Sovereignty and Self Determination My purpose for making mention of these subjects is to enlighten the public and remind our people. A good teacher told me once that if the message was not education, edification or comfort ignore it. So I will categorize this piece as “education.” Most of my life as an Indian I have been told about our sovereignty and know when it was important for the federal government to mention our rights, as Native people, to self determination. According to treaty law we, as tribal nations, have a government to government relationship with the federal government indicating that there is some recognition that we have our own way of governing ourselves and did so quite well until the arrival of the Europeans. Sovereignty and self determination may look good on paper, but let me share with you how it works. 1) We are told how we can conduct our elections and must follow the “democratic” dictates of the federal government and their model. 2) We are told who can be a tribal member and who can’t. 3) The funds that come from the federal government in the form of grants should really be interpreted as the federal government’s obligation to us by treaty agreement. 4) We are policed by the federal government. 5) We are told how we can use the resources on our reservations even though the resources are sparse. 6) We are held to federal hiring standards. 7) The federal and state governments require payola from our casino revenues. 8) Our tribal programs are required to follow the federal model and definition or the grant money is taken. 9) We cannot enforce the law on our reservations when a non-native breaks the law on the reservation. 10) Healthcare and human service standards are dictated by the federal government. 11) The federal government dictates fiduciary standards for us while their deficit continues and their debt increases. 12) Our environmental and harvesting practices are dictated by the federal government while global warming, tar sands projects, and their pollution of the environment continues. I am sure there are others, but I thought it would be good to inform those who have been misled by federal and state propaganda. So much for our “sovereignty and right to self determination.” The United Nations passed a resolution declaring the rights of indigenous peoples. Four nations would not sign it until public pressure rose. Those four nations were the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Four nations with the worst records in their treatment of the indigenous peoples within their jurisdictions.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 14:30:27 +0000
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