Environmental issues often arise from injustice in environmental policy-making and enforcement of regulations and laws and the deliberate targeting of minorities. Issues that impact the environment have impacts on people that live there as well. In the past and in the present, social injustice in the quest for economic growth and profit has marginally affected Native Americans and minorities. Lack of protection of spiritual grounds and indigenous habitats of Native Americans by the American government and the strategic placement of hazardous and other noxious facilities in poor and African American neighborhoods, present not just environmental issues but also social justice issues. In 1894, James Fraser sculpted a clay model of an Indian
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The General Allotment Act was passed in 1887 and it allowed the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to allot Indian reservations (Wilkinson 15). They broke up the tribal ownership of the land by transferring some or all of the tribal land to individual tribal members. As a result, a significant part of the reservation land was given to non-Indians (Wilkinson 46). What the Native Americans thought was, the United States government was trying to transform them into farmers. However, an even larger scheme was to allow non-Indians to gain tribal land for other profits like agriculture, mining and logging. In the case of the Quinault forest, each tribal member received an allotment of 80 acres of agricultural land. About 25 percent of the forest opened up to non-Indian farmers, primarily to timber company ownership. Commercial timber harvesting in the Quinault forest began in the 1920s and expanded through the 1950s and into the 1970s (Wilkinson 16). The commercial timber trade destroyed Quinault Native Americans’ forest land. The logging …show more content…
An environmental justice movement known as United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice(UCC-CRT), compiled results from a national study and found that race is the leading factor in the location of commercial hazardous waste facilities (Di Chiro 122). The group determined that people of color suffer a disproportionate risk to the health of their families due to their environment. Data showed that 60 percent of African Americans and Latino communities and over 50 percent of Pacific Islanders/Native Americans live in areas with one or more uncontrolled waste sites. Additionally, they discovered that 40 percent of the nations’ toxic landfill capacity is concentrated in these communities: Emelle, Alabama with 78.9 percent African American population, Scotlandville, Louisiana with a 93 percent African American population and Kettleman City, California with 78.4 percent Latino population (Di Chiro 126). National cancer trends show that black males have the highest rate of cancer. Additionally, African Americans have the highest mortality rates related to cancer followed by American Indians/Alaskan Natives then Latinos and Whites (Howlader 10). It is not shocking that, Louisiana is ranked 2nd in terms of cancer rates and both California and Alabama have high cancer rates (Howlader 15). According to
The General Allotment Act was passed in 1887 and it allowed the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to allot Indian reservations (Wilkinson 15). They broke up the tribal ownership of the land by transferring some or all of the tribal land to individual tribal members. As a result, a significant part of the reservation land was given to non-Indians (Wilkinson 46). What the Native Americans thought was, the United States government was trying to transform them into farmers. However, an even larger scheme was to allow non-Indians to gain tribal land for other profits like agriculture, mining and logging. In the case of the Quinault forest, each tribal member received an allotment of 80 acres of agricultural land. About 25 percent of the forest opened up to non-Indian farmers, primarily to timber company ownership. Commercial timber harvesting in the Quinault forest began in the 1920s and expanded through the 1950s and into the 1970s (Wilkinson 16). The commercial timber trade destroyed Quinault Native Americans’ forest land. The logging …show more content…
An environmental justice movement known as United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice(UCC-CRT), compiled results from a national study and found that race is the leading factor in the location of commercial hazardous waste facilities (Di Chiro 122). The group determined that people of color suffer a disproportionate risk to the health of their families due to their environment. Data showed that 60 percent of African Americans and Latino communities and over 50 percent of Pacific Islanders/Native Americans live in areas with one or more uncontrolled waste sites. Additionally, they discovered that 40 percent of the nations’ toxic landfill capacity is concentrated in these communities: Emelle, Alabama with 78.9 percent African American population, Scotlandville, Louisiana with a 93 percent African American population and Kettleman City, California with 78.4 percent Latino population (Di Chiro 126). National cancer trends show that black males have the highest rate of cancer. Additionally, African Americans have the highest mortality rates related to cancer followed by American Indians/Alaskan Natives then Latinos and Whites (Howlader 10). It is not shocking that, Louisiana is ranked 2nd in terms of cancer rates and both California and Alabama have high cancer rates (Howlader 15). According to