Lakhota
Diamond Member
The term âgenocideâ, made fromâthe ancient Greek word genosâ(race, nation or tribe) and the Latin caedere (âkilling, annihilationâ), was first coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It originally meansââthe destruction of a nation or an ethnic groupâ.
In 1946, United Nations (UN) General Assembly affirmed genocide as a crime under international law in Resolution 96, which stated thatââGenocide is a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind ⌠and is contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations.â
OnâDecemberâ9,â1948, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 260A, orâthe Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,âwhich entered into force onâJanuaryâ12,â1951. The Resolution noted that âat all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanityâ.âArticle II of the Convention clearly defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group;â(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;â(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;â(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;â(e) Forcibly transferring children of the groupsâto another group. The United States ratified the Convention in 1988.
Genocide is also clearly defined in U.S. domestic law. The United States Code, in Section 1091 of Title 18, definesâgenocide as violent attacksâwith the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, a definition similar to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
According to historical records and media reports, since its founding, the United States has systematically deprived Indians of their rights to life and basic political, economic, and cultural rights through killings, displacements, and forced assimilation, in an attempt to physically and culturally eradicate this group. Even today, Indians still faceâa serious existential crisis.
According to international law and its domestic law, what the United States did to the Indians covers all the acts that define genocide and indisputably constitutes genocide. The American magazine Foreign Policyâcommented that the crimes against Native Americans are fully consistent with the definition of genocide under current international law.
The profound sin of genocide is a historical stain that the United States can never clear, and the painful tragedy of Indians is a historical lesson that should never be forgotten.
I. Evidence on U.S. governmentâs genocide against Indians
1. Government-led action
On July 4, 1776, the United States of America was founded with the Declaration of Independence, which openly stated that âHeâ(the British King)âhas excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savagesâ, andâslandered Native Americans as âthe merciless Indian Savagesâ.
The U.S. government and leaders treated Native Americans with a belief in white superiority and supremacy, set out to annihilate theâIndians and attemptedâto eradicate the race through âcultural genocideâ.
During the American War of Independence (1775-1783), the Second War of Independence (1812-1815) and the Civil War (1861-1865), the U.S. leaders, eager to transform its plantationâeconomyâas an adjunct toâEuropean colonialismâand to expand their territories, covetedâthe vast Indian landsâand launched thousands of attacks on Indian tribes, slaughtering Indian chiefs, soldiers and even civilians, and taking Indian lands for themselves.
In 1862, the United States enacted the Homestead Act, which provided that every American citizen above the age ofâ21, with a mereâregistration fee of 10 U.S. dollars, could acquire no more than 160 acres (about 64.75 hectares) of land in the west. Lured by the land, the whiteâpeopleâswarmed into the Indian areas and started a massacreâthat resulted in the death ofâthousands of Indians.
Leaders of the U.S. governmentâat that timeâopenly claimed thatâthe skin of Indians could be peeled off to make tall boots,that Indians must be annihilated or driven to places that no one would go, that Indians had to be wiped out swiftly, andâthat onlyâdead Indians are good Indians. American soldiers saw the slaughter of Indians as natural, even an honor, and would not rest until theyâwere all killed. Similar hate rhetoric and atrocities abound,âand are well documented in many Native American extermination monographs.
2. Bloody massacres and atrocities
Since the colonists set foot in North America, they had systematically and extensively hunted American bison, cutting off theâsource of food and basic livelihoodâof the Indians, andâcausingâtheir deathâfrom starvation in large numbers.
Statisticsâreveal thatâsince itsâindependence in 1776, the U.S. government has launched overâ1,500 attacks onâIndian tribes, slaughtering the Indians, taking their lands, and committing countless crimes. In 1814, the U.S. government decreed that it would award 50 to 100 dollars for each Indian skull surrendered. The American Historian Frederick Turner acknowledged in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, released in 1893,âthat each frontier was won by a series of wars against the Indians.
The California Gold Rush also brought about the California Massacre.âPeter Burnett, the first governor of California, proposed a war of extermination against Native Americans, triggering risingâcalls for the extermination of Indians in the state. In Californiaâin the 1850s and 60s, an Indian skullâor scalp was worthâ5 dollars, while the average daily wage was 25 cents. From 1846 to 1873, the Indian population in Californiaâdropped to 30,000âfrom 150,000. Countless Indians died as a result of the atrocities. Some of the major massacres include:
âIn 1811, American troops defeated the famous Indian chief Tecumseh and his army in the Battle of Tippecanoe, burnedâthe Indian capital Prophetstown and committedâbrutal massacres.
âFrom November 1813 to January 1814, the U.S. Army launched the Creek War against the Native Americans, also known as the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. On March 27, 1814, about 3,000 soldiers attacked the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend, Mississippi Territory. Overâ800 Creek warriors were slaughteredâin the fight, and as a result, the military strength of the Creeks was significantlyâweakened. Under the Treaty of Fort Jackson signed on Augustâ9 of the same year, the Creeks ceded more than 23 million acres of land to the U.S. federal government.
âOn Novemberâ29, 1864, pastor John Chivington massacred Indians at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado, due toâthe opposition of a few Indians to the signing of a land grant agreement. It was one of the most notorious massacresâofâNative Americans. Maria Montoya, a professor of history at New York University, said in an interview that Chivingtonâs soldiers scalped women and children, beheaded them, and paraded them through the streets upon their return to Denver.
James Anaya, former UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples,submitted his report after a country visit to the United States in 2012. According to the accounts of the descendants of the victims of the Sand Creek Massacre, in 1864, around 700 armed U.S. soldiers raided and shot at Cheyenne and Arapaho people living on the Sand Creek Indian Reservation in Colorado. Media reportsâshowed thatâthe massacre resulted in the deaths of between 70 andâ163 among theâ200-plusâtribal members. Two-thirds of the dead were women or children, and no one was held responsible for the massacre. The U.S. government had reached a compensation agreement with tribal descendants, whichâhas not been delivered even to this day.
âOn Decemberâ29, 1890, near the Wounded Knee CreekâinâSouth Dakota, U.S. troops fired at the Indians, killing and injuring more than 350 people according to the U.S. Congressional Record. After the Wounded Knee Massacre, armed Indian resistance was largely suppressed. About 20 U.S. soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.
âIn 1930, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs began sterilizingâIndian women through the Indian Health Service program. Sterilization wasâconducted in the name of protecting the health of Indian women, and in some cases, even performed without the womenâs knowledge. Statisticsâsuggest thatâin early 1970s, more than 42%âof Indian women of childbearing age were sterilized. This resulted in the near extinction for many small tribes. By 1976, approximately 70,000 Indian women had been forcibly sterilized.
3. Westward expansion and forced migration
In its early days,âthe United States regarded Indian tribes as sovereign entities and dealt with them on land, trade, justice and other issuesâlargely through negotiated treaties, and occasionally throughâwar. By 1840, the United States had concluded more than 200 treaties with various tribes, most of which were unequal treaties that were reached under U.S. military and political pressureâand throughâdeception and coercion, and were binding on the Indian tribes only. The treaties were used as a primaryâtool to take advantage ofâIndian tribes.
In 1830, the United States passed the Indian Removal Act, which marked the institutionalization of forced relocation of Indians in the country. The Act legally deprived Indian tribes of the right to live in the eastern United States, forcing some 100,000 Indians to move to the west of the Mississippi River from their ancestral lands in the south. The migration began in the summer heat and continued through the winter with subzero temperatures.âTrudging 16âmiles each day, thousands died along the way as a result of hunger, cold, exhaustion, or disease and plague. The Indian population was decimated, and the forced migration became a âTrail of Blood and Tearsâ. Tribes that refused to move were left to military suppression, forcible eviction and even massacre by the U.S. government.
In 1839, before Texas joined the United States, the government demanded thatâIndians remove immediately or face the entire destructionâof theirâpossessionsâandâthe extermination of their tribe. Large numbers of Cherokees who refused to complyâwere shot and killed.
In 1863, the U.S. military carried out a âscorchedâearthâ policyâto forcibly removeâthe Navajo tribe, burning housesâand crops, slaughtering livestock and vandalizing properties.âUnder the Armyâs watch, Navajos had to walk several hundredâkilometers to a reservation in eastern New Mexico. Pregnant women and seniors who fell behind were shot on the spot.
In the mid-19th century, nearly all American Indians were driven to the west of the Mississippi River, and forced by the U.S. government to live in Native American reservations.
As was written inâthe Cambridge Economic History of the United States, as a result of the U.S. governmentâs forcibleâexpulsion of the last Indians in the east, only a very small number of Indians who were individual citizensâof the nation, or those individual Indians who went into hiding during the forceful expulsion, remained in the region.
Sadly, to whitewash this part of history, U.S. historians often glorify the Westward Expansion as the American peopleâs pursuit of economic development in the western frontier, claiming that it accelerated the improvement of American democracy, boosted economic prosperity, and contributed to the formation and development of the American national spirit. They make no mention ofâthe brutal massacre of Native Americans.
In fact, it was after the Westward Expansion that the budding civilization of the Americas was destroyed, and the Indians, as one of the several major human races, faced complete extinction.
4. Forced assimilation and cultural extinction
To defendâthe unjust deeds of the U.S. government, some American scholars in the 19th century trumpeted the dichotomy of âcivilization versus barbarismââand portrayed Native Americans as a savage, evil, and inferior group.âFrancis Parkman, a famous 19th-century American historian,âeven claimed that the American Indian âwill not learn the arts of civilization, and he and his forest must perish together.â
George Bancroft, Parkmanâs contemporary and another well-known American historian, also claimed that compared with the white people, Native Americans were âinferior in reason and moral qualitiesâ, addingâthatâânor is this inferiority simply attached to the individual; it is connected with organization, and is the characteristic of the race.ââSuch an attempt toâjustifyâcolonial plundering byâdemeaningâIndians is nothing butâraciallyâdiscriminative.
Inâthe 1870s and â80s, the U.S. government adopted a more aggressive policy of âforced assimilationââto obliterateâthe social fabricâand culture of Indian tribes. The core objective of the strategy was to destroy the original group affiliationâas well as the ethnic and tribal identity of the Indians, and transform them intoâindividual Americans with American citizenship, civic consciousness and identification with mainstream American values. Four measures were taken toâthis end.
First, fully deprivingâIndian tribes of their right to self-governance. American Indians hadâlivedâin tribal unitsâover the years, and tribes had beenâtheir source of strength and spiritual support. The U.S.âgovernment forcibly abolished the tribal system and castâindividualâIndiansâinto aâwhite society withâcompletelyâdifferent traditions. Unable to find a jobâor make a living, the Indiansâbecameâeconomically destitute, politically deprived and socially discriminated against. They experiencedâgreat mental painâandâa deepâexistential and cultural crisis.âIn the 19th century, the thriving Cherokee tribes enjoyed a material life almost comparableâtoâthat of frontier whites. Nevertheless, with their right to self-governance andâtheir tribal systemâgradually abolished by the U.S. government, the Cherokee community quickly declinedâand became the poorest group among the indigenous people.
Second, tryingâto destroy Indian reservations through land distribution and ultimately disintegrate their tribes. The Dawes Actâpassed in 1887 authorized the U.S. president to dissolveâIndian reservations, abolish the tribal land ownership in the original reservations, and allocate land directly to Indians living inside and outside the reservations, forming a de facto land privatizationâsystem. The abolition of tribal land ownership disintegratedâtheâAmerican Indian communities,âand seriously undermined tribal authority. As the highest form of tribal unity, the traditional ritual âSun Danceââwas regarded as âheresyââand thusâbanned. Most of the land in the original reservations was transferred to the white people through auction; the Indians who were less prepared for farming lost their newly acquired land as a result of swindling among otherâreasons,âand their lives deterioratedâbyâtheâday.
Third, takingâsteps to fully impose American citizenship on the Indians. Native Americans who were identified asâmixed-raceâhad to give up their tribal status, and others were âde-tribalizedâ, which greatly damagedâtheâIndian identity.
Fourth, eradicating theâIndiansââsense of community and tribal identityâby adopting measures onâeducation, language, cultureâandâreligion and a series ofâsocial policies. Beginning with the Civilization Fund Actâofâ1819, the United States established or funded boarding schools across the countryâandâforcedâIndian children to attend. According to a report by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, there have beenâaltogether 367 boarding schools throughout the United States.âByâ1925, 60,889 Indian children had been forced to attendâboarding schools. Inâ1926, 83%âof Indian children wereâenrolled. The total number of students enrolled still remains unclearâto this day. Guided byâthe idea ofââKill the Indian, Save the Manâ,âthe United States banned Indian children from speaking their native language, wearing theirâtraditional clothes,âorâcarrying out traditionalâactivities, thus erasing their language, culture and identityâinâan act of cultural genocide. Indian children suffered immenselyâatâschool,âand some died from starvation, disease and abuse. This was followed by a policy of âforced foster careââââchildren were forcibly placed in the care of whites, which was a continuation ofâthe assimilation policy and denial of cultural identity.âThese practices were not banned untilâ1978,âwhen the Indian Child Welfare Actâwas passed. In passing the Act, it was acknowledged in the Congress that a large number of Indian children hadâbeen removedâto non-Indianâfamilies and institutions without permission, resulting in the breakupâof Indian families.
As renowned historians said,with theâforced assimilation, one of the most despicable things in American historyâreached its peak.âThis was perhaps the most unfortunate chapterâfor Indians.
II. American Indians remainâin serious survival and development crisis
The U.S. governmentâsâgenocide of Indians has led to a precipitousâdrop in the population of Indian communities, deterioration of their living conditions, lack of social security, low economic status, threatsâtoâtheir safety, andâplummeted political influence.
1. Sharp decline of population
Before the arrival of white settlers in 1492, there were 5 million Indians, yet by 1800 the number plummeted to 600,000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Native Americans in 1900 was only 237,000, the lowest in history. Among them, more than a dozen tribes,âsuch as the Pequot, Mohegan, and Massachusetts,âwere completely extinct.
Between 1800 and 1900, theâAmerican Indians lostâmore than halfâof their population, and theirâproportionâin the total U.S. population dropped from 10.15%âto 0.31%. Throughout the 19thâcentury, whileâthe U.S. population grew by 20-30%âevery 10 years, the Indian population experienced a precipitous decline. Currently, theâIndian and Alaska Native population accounts for only 1.3%âof the total U.S. population.
2. Deteriorating living conditions
Indians were pushedâfrom the east to the barren west, and most of the Indian reservationsâwereâlocated in remote areasâunfit for agriculture, much less for investment in industrial development. Most of the tribes, with scattered reservations of varying sizes, were unableâtoâobtain adequate landâfor development and were therefore subject toâsevereâdevelopmentârestraints.
There are currently about 310 Native American reservations in the United States, accounting for about 2.3%âof the U.S. territory, and not all federally recognized tribes have their own reservations. These reservations areâmostly located in remote and barren areas with poor living conditionsâand inadequate access toâwater and other vital resources, where 60%âof the roadâsystem areâdirt or gravelâroads. On the surface, Indians are no longer the subject ofââexterminationâ, but just âforgottenâ,ââinvisibleââand âdiscriminated againstâ;âyetâin reality, theyâareâsimply left there for self-extermination.
The U.S. government has also systematically used Indian reservations as toxic or nuclear waste dumps through the means of deception and coercion, subjecting them to long-term exposure to uranium and other radioactive materials. As a result,âtheâcancer incidence and fatality rates inâthe communities concerned is significantly higher than in other parts of the country. Indian communities have effectively become the âgarbage cansââin theâdevelopment process of the United States.
For instance, inâthe Navajo Nation reservation, the largest Indian tribe in the United Statesďźabout a quarter of women and some infants have large amountsâof radioactive substancesâin their bodies. During the 40-plusâyears prior to 2009, the U.S. government had reportedly conducted a total of 928 nuclear tests in the area inhabited by the Shoshone tribe of American Indians, producing approximately 620,000 tons of radioactive fallout, nearly 48 times the amount of radioactive fallout from the 1945 atomic bombing in Hiroshima, Japan.
3. Lack of social security
According to a report released by the Indian Health Service, life expectancy of American Indians is 5.5 years lower than that ofâaverage Americans, and the incidence of diabetes, chronic liver disease and alcohol addictionâare 3.2 times, 4.6 times and 6.6 timesâasâmuch as the U.S. average respectively. Academic studies show that among all ethnic groups in the United States, Indians have the shortest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate; the incidence of drugâandâalcohol abuse among Indian adolescents is 13.3 timesâand 1.4 times higher than the national average, and theâsuicide rate 1.9 times that of the national average. These phenomena are closely related to insufficient government investment ofâpublic health resources, underlying health inequities, and the overall underdevelopment of minority communities.
The U.S. government provides limited educational and medical assistance to Indians. 99%âof such assistance has gone to reservation residents, butâ70%âof the Indians liveâin cities andâtherefore cannot be covered. Apart from theâIndian Health Service, many Indiansâhaveânoâaccess to health insurance and are often subject toâdiscrimination and language barriers in non-Indian health services and non-tribal health facilities.
The underprivileged statusâof Indians in health care was further exposedâamid the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. CDC statistics show that as of August 18, 2020, the COVID-19 incidence and case-fatalityâratesâamongâIndians wereâ2.8 timesâand 1.4 times, respectively, that ofâwhite Americans. A report produced by the UNâSpecial Rapporteur on the right to adequateâhousing, pursuantâto Human Rights Council resolution 43/14,âpointsâoutâthat Native Americans and African Americans are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, with a hospitalization rate five times thatâof non-Hispanicâwhite Americans. The COVID-19 infection rate in Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the United States, evenâsurpassedâthat of New Yorkâat one point, reaching the highestâin the country.
In terms of education, the conditions of Indian reservations are much poorer thanâthose of white American communities. According to the 2013-2017âstatistics of the U.S. Census Bureau, only 14.3%âof American Indians heldâa bachelorâs degree or higher, in contrast toâ15.2%âforâHispanics, 20.6%âforâAfrican Americans and 34.5%âforâwhiteâAmericans. ManyâIndian reservationsâare struggling with dilapidatedâschoolsâandâshattered education systems.
The New York Timesâreported that only 60%âof American Indian students inâthe Wind RiverâReservationâfinished high school, while 80%âof white students in Wyoming graduated from high school;âthe dropout rate in the reservation is 40%, more than twice the state average in Wyoming;âand American Indian teens in the reservation are twice moreâlikely to commit suicide compared with their peers in the country.
4. Poorâeconomicâand securityâconditions
Many reservations inâthe barren landâof the Midwestâhave been grappling with economic stagnation and become the poorest areasâin the country. The poverty rate of some reservationsâhas even surpassedâ85%. According to statisticsâof the U.S. Census Bureauâin 2018, the poverty rate of American Indians, at 25.4%,âwas the highest among all ethnic minorities, compared withâ20.8% for African Americans, 17.6% forâHispanics, andâ8.1%âfor whiteâAmericans. The median income of American Indian families was only 60%âthat of white families.
In a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, The Atlanticârevealedâthat the local unemployment rate wasâas high as 80%. Most of theâIndians in the reservation livedâbelow the federal poverty line, and many families hadâno access to tap water and electricity. As the food relief provided by the federal government wasâgenerallyâhigh in sugar and calorie,âthe local diabetesâincidence rate wasâeightâtimes higher than the national average, and average life expectancy was only about 50 years.
Poor economic conditionsâhave led to serious law-and-order issues. In the Pine Ridge Reservation, unemployed youngstersâoften turn to gang culture in search ofâidentity and belonging,while alcoholism, fighting and drug abuse are commonplace in the local communities. According to a researchâby the U.S. National Institute of Justice, more than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaska Nativeâwomen in the United States, orâ84.3%âof the groupâs total population, had suffered fromâviolenceâin their lifetime. In addition, many lawbreakers tookâadvantage of the loopholes in local lawsâtoâconductâcriminal activities, leading to furtherâdeterioration of theâsecurityâconditions in the reservations.
5. Disadvantagedâpolitical status
In mainstream American politics, theâIndians and other NativeâAmericans are not choosing to be âsilentâ. Rather, they have beenââsilencedâ by the system andââsystematically erasedâ. American Indians have a relatively small populationâand do not have a strong interestâin politics. With a lower turnout rate in elections than that of other ethnic groups, their interests andâdemands are often ignored by politicians. As a result, American Indians have been reduced toâsecond-class citizens in the United States, and they are often called the âinvisible minorityââor the âvanishing raceâ in the country. It was not until 1924 that the American Indiansâwereâconditionally granted U.S. citizenshipâand not until 1965 that they were given the right to vote.
In June 2020, the Native American Rights Fund and other institutions conducted a studyâon the barriersâto political participation faced by Native American voters, with the participation ofâcivil societies, legal experts, and scholars from around the country. The results showed that only 66%âof the 4.7 million eligible Native American voters were registered, andâmore than 1.5 million eligible Native American voters could not meaningfullyâexercise their right to voteâdue to political barriers. According to the results, Native American voters face 11 pervasiveâobstacles to political participation, including limited hours of government offices, lack of funding for elections,âand discrimination. In the current U.S. Congress, only four members are American Indians, accounting for about 0.74%âof the members of Congress in both houses. The political engagement andâinfluenceâof the Native Americans are disproportionatelyâlowerâthan other groups of theâAmerican population.
Native American communities have long suffered neglect and discrimination. Many U.S. government statistical programs either leave them asideâcompletelyâor simply classify them as âothersâ. Shannon KellerâOâLoughlin, Chief Executive and AttorneyâofâtheâAssociation onâAmerican Indian Affairs, said that the greatest aspiration of Native Americans is to attain social recognition. Native Americansâhave diverse cultures and languages, but are often seen not as an ethnic group, but as a political stratum with limited autonomy based on treaties with the federal government.âThe Brookings Institution recently published an article saying that the U.S. monthly employment report ignores American Indians. The economic well-beingâof this groupâreceives little attention and is largely left out of the discussion. There are nearly 200 American Indian tribes in California, only half of which are recognized by the federal government. Although the Biden administration appointed the first American Indian cabinet minister, the political participation rate and political influence of Indians are still wayâtoo low compared to their share ofâthe American population.
According to a poll conducted by the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, more than oneâthird of Native Americans have experienced neglect, violence, humiliation and discrimination in the workplace, and American Indians living in Indian populated areas are more likely to be subject to discrimination when dealing with the police, at workâand during voting. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, American Indians are twice as likely to be jailed for minor crimes as other ethnic groups. The incarceration rate of Indian men is four times that of white men, and the rateâof Indian women is six times that of white women.
The Atlanticâcommented that from the expulsion, slaughter and forced assimilationâbackâin history to the current widespread poverty and neglect, the American Indians, once the owner of this continent, now have a very weak voice in American society. American Indian writer Rebecca Nagel pointed out sharply that being made invisible is a new type of racial discrimination against American Indians and other indigenous peoples. The Los Angeles Timesâcommented that the unjust treatment of Native Americans is deeply embedded in the social structure and legal system of the United States.
6. Endangered culture
From the 1870s to the lateâ1920s, the U.S. government forcibly implemented the system of American Indian boarding schools in Native American areas to impose Englishâand Christian education on Indian children. There were evenâcases of Indian children beingâkidnapped and forced to attend schoolsâin many places. The system of American Indian boarding schools imposed onâNative Americans, as part ofâthe history of the United States, caused irreparable damage, especially to the youthsâand children. Many Native Americansâof theâyounger generation found themselves unable toâgain a foothold in mainstream society and felt difficult to preserveâandâpromote their own traditional culture, which leaves them bewildered and anguished about their own culture and identity.
In these boarding schools,âAmerican Indian childrenâs braids, a symbol of courage, were cut off, and their traditional clothingâburned.âThey were strictly prohibited from speaking their mother tongueâand violators would be beaten hard. In these schools, military-styleâmanagementâwas imposed on Native American childrenâwhoâsuffered from not only corporal punishment by mentors, but also sexual abuse. Quite a few American Indian children fell ill andâeven died due to harsh education methods, forced way of living, homesicknessâand malnutrition.
The U.S. government hadâalso enacted laws prohibiting Native Americans from performing religious rituals which have been passed down through theâgenerations, and those involved in such activities would be arrested and imprisoned. Since the 20th century, with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the protection of Native Americansâ traditional culture and history has improved to some extent. However, due to the serious damage that has already been inflicted, what isâleft now are mostly cultural relics preserved by later generations using theâEnglishâlanguage instead.
Rebecca Nagle believes that information about Native Americans has been systematically removed from mainstream media and popular culture. According to a report by National Indian Education Association, 87%âof state-level U.S. history textbooks do not mention the post-1900 history of indigenous people. According to the Smithsonian Institution, things taught about Native Americans in American schools are full of inaccurate information and fail to present the real picture of the sufferings of indigenous people. Rick Santorum, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, saidâpubliclyâat the Young Americaâs Foundation that âWe birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing hereâ... but candidly, there isnât much Native American culture in American culture.â His remarks dismissed and negatedâthe influence of indigenous people in American culture.
â ˘. Domestic criticism long ignored by the U.S. governmentâoverâthe âgenocideââof American Indians
First, the academic community has a shared view on thisâissue. Since the 1970s, American academics have begun to use the term âgenocideâ to denounce U.S. policies toward American Indians. In the 1990s, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New Worldâby David E. Stannard, a professor at the University of Hawaii, and A Little Matter of Genocideâby Ward L. Churchill, a former professor at the University of Colorado, sent shock waves across the academic community. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfurâby Ben Kiernan, a professor at Yale University, gave a brief account of genocides the UnitedâStates committed against American Indians at different historical stages. And An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873âby Benjamin Madley, an associate professor at UCLA, unearthed the massacres of Native Americans by the U.S. government during the California Gold Rush.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, an American historian dedicated to the study of indigenous peoples, concluded that all five acts of genocide listed in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocideâcan be found in the crimes the United States committed against American Indians. Native Americans are undoubtedly victims of genocide, and it is of important significance to admit that U.S. policies toward American Indians are, in fact, acts of genocide.
Second, the media has been calling for change on this issue. An article published in TheâNew York Timesâreported that the UC Hastings College of the Law was named after a perpetrator of genocide, which accelerated the process of changing the name of the college. According to ABC News, the aspirations from Native Americans range from sovereignty claims to making their voice heard. Some respondents said that the theft of American Indiansâ land and the obliteration of indigenous languages were in fact systemic genocides. The Washington Postâpublished an article accusing the United States of never formally admitting that it has taken genocidal policies toward indigenous people. A Foreign Policyâarticle demanded that the United States acknowledge its genocide of American Indians. Bounty, a documentary released in November 2021, in which some Native Americans were invited to read official historical documents on the United States posting high reward for American Indiansââscalps, also triggered reflections on the heinous genocidal policies in the country.
As the affirmative action became prevalent after World War II, American society began to reflect on the issue of American Indians. The government passed a resolution apologizing to indigenous people. In 2019, Gavin Newsom, governor of California, issued a statement to apologize to the indigenous population in California, admitting that the stateâs actions against Indian tribes in the mid-19th century were genocides.
However, the reflection of the U.S. government looks more like a âpolitical stunt.â It has not officially admitted that the atrocities against Native Americans are acts of genocide.âReal changes still seem a long way off.
To sum up,âsuccessive U.S. administrations have not only wiped out a large number of American Indians, but also, through systematic policy design and bullying acts of cultural suppression, thrown them into an irreversible, difficult situation. The indigenous culture was fundamentally crushed, and the inter-generational inheritance of indigenous lives and spirits was under severe threats. The slaughter, forced relocation, cultural assimilation and unjust treatment the United States committed against American Indians have constituted de facto genocides. These acts fully match the definition of genocide in the UNâConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and have continued for hundreds of years to this day. It is imperative that the U.S. government drop its hypocrisy and double standards on human rights issues, and take seriously the severe racial problems and atrocities in its own country.
www.fmprc.gov.cn
Some very interesting Native American history. What do you think?
In 1946, United Nations (UN) General Assembly affirmed genocide as a crime under international law in Resolution 96, which stated thatââGenocide is a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind ⌠and is contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations.â
OnâDecemberâ9,â1948, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 260A, orâthe Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,âwhich entered into force onâJanuaryâ12,â1951. The Resolution noted that âat all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanityâ.âArticle II of the Convention clearly defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group;â(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;â(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;â(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;â(e) Forcibly transferring children of the groupsâto another group. The United States ratified the Convention in 1988.
Genocide is also clearly defined in U.S. domestic law. The United States Code, in Section 1091 of Title 18, definesâgenocide as violent attacksâwith the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, a definition similar to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
According to historical records and media reports, since its founding, the United States has systematically deprived Indians of their rights to life and basic political, economic, and cultural rights through killings, displacements, and forced assimilation, in an attempt to physically and culturally eradicate this group. Even today, Indians still faceâa serious existential crisis.
According to international law and its domestic law, what the United States did to the Indians covers all the acts that define genocide and indisputably constitutes genocide. The American magazine Foreign Policyâcommented that the crimes against Native Americans are fully consistent with the definition of genocide under current international law.
The profound sin of genocide is a historical stain that the United States can never clear, and the painful tragedy of Indians is a historical lesson that should never be forgotten.
I. Evidence on U.S. governmentâs genocide against Indians
1. Government-led action
On July 4, 1776, the United States of America was founded with the Declaration of Independence, which openly stated that âHeâ(the British King)âhas excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savagesâ, andâslandered Native Americans as âthe merciless Indian Savagesâ.
The U.S. government and leaders treated Native Americans with a belief in white superiority and supremacy, set out to annihilate theâIndians and attemptedâto eradicate the race through âcultural genocideâ.
During the American War of Independence (1775-1783), the Second War of Independence (1812-1815) and the Civil War (1861-1865), the U.S. leaders, eager to transform its plantationâeconomyâas an adjunct toâEuropean colonialismâand to expand their territories, covetedâthe vast Indian landsâand launched thousands of attacks on Indian tribes, slaughtering Indian chiefs, soldiers and even civilians, and taking Indian lands for themselves.
In 1862, the United States enacted the Homestead Act, which provided that every American citizen above the age ofâ21, with a mereâregistration fee of 10 U.S. dollars, could acquire no more than 160 acres (about 64.75 hectares) of land in the west. Lured by the land, the whiteâpeopleâswarmed into the Indian areas and started a massacreâthat resulted in the death ofâthousands of Indians.
Leaders of the U.S. governmentâat that timeâopenly claimed thatâthe skin of Indians could be peeled off to make tall boots,that Indians must be annihilated or driven to places that no one would go, that Indians had to be wiped out swiftly, andâthat onlyâdead Indians are good Indians. American soldiers saw the slaughter of Indians as natural, even an honor, and would not rest until theyâwere all killed. Similar hate rhetoric and atrocities abound,âand are well documented in many Native American extermination monographs.
2. Bloody massacres and atrocities
Since the colonists set foot in North America, they had systematically and extensively hunted American bison, cutting off theâsource of food and basic livelihoodâof the Indians, andâcausingâtheir deathâfrom starvation in large numbers.
Statisticsâreveal thatâsince itsâindependence in 1776, the U.S. government has launched overâ1,500 attacks onâIndian tribes, slaughtering the Indians, taking their lands, and committing countless crimes. In 1814, the U.S. government decreed that it would award 50 to 100 dollars for each Indian skull surrendered. The American Historian Frederick Turner acknowledged in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, released in 1893,âthat each frontier was won by a series of wars against the Indians.
The California Gold Rush also brought about the California Massacre.âPeter Burnett, the first governor of California, proposed a war of extermination against Native Americans, triggering risingâcalls for the extermination of Indians in the state. In Californiaâin the 1850s and 60s, an Indian skullâor scalp was worthâ5 dollars, while the average daily wage was 25 cents. From 1846 to 1873, the Indian population in Californiaâdropped to 30,000âfrom 150,000. Countless Indians died as a result of the atrocities. Some of the major massacres include:
âIn 1811, American troops defeated the famous Indian chief Tecumseh and his army in the Battle of Tippecanoe, burnedâthe Indian capital Prophetstown and committedâbrutal massacres.
âFrom November 1813 to January 1814, the U.S. Army launched the Creek War against the Native Americans, also known as the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. On March 27, 1814, about 3,000 soldiers attacked the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend, Mississippi Territory. Overâ800 Creek warriors were slaughteredâin the fight, and as a result, the military strength of the Creeks was significantlyâweakened. Under the Treaty of Fort Jackson signed on Augustâ9 of the same year, the Creeks ceded more than 23 million acres of land to the U.S. federal government.
âOn Novemberâ29, 1864, pastor John Chivington massacred Indians at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado, due toâthe opposition of a few Indians to the signing of a land grant agreement. It was one of the most notorious massacresâofâNative Americans. Maria Montoya, a professor of history at New York University, said in an interview that Chivingtonâs soldiers scalped women and children, beheaded them, and paraded them through the streets upon their return to Denver.
James Anaya, former UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples,submitted his report after a country visit to the United States in 2012. According to the accounts of the descendants of the victims of the Sand Creek Massacre, in 1864, around 700 armed U.S. soldiers raided and shot at Cheyenne and Arapaho people living on the Sand Creek Indian Reservation in Colorado. Media reportsâshowed thatâthe massacre resulted in the deaths of between 70 andâ163 among theâ200-plusâtribal members. Two-thirds of the dead were women or children, and no one was held responsible for the massacre. The U.S. government had reached a compensation agreement with tribal descendants, whichâhas not been delivered even to this day.
âOn Decemberâ29, 1890, near the Wounded Knee CreekâinâSouth Dakota, U.S. troops fired at the Indians, killing and injuring more than 350 people according to the U.S. Congressional Record. After the Wounded Knee Massacre, armed Indian resistance was largely suppressed. About 20 U.S. soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.
âIn 1930, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs began sterilizingâIndian women through the Indian Health Service program. Sterilization wasâconducted in the name of protecting the health of Indian women, and in some cases, even performed without the womenâs knowledge. Statisticsâsuggest thatâin early 1970s, more than 42%âof Indian women of childbearing age were sterilized. This resulted in the near extinction for many small tribes. By 1976, approximately 70,000 Indian women had been forcibly sterilized.
3. Westward expansion and forced migration
In its early days,âthe United States regarded Indian tribes as sovereign entities and dealt with them on land, trade, justice and other issuesâlargely through negotiated treaties, and occasionally throughâwar. By 1840, the United States had concluded more than 200 treaties with various tribes, most of which were unequal treaties that were reached under U.S. military and political pressureâand throughâdeception and coercion, and were binding on the Indian tribes only. The treaties were used as a primaryâtool to take advantage ofâIndian tribes.
In 1830, the United States passed the Indian Removal Act, which marked the institutionalization of forced relocation of Indians in the country. The Act legally deprived Indian tribes of the right to live in the eastern United States, forcing some 100,000 Indians to move to the west of the Mississippi River from their ancestral lands in the south. The migration began in the summer heat and continued through the winter with subzero temperatures.âTrudging 16âmiles each day, thousands died along the way as a result of hunger, cold, exhaustion, or disease and plague. The Indian population was decimated, and the forced migration became a âTrail of Blood and Tearsâ. Tribes that refused to move were left to military suppression, forcible eviction and even massacre by the U.S. government.
In 1839, before Texas joined the United States, the government demanded thatâIndians remove immediately or face the entire destructionâof theirâpossessionsâandâthe extermination of their tribe. Large numbers of Cherokees who refused to complyâwere shot and killed.
In 1863, the U.S. military carried out a âscorchedâearthâ policyâto forcibly removeâthe Navajo tribe, burning housesâand crops, slaughtering livestock and vandalizing properties.âUnder the Armyâs watch, Navajos had to walk several hundredâkilometers to a reservation in eastern New Mexico. Pregnant women and seniors who fell behind were shot on the spot.
In the mid-19th century, nearly all American Indians were driven to the west of the Mississippi River, and forced by the U.S. government to live in Native American reservations.
As was written inâthe Cambridge Economic History of the United States, as a result of the U.S. governmentâs forcibleâexpulsion of the last Indians in the east, only a very small number of Indians who were individual citizensâof the nation, or those individual Indians who went into hiding during the forceful expulsion, remained in the region.
Sadly, to whitewash this part of history, U.S. historians often glorify the Westward Expansion as the American peopleâs pursuit of economic development in the western frontier, claiming that it accelerated the improvement of American democracy, boosted economic prosperity, and contributed to the formation and development of the American national spirit. They make no mention ofâthe brutal massacre of Native Americans.
In fact, it was after the Westward Expansion that the budding civilization of the Americas was destroyed, and the Indians, as one of the several major human races, faced complete extinction.
4. Forced assimilation and cultural extinction
To defendâthe unjust deeds of the U.S. government, some American scholars in the 19th century trumpeted the dichotomy of âcivilization versus barbarismââand portrayed Native Americans as a savage, evil, and inferior group.âFrancis Parkman, a famous 19th-century American historian,âeven claimed that the American Indian âwill not learn the arts of civilization, and he and his forest must perish together.â
George Bancroft, Parkmanâs contemporary and another well-known American historian, also claimed that compared with the white people, Native Americans were âinferior in reason and moral qualitiesâ, addingâthatâânor is this inferiority simply attached to the individual; it is connected with organization, and is the characteristic of the race.ââSuch an attempt toâjustifyâcolonial plundering byâdemeaningâIndians is nothing butâraciallyâdiscriminative.
Inâthe 1870s and â80s, the U.S. government adopted a more aggressive policy of âforced assimilationââto obliterateâthe social fabricâand culture of Indian tribes. The core objective of the strategy was to destroy the original group affiliationâas well as the ethnic and tribal identity of the Indians, and transform them intoâindividual Americans with American citizenship, civic consciousness and identification with mainstream American values. Four measures were taken toâthis end.
First, fully deprivingâIndian tribes of their right to self-governance. American Indians hadâlivedâin tribal unitsâover the years, and tribes had beenâtheir source of strength and spiritual support. The U.S.âgovernment forcibly abolished the tribal system and castâindividualâIndiansâinto aâwhite society withâcompletelyâdifferent traditions. Unable to find a jobâor make a living, the Indiansâbecameâeconomically destitute, politically deprived and socially discriminated against. They experiencedâgreat mental painâandâa deepâexistential and cultural crisis.âIn the 19th century, the thriving Cherokee tribes enjoyed a material life almost comparableâtoâthat of frontier whites. Nevertheless, with their right to self-governance andâtheir tribal systemâgradually abolished by the U.S. government, the Cherokee community quickly declinedâand became the poorest group among the indigenous people.
Second, tryingâto destroy Indian reservations through land distribution and ultimately disintegrate their tribes. The Dawes Actâpassed in 1887 authorized the U.S. president to dissolveâIndian reservations, abolish the tribal land ownership in the original reservations, and allocate land directly to Indians living inside and outside the reservations, forming a de facto land privatizationâsystem. The abolition of tribal land ownership disintegratedâtheâAmerican Indian communities,âand seriously undermined tribal authority. As the highest form of tribal unity, the traditional ritual âSun Danceââwas regarded as âheresyââand thusâbanned. Most of the land in the original reservations was transferred to the white people through auction; the Indians who were less prepared for farming lost their newly acquired land as a result of swindling among otherâreasons,âand their lives deterioratedâbyâtheâday.
Third, takingâsteps to fully impose American citizenship on the Indians. Native Americans who were identified asâmixed-raceâhad to give up their tribal status, and others were âde-tribalizedâ, which greatly damagedâtheâIndian identity.
Fourth, eradicating theâIndiansââsense of community and tribal identityâby adopting measures onâeducation, language, cultureâandâreligion and a series ofâsocial policies. Beginning with the Civilization Fund Actâofâ1819, the United States established or funded boarding schools across the countryâandâforcedâIndian children to attend. According to a report by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, there have beenâaltogether 367 boarding schools throughout the United States.âByâ1925, 60,889 Indian children had been forced to attendâboarding schools. Inâ1926, 83%âof Indian children wereâenrolled. The total number of students enrolled still remains unclearâto this day. Guided byâthe idea ofââKill the Indian, Save the Manâ,âthe United States banned Indian children from speaking their native language, wearing theirâtraditional clothes,âorâcarrying out traditionalâactivities, thus erasing their language, culture and identityâinâan act of cultural genocide. Indian children suffered immenselyâatâschool,âand some died from starvation, disease and abuse. This was followed by a policy of âforced foster careââââchildren were forcibly placed in the care of whites, which was a continuation ofâthe assimilation policy and denial of cultural identity.âThese practices were not banned untilâ1978,âwhen the Indian Child Welfare Actâwas passed. In passing the Act, it was acknowledged in the Congress that a large number of Indian children hadâbeen removedâto non-Indianâfamilies and institutions without permission, resulting in the breakupâof Indian families.
As renowned historians said,with theâforced assimilation, one of the most despicable things in American historyâreached its peak.âThis was perhaps the most unfortunate chapterâfor Indians.
II. American Indians remainâin serious survival and development crisis
The U.S. governmentâsâgenocide of Indians has led to a precipitousâdrop in the population of Indian communities, deterioration of their living conditions, lack of social security, low economic status, threatsâtoâtheir safety, andâplummeted political influence.
1. Sharp decline of population
Before the arrival of white settlers in 1492, there were 5 million Indians, yet by 1800 the number plummeted to 600,000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Native Americans in 1900 was only 237,000, the lowest in history. Among them, more than a dozen tribes,âsuch as the Pequot, Mohegan, and Massachusetts,âwere completely extinct.
Between 1800 and 1900, theâAmerican Indians lostâmore than halfâof their population, and theirâproportionâin the total U.S. population dropped from 10.15%âto 0.31%. Throughout the 19thâcentury, whileâthe U.S. population grew by 20-30%âevery 10 years, the Indian population experienced a precipitous decline. Currently, theâIndian and Alaska Native population accounts for only 1.3%âof the total U.S. population.
2. Deteriorating living conditions
Indians were pushedâfrom the east to the barren west, and most of the Indian reservationsâwereâlocated in remote areasâunfit for agriculture, much less for investment in industrial development. Most of the tribes, with scattered reservations of varying sizes, were unableâtoâobtain adequate landâfor development and were therefore subject toâsevereâdevelopmentârestraints.
There are currently about 310 Native American reservations in the United States, accounting for about 2.3%âof the U.S. territory, and not all federally recognized tribes have their own reservations. These reservations areâmostly located in remote and barren areas with poor living conditionsâand inadequate access toâwater and other vital resources, where 60%âof the roadâsystem areâdirt or gravelâroads. On the surface, Indians are no longer the subject ofââexterminationâ, but just âforgottenâ,ââinvisibleââand âdiscriminated againstâ;âyetâin reality, theyâareâsimply left there for self-extermination.
The U.S. government has also systematically used Indian reservations as toxic or nuclear waste dumps through the means of deception and coercion, subjecting them to long-term exposure to uranium and other radioactive materials. As a result,âtheâcancer incidence and fatality rates inâthe communities concerned is significantly higher than in other parts of the country. Indian communities have effectively become the âgarbage cansââin theâdevelopment process of the United States.
For instance, inâthe Navajo Nation reservation, the largest Indian tribe in the United Statesďźabout a quarter of women and some infants have large amountsâof radioactive substancesâin their bodies. During the 40-plusâyears prior to 2009, the U.S. government had reportedly conducted a total of 928 nuclear tests in the area inhabited by the Shoshone tribe of American Indians, producing approximately 620,000 tons of radioactive fallout, nearly 48 times the amount of radioactive fallout from the 1945 atomic bombing in Hiroshima, Japan.
3. Lack of social security
According to a report released by the Indian Health Service, life expectancy of American Indians is 5.5 years lower than that ofâaverage Americans, and the incidence of diabetes, chronic liver disease and alcohol addictionâare 3.2 times, 4.6 times and 6.6 timesâasâmuch as the U.S. average respectively. Academic studies show that among all ethnic groups in the United States, Indians have the shortest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate; the incidence of drugâandâalcohol abuse among Indian adolescents is 13.3 timesâand 1.4 times higher than the national average, and theâsuicide rate 1.9 times that of the national average. These phenomena are closely related to insufficient government investment ofâpublic health resources, underlying health inequities, and the overall underdevelopment of minority communities.
The U.S. government provides limited educational and medical assistance to Indians. 99%âof such assistance has gone to reservation residents, butâ70%âof the Indians liveâin cities andâtherefore cannot be covered. Apart from theâIndian Health Service, many Indiansâhaveânoâaccess to health insurance and are often subject toâdiscrimination and language barriers in non-Indian health services and non-tribal health facilities.
The underprivileged statusâof Indians in health care was further exposedâamid the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. CDC statistics show that as of August 18, 2020, the COVID-19 incidence and case-fatalityâratesâamongâIndians wereâ2.8 timesâand 1.4 times, respectively, that ofâwhite Americans. A report produced by the UNâSpecial Rapporteur on the right to adequateâhousing, pursuantâto Human Rights Council resolution 43/14,âpointsâoutâthat Native Americans and African Americans are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, with a hospitalization rate five times thatâof non-Hispanicâwhite Americans. The COVID-19 infection rate in Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the United States, evenâsurpassedâthat of New Yorkâat one point, reaching the highestâin the country.
In terms of education, the conditions of Indian reservations are much poorer thanâthose of white American communities. According to the 2013-2017âstatistics of the U.S. Census Bureau, only 14.3%âof American Indians heldâa bachelorâs degree or higher, in contrast toâ15.2%âforâHispanics, 20.6%âforâAfrican Americans and 34.5%âforâwhiteâAmericans. ManyâIndian reservationsâare struggling with dilapidatedâschoolsâandâshattered education systems.
The New York Timesâreported that only 60%âof American Indian students inâthe Wind RiverâReservationâfinished high school, while 80%âof white students in Wyoming graduated from high school;âthe dropout rate in the reservation is 40%, more than twice the state average in Wyoming;âand American Indian teens in the reservation are twice moreâlikely to commit suicide compared with their peers in the country.
4. Poorâeconomicâand securityâconditions
Many reservations inâthe barren landâof the Midwestâhave been grappling with economic stagnation and become the poorest areasâin the country. The poverty rate of some reservationsâhas even surpassedâ85%. According to statisticsâof the U.S. Census Bureauâin 2018, the poverty rate of American Indians, at 25.4%,âwas the highest among all ethnic minorities, compared withâ20.8% for African Americans, 17.6% forâHispanics, andâ8.1%âfor whiteâAmericans. The median income of American Indian families was only 60%âthat of white families.
In a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, The Atlanticârevealedâthat the local unemployment rate wasâas high as 80%. Most of theâIndians in the reservation livedâbelow the federal poverty line, and many families hadâno access to tap water and electricity. As the food relief provided by the federal government wasâgenerallyâhigh in sugar and calorie,âthe local diabetesâincidence rate wasâeightâtimes higher than the national average, and average life expectancy was only about 50 years.
Poor economic conditionsâhave led to serious law-and-order issues. In the Pine Ridge Reservation, unemployed youngstersâoften turn to gang culture in search ofâidentity and belonging,while alcoholism, fighting and drug abuse are commonplace in the local communities. According to a researchâby the U.S. National Institute of Justice, more than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaska Nativeâwomen in the United States, orâ84.3%âof the groupâs total population, had suffered fromâviolenceâin their lifetime. In addition, many lawbreakers tookâadvantage of the loopholes in local lawsâtoâconductâcriminal activities, leading to furtherâdeterioration of theâsecurityâconditions in the reservations.
5. Disadvantagedâpolitical status
In mainstream American politics, theâIndians and other NativeâAmericans are not choosing to be âsilentâ. Rather, they have beenââsilencedâ by the system andââsystematically erasedâ. American Indians have a relatively small populationâand do not have a strong interestâin politics. With a lower turnout rate in elections than that of other ethnic groups, their interests andâdemands are often ignored by politicians. As a result, American Indians have been reduced toâsecond-class citizens in the United States, and they are often called the âinvisible minorityââor the âvanishing raceâ in the country. It was not until 1924 that the American Indiansâwereâconditionally granted U.S. citizenshipâand not until 1965 that they were given the right to vote.
In June 2020, the Native American Rights Fund and other institutions conducted a studyâon the barriersâto political participation faced by Native American voters, with the participation ofâcivil societies, legal experts, and scholars from around the country. The results showed that only 66%âof the 4.7 million eligible Native American voters were registered, andâmore than 1.5 million eligible Native American voters could not meaningfullyâexercise their right to voteâdue to political barriers. According to the results, Native American voters face 11 pervasiveâobstacles to political participation, including limited hours of government offices, lack of funding for elections,âand discrimination. In the current U.S. Congress, only four members are American Indians, accounting for about 0.74%âof the members of Congress in both houses. The political engagement andâinfluenceâof the Native Americans are disproportionatelyâlowerâthan other groups of theâAmerican population.
Native American communities have long suffered neglect and discrimination. Many U.S. government statistical programs either leave them asideâcompletelyâor simply classify them as âothersâ. Shannon KellerâOâLoughlin, Chief Executive and AttorneyâofâtheâAssociation onâAmerican Indian Affairs, said that the greatest aspiration of Native Americans is to attain social recognition. Native Americansâhave diverse cultures and languages, but are often seen not as an ethnic group, but as a political stratum with limited autonomy based on treaties with the federal government.âThe Brookings Institution recently published an article saying that the U.S. monthly employment report ignores American Indians. The economic well-beingâof this groupâreceives little attention and is largely left out of the discussion. There are nearly 200 American Indian tribes in California, only half of which are recognized by the federal government. Although the Biden administration appointed the first American Indian cabinet minister, the political participation rate and political influence of Indians are still wayâtoo low compared to their share ofâthe American population.
According to a poll conducted by the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, more than oneâthird of Native Americans have experienced neglect, violence, humiliation and discrimination in the workplace, and American Indians living in Indian populated areas are more likely to be subject to discrimination when dealing with the police, at workâand during voting. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, American Indians are twice as likely to be jailed for minor crimes as other ethnic groups. The incarceration rate of Indian men is four times that of white men, and the rateâof Indian women is six times that of white women.
The Atlanticâcommented that from the expulsion, slaughter and forced assimilationâbackâin history to the current widespread poverty and neglect, the American Indians, once the owner of this continent, now have a very weak voice in American society. American Indian writer Rebecca Nagel pointed out sharply that being made invisible is a new type of racial discrimination against American Indians and other indigenous peoples. The Los Angeles Timesâcommented that the unjust treatment of Native Americans is deeply embedded in the social structure and legal system of the United States.
6. Endangered culture
From the 1870s to the lateâ1920s, the U.S. government forcibly implemented the system of American Indian boarding schools in Native American areas to impose Englishâand Christian education on Indian children. There were evenâcases of Indian children beingâkidnapped and forced to attend schoolsâin many places. The system of American Indian boarding schools imposed onâNative Americans, as part ofâthe history of the United States, caused irreparable damage, especially to the youthsâand children. Many Native Americansâof theâyounger generation found themselves unable toâgain a foothold in mainstream society and felt difficult to preserveâandâpromote their own traditional culture, which leaves them bewildered and anguished about their own culture and identity.
In these boarding schools,âAmerican Indian childrenâs braids, a symbol of courage, were cut off, and their traditional clothingâburned.âThey were strictly prohibited from speaking their mother tongueâand violators would be beaten hard. In these schools, military-styleâmanagementâwas imposed on Native American childrenâwhoâsuffered from not only corporal punishment by mentors, but also sexual abuse. Quite a few American Indian children fell ill andâeven died due to harsh education methods, forced way of living, homesicknessâand malnutrition.
The U.S. government hadâalso enacted laws prohibiting Native Americans from performing religious rituals which have been passed down through theâgenerations, and those involved in such activities would be arrested and imprisoned. Since the 20th century, with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the protection of Native Americansâ traditional culture and history has improved to some extent. However, due to the serious damage that has already been inflicted, what isâleft now are mostly cultural relics preserved by later generations using theâEnglishâlanguage instead.
Rebecca Nagle believes that information about Native Americans has been systematically removed from mainstream media and popular culture. According to a report by National Indian Education Association, 87%âof state-level U.S. history textbooks do not mention the post-1900 history of indigenous people. According to the Smithsonian Institution, things taught about Native Americans in American schools are full of inaccurate information and fail to present the real picture of the sufferings of indigenous people. Rick Santorum, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, saidâpubliclyâat the Young Americaâs Foundation that âWe birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing hereâ... but candidly, there isnât much Native American culture in American culture.â His remarks dismissed and negatedâthe influence of indigenous people in American culture.
â ˘. Domestic criticism long ignored by the U.S. governmentâoverâthe âgenocideââof American Indians
First, the academic community has a shared view on thisâissue. Since the 1970s, American academics have begun to use the term âgenocideâ to denounce U.S. policies toward American Indians. In the 1990s, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New Worldâby David E. Stannard, a professor at the University of Hawaii, and A Little Matter of Genocideâby Ward L. Churchill, a former professor at the University of Colorado, sent shock waves across the academic community. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfurâby Ben Kiernan, a professor at Yale University, gave a brief account of genocides the UnitedâStates committed against American Indians at different historical stages. And An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873âby Benjamin Madley, an associate professor at UCLA, unearthed the massacres of Native Americans by the U.S. government during the California Gold Rush.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, an American historian dedicated to the study of indigenous peoples, concluded that all five acts of genocide listed in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocideâcan be found in the crimes the United States committed against American Indians. Native Americans are undoubtedly victims of genocide, and it is of important significance to admit that U.S. policies toward American Indians are, in fact, acts of genocide.
Second, the media has been calling for change on this issue. An article published in TheâNew York Timesâreported that the UC Hastings College of the Law was named after a perpetrator of genocide, which accelerated the process of changing the name of the college. According to ABC News, the aspirations from Native Americans range from sovereignty claims to making their voice heard. Some respondents said that the theft of American Indiansâ land and the obliteration of indigenous languages were in fact systemic genocides. The Washington Postâpublished an article accusing the United States of never formally admitting that it has taken genocidal policies toward indigenous people. A Foreign Policyâarticle demanded that the United States acknowledge its genocide of American Indians. Bounty, a documentary released in November 2021, in which some Native Americans were invited to read official historical documents on the United States posting high reward for American Indiansââscalps, also triggered reflections on the heinous genocidal policies in the country.
As the affirmative action became prevalent after World War II, American society began to reflect on the issue of American Indians. The government passed a resolution apologizing to indigenous people. In 2019, Gavin Newsom, governor of California, issued a statement to apologize to the indigenous population in California, admitting that the stateâs actions against Indian tribes in the mid-19th century were genocides.
However, the reflection of the U.S. government looks more like a âpolitical stunt.â It has not officially admitted that the atrocities against Native Americans are acts of genocide.âReal changes still seem a long way off.
To sum up,âsuccessive U.S. administrations have not only wiped out a large number of American Indians, but also, through systematic policy design and bullying acts of cultural suppression, thrown them into an irreversible, difficult situation. The indigenous culture was fundamentally crushed, and the inter-generational inheritance of indigenous lives and spirits was under severe threats. The slaughter, forced relocation, cultural assimilation and unjust treatment the United States committed against American Indians have constituted de facto genocides. These acts fully match the definition of genocide in the UNâConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and have continued for hundreds of years to this day. It is imperative that the U.S. government drop its hypocrisy and double standards on human rights issues, and take seriously the severe racial problems and atrocities in its own country.
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Some very interesting Native American history. What do you think?
