounters people commonly have in CPS cases.

I'm glad that one or two people made the comment that Mr. Schumacher-Matos did not question any members of any Lakota families about their experiences with the SD Dept. of Social Services. Might this reflect a racist attitude that these people do not exist? Or at the very least, it reflects a reporter's modus operandi that the people whose lives are affected by DSS actions are not worthy of his time to interview them. So sad.

As someone who has been organizing with Lakota people for the past seven years for the Lakota People's Law Project--and as someone who has spent months at a time living on reservations in South Dakota--I find the ombudsman's effort to gloss over South Dakota state illegality and insensitivity to Native families appalling. Please read our report about the ombudsman's glaring failures here: www.lakotalaw.org/watching-the.... The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 as an effort to roll back centuries of systematic abuse of Indian communities, whereby both federal and state law--often intentionally--broke up Native communities and destroyed Native culture by removing Indian children and relocating them to usually Christian environments. This assimilationist creed is alive and well in South Dakota. Those of you who live outside of South Dakota wouldn't believe the racism still extant in the plains...For instance, just two months ago I was living in McLaughlin, SD, a town on the Standing Rock reservation but named (remarkably) after a white military leader who was part of the campaigns to devastate Sioux people, and the mayor of the town literally choked an Indian man standing on the street. THE MAYOR of the town did this. The FBI is now investigating this, and I and my Native friends from McLaughlin (Bear Soldier is the name given the town by its Native inhabitants...) are hoping that justice will be done. What this story illustrates is the type of racism in South Dakota which the NPR ombudsman totally fails to appreciate. Meanwhile, the ombudsman's ignorance is not impossible to comprehend, considering that he never traveled to South Dakota (as did Laura Sullivan and Amy Walters, multiple times). Nor did he speak to virtually any Lakota people when preparing his report. Schumacher-Matos completely misses the broad, political context of what is happening to Lakota families in South Dakota. Indian people are marginalized there in a way that is unique throughout the country. This is why they are literally the poorest communities in America--rock bottom. And, the state of South Dakota, which receives the lion's share of its funding for foster care and adoption from the federal government, has a legal responsibility to keep Native communities intact. I am very, very tired of interviewing Lakota parents and grandparents who, through tears, explain how they were made to sit at the back of court rooms while parental rights were terminated in relation to their children/grandchildren; or, how evangelical Christian DSS workers and foster parents glowered at Lakota parents as they, slowly and meticulously, worked their way through a maze of restrictions in the interest of gaining their children back; or, how Lakota grandmothers, entirely capable of caring for their children--especially with the assistance of federal programs like TANF--tell about how they have been denied custody of their grandchildren so that those children could be placed into white homes, often hundreds of miles away from where they were born. Lastly, I don't want to leave out the Mette sexual abuse scandal. You can read about it here: http://lakotalaw.org/press/spe.... In this affair, the state of South Dakota placed several Lakota girls in a white foster home where they were sexually abused for ten years, while the DSS knew all about it. An appointed guardian ad litem in South Dakota has even recommended that the state be sued on account of its behavior in this case. What did the state do as a response to this guardian ad litem's decision? It criminally prosecuted those who were trying to look out for these children...Absolutely remarkable. And right now NOTHING is being done about this affair. You can sign our petition about it here: https://www.facebook.com/Lakot.... These kinds of developments happening in South Dakota are precisely the things that Schumacher-Matos might have concerned himself with, had he been more interested in preserving the integrity of Lakota families and culture, as is his obligation as a media "watchdog."

[conon394]

few teachers? I like this wording. Few teachers in 2013 discriminate ethnic minorities, few soldiers in 1850 wiped out a dozen of villages killing few thousands non-whites.

So now we can justify many crimes just by saying "few"? Actually these few are representatives of federal government.

unbelievable. Have you at least tried to read some comments under this dirty political propaganda?

Ok, specially for you I will pick up few:

The problem is personal comments are just dust in the internet ether - not facts.

You can find foster care and or adoption horror stories really easy and it has no statistical weight - they happen (everywhere and for every state). But the point remains kids are in the system because their families are already collapsed. Maybe you should consider some of the links rather net opinion.

http://siouxfallsbusinessjournal.arg...-can-do-better

Note two really critical things dealt with honestly in the article tribal corruption and the fact a social system is expensive and the existing federal aid ain't going to do it. Now a large tribe with good management might fund the situation but some are very small and I doubt they could front the overhead. I recognize the sorted history of US Indian relations and mistrust on all sides and I am sad that that has stopped the Tribes and the Federal government from say maybe at least since FDR from working together better to develop strong institutions so tribal government would be more stable and reservations not just be some of the most impoverished places in the US. However if I and my wife ever spiral in to drug abuse, depression or insanity - I honesty want to know the only criteria for placing my kids is the best possible foster home - I care not about the ethnicity or race or color creed of them. I would also being a liberal lefty be willing to pay more tax to make sure the case load for state social works is lower and they have the resources to do everything from better background checks, hire more investigators and visit more often etc and do things like make sure older foster kids get career counseling and or mentors for school.

"tell about how they have been denied custody of their grandchildren so that those children could be placed into white homes, often hundreds of miles away from where they were born"

You do realize the as the Ombudsmen noted - the social welfare system's interest is not the welfare of the grandparent, but the welfare of the children. To raise in kid is a lot of work and while there are some grandparents that can do it many can't and there is the simple fact facing a social workers and judges are there are willing homes with more income stability and with better schools... what do you think? In cases of sexual abouse it is not I think unreasonable to move a child quite far away to avoid stigma etc.

Mette sexual abuse scandal.

Umm one case? - shall I say Penn State, Catholic Church? are you really going to tell me I can not find as cases of sexually abused Indian kids placed on Indian families if I Google a bit... oh wait that only took one entry...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...n-reservation/

I all for any well run tribe to have all the autonomy it wants - but not racist BS - from either side. If you can fund and run a better social system than the state fine - I am happy. but just ignoring your problems and complaining about hot news stories is well cowardly

[sumskilz]

unbelievable. Have you at least tried to read some comments under this dirty political propaganda?

I think Conon covered this well.

The charge of dirty political propaganda is funny though considering your source was an opinion piece in the People's World which has news coverage which is self-admittedly biased. Just read their about-us page - "People's World and Mundo Popular are known for partisan coverage. We take sides."

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

Why cant America just take some land in the Middle East and give it to the Native American Indians and leave them alone.Worked out just fine for Israel.

[Farnan]

Umm...

Except for DOD and DOS teachers, teachers are not representatives of the Federal Government, they are mostly local employees.

Racism is bad mmkkay...

However, to say the actions of a few teachers represent a federal policy is not just retarded but dishonest. And posting sources like "peoplesworld" on these issues is like posting stories on Obama from "freerepublic". And calling the NPR political propaganda is similarly retarded and dishonest. By the way internet comments are as accurate on facts as bathroom graffiti is on individual's homosexuality.

But the US has come a VERY far way since the 1960s. I'd say race relations of the US are far better than most other Western countries and nearly every non-Western country.

[Roma_Victrix]

However, to say the actions of a few teachers represent a federal policy is not just retarded but dishonest. And posting sources like "peoplesworld" on these issues is like posting stories on Obama from "freerepublic". And calling the NPR political propaganda is similarly retarded and dishonest. By the way internet comments are as accurate on facts as bathroom graffiti is on individual's homosexuality.

I couldn't have said it better. +1 rep to you, sir!

Seriously, Vilkas09, you need to develop a filter that allows you to sort out obvious exaggerations and falsehoods you find on the Internet. For one, turn to reliable and vetted news sources.

I'd say the most disturbing recent act committed against Native Americans was the destruction of the Cherokee homeland (their archaeological sites) by the flooding caused by the Tellico Dam in 1979. Discriminatory acts against Native Americans in the classroom, work place, or public these days seem like isolated incidents to me, although I could be wrong.

[ivan_the_terrible]

But the US has come a VERY far way since the 1960s. I'd say race relations of the US are far better than most other Western countries and nearly every non-Western country.

I'm curious what you base this on. Surely not personal experience as a white male... (I'm assuming you're a white male, please correct me if I'm wrong).

[Farnan]

What I think the US Government needs to do is to put development money into the reservations to improve their economies. What is happening now is that there is a brain drain there, where if you have the money you move from the reservations. That weakens Indian societies preventing them from developing strong institutions.

[PikeStance]

A couple of Points

DOD schools are government employees. All DOD schools are overseas.
I am not aware of any Department of State schools. The DOS normally just subsidize private international schools and they also may have one or more members of the school's governing body, which would determine school policy. Since the school's are privately own, the employees would also be private citizens. I worked for this type of school in Africa about 6 years ago.

The issue
I guess you can cherry pick horror stories on just about any issue. Over all, the view of Native Americans and its culture has never been better. Many universities (especially those with Native American mascots) have departments devoted to the study of Native American culture. In pop culture Native American culture and history is nearly over romanticized.

There are significant social problems, like poor education, higher unemployment and alcohol abuse among Native Americans. However, many of these issue stem from discrimination from the past and is difficult to overcome today. However, there are success stories thanks to the casinos.

[Farnan]

A couple of Points

DOD schools are government employees. All DOD schools are overseas.

I said except for DOD or DOS which implies that DOD and DOS are government employees. Not all DOD schools are overseas, most large bases CONUS have schools. For example: http://www.am.dodea.edu/campbell/CampbellHS/

I am not aware of any Department of State schools. The DOS normally just subsidize private international schools and they also may have one or more members of the school's governing body, which would determine school policy. Since the school's are privately own, the employees would also be private citizens. I worked for this type of school in Africa about 6 years ago.

I was wrong about DOS, I assumed they had their own education system. So only DOD teachers are federal employees than.

There are significant social problems, like poor education, higher unemployment and alcohol abuse among Native Americans. However, many of these issue stem from discrimination from the past and is difficult to overcome today. However, there are success stories thanks to the casinos.

I think the best way to counter this is through economic development of the reservations allowing the strengthening of institutions.

[Earl Dibbles Jr]

Are these the same natives that get accepted to universities over whites simply because of the color of their skin? Give me a break.