Pine Ridge Reservation Essay

Improved Essays
Show More
We have come to learn over the course of time that American Native Indians still have no clear answer on whether they are considered sovereign or not. The definition of sovereignty is to possess power, and although some Indian Tribes are climbing the ladder in earning this right, there is one reservation imparticularly that is suffering due to the neglect of the US Government. The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the poorest areas in America and suffers great poverty due to the actions of the US Government. The Snyder Act of 1921 charged the US Department of the Interior with responsibility for providing education, medical and social services to many Native nations and tribes, including the Oglala Lakota, yet this Act is not showing any …show more content…
As a child in school and them knowing the success level of students who go through the school on Pine Ridge, why should they feel the courage to pursue on when they know they are being set up for failure? Also, because of the lack of jobs, most of these children 's parents sit home and all they do it gather around and get drunk because that is all they can afford to do. So as a child with no hope for furthering their education and no hope of finding a job, and they can’t even go to their parents for help, these are the reasons so many innocent children are trying to take their own lives. To try and escape the poverty they live in which in all, turns around on the problems of the …show more content…
Pine Ridge needs more individuals such as Henry Red Cloud to help change the reservation. If only the tribes were able to cut the tie with the government, they could go about being a sovereign nation and stop depending on the government for help that they are not receiving. If the government were to step up and take charge to help improve the living conditions, they need to start by looking at the main problems which are education and jobs and the impact those have among the people that live

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Dbq Native American Territorial Loss Analysis
    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dbq Native American Territorial Loss Analysis

    There’s a saying that questions “do the ends justify the means”? This means does the outcome outweigh everything sacrificed to get there. In the early to mid nineteenth century, America was hurt socially, technologically, economically, and politically due to the Trail of Tears, President Andrew Jackson, and Industrialization. Beginning in the late 1700’s and advancing into the 1800’s, the Native Americans that had lived in America for the past 12,000 years gradually lost the majority of their land.…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Worcester V. Cabazon Case: Indian Reservations Are Sovereign Nations
    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Worcester V. Cabazon Case: Indian Reservations Are Sovereign Nations

    This was shown in the case of California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indian of 1987. This helped to pave the way for tribes to make decisions rather than states. Something interesting to think about is the difficulties in jurisdiction when it comes to questions that relate to government- federal, state, tribal- can regulate activities of nonmembers on reservations lands. I feel that they show, because they choose to enter a reservation and should have to follow their guidelines, just like member who leave the reservation. Something that I did not know was that many non-Indians live, work, and own property within the Indian Country boundaries.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Standing Silent Nation Summary
    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Standing Silent Nation Summary

    I believe that Courtney Hermann and Suree Towfighnia, the filmmakers, purposely included these statistics on plain backgrounds to make viewers aware of how the constant discrimination committed against Native Americans have negatively affected their entire population. For example, the unemployment rates in Pine Ridge Reservation is 85% in contrast to 5% to the United States (Hermann and Towfighnia, 2007). Secondly, substandard housing is at 66% in Pine Ridge Reservation while it is only 4% for the United States (Hermann and Towfighnia, 2007. Lastly, life expectancy in Pine Ridge Reservation varies between 47-56 years in contrast to the 75-80 average life years in the United States (Hermann and Towfighnia, 2007. It is astonishing to see how certain living conditions can affect a group of people so…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Oneida Tribe Research Paper
    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Oneida Tribe Research Paper

    The Oneida Tribe preserves its sovereignty by exercising the inherent right of self-government over our lands and members within the Oneida Reservation…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Case Study: The Pine Ridge Reservation
    • 179 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Case Study: The Pine Ridge Reservation

    The Pine Ridge Reservation is riddled with unemployment, arid lands, dreadful health statistics and short life-expectancies. However bad the conditions of the Pine Ridge Reservation seem to be, the nine tribes of the Great Sioux Nation continue to refuse the compensation from the federal government of $1.3 billion. According to the Sioux tribes, the confiscation of their land was illegal and invalid, therefore, the acceptance of the compensation would make the requisition of their land legal and just. The refusal of the compensation comes from the long standing feud caused by the government violating a treaty and seizing the Black Hills. The Black Hills has always been a spiritual and sacred land for tribes.…

    • 179 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Indian Removal Act Dbq
    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Indian Removal Act Dbq

    Even treaties were signed about the Indians having rights to their land, yet they still got threatened and removed. Another piece of evidence about the government not being honest with the Indians states, “ Property of many has been taken, and sold before their eyes for almost nothing-- the sellers and buyers, in many cases, being combined to cheat the poor Indians... They are prisoners, without a crime to justify the fact.” (Green and Perdue 172). This is a journal entry of one of the bystanders from the Indian Removal.…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Incident At Oglala Movie Essay
    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Incident At Oglala Movie Essay

    Native Americans and the United States government have had a long standing dysfunctional relationship that has resulted in the unjust treatment of people. In the past, Native Americans have been forced from there territory and moved log distances only to be confined to small lots of land they can call their own. Not only has the government confined the Native Americans to stay in reservations, but they have lead massacres of natives as their numbers dwindle to a genocidal levels. Even with all the suffering in the past, Native Americans and the United States government still have many issues that arise. In the film Incident at Oglala, another conflict between the United States government and Native Americans is explored.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Indian Removal Act DBQ
    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Indian Removal Act DBQ

    The goal of allowing all people to be ruled by the laws of the country was evidently a failure. To further show this, Indian Removal Act shows the extent at which the goal was forgotten. Established under the Jackson administration in 1830, the Indian Removal Act enacted the government 's financial aid in the uprooting of the “Five civilized tribes”- Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. Previously, tribes like the Cherokee attempted to assimilate to the Western life by forming schools, and even adopted the nation’s government model. The government believed that the Indian Removal was a way of saving Indians and their culture from western settlers and their influences.…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Pros And Cons Of The Allotment Act
    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Pros And Cons Of The Allotment Act

    However, the U.S. government did not fully recognize the Indian tribal rights and many decisions were still subject to approval, ultimately by the U.S. Secretary of Interior while still being under the supervision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). This process often limited the measure of self government and produced “unrepresentative minority tribal administration” (511). It…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Native American Treaty Making
    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Native American Treaty Making

    In which, the effects of Marshall Supreme Court decisions and the Indian Removal Act decimated Indian sovereignty by refusing to acknowledge that American Indians governments could have been full partners in nation building and left their legal texts malleable enough that interpretation would always benefit the United States (Norgren 142). Even on Indian Territory, Native Nations sovereignty was still in question because most Americans “rejected the idea of Indian autonomy” and manifest destiny was revitalized after the Civil War (Norgren 144). According to Jill Norgren, after 1865 United States Indian policy followed several “ethics”: continue to acquire Indian land, consolidate more Indians within Indian Territory, tolerate White intruders in Indian Territory, and further incorporate assimilationist legislation (Norgren 150). Together, these “ethics” force Native Nations to denationalize and end communal land holding through Congress enacted laws like the Dawes General Allotment Act. These land allotments destroyed Indian autonomous governments and culture through the forcing of individual land titles and allowed for Indian surplus land to be taken by the government.…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    John Locke Occupation Of Native Americans
    • 1005 Words
    • 4 Pages

    John Locke Occupation Of Native Americans

    The Native Americans suffered many consequences from aiding in the war, but also from European and American actions and illnesses alike following the Revolution. Similar to the invasion of smallpox among rebel soldiers from the British, Native Americans suffered great illnesses from Europeans. Foreign illnesses to the people of North America is estimated to have contributed to up to 80% of the deaths among their population (Native American History). Nonetheless, epidemics were not the only cause of the swift eradication of Native American populations within North America. Though Americans thrived on the idea of John Locke’s theory of the right to life, liberty and property, this did not necessarily pertain to Native Americans during this…

    • 1005 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Department Of Interior Essay
    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Department Of Interior Essay

    Another issue that the Native Indians face is lack of education. They aren’t informed of many issues, causing them to face problems in the future. For example, employment if they have no education level whatsoever they won’t know how to make a living are actually, live. The reservations lack school supply support, noting that the government supplies our local schools and maybe they should do that to some reservations because of the fact they are so limited. They also lack sufficient staff and if a teacher was there to teach, who would know how long it would be before they…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Native American Citizenship
    • 149 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Native American Citizenship

    The relationship between the federal government and the Native Americans has been horrible. In 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie restricted tribes to selected areas to keep white settlers from invading on their land. Whites broke their agreement when they went onto the Indian hunting ground looking for ore. The government did not enforce the existing treaties. Later, in 1887 the Dawes Act was passed giving Indians ownership of land and in return, they would give up all of who they were to receive American citizenship.…

    • 149 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    What Is Apartheid And Economic/Political Disempowerment?
    • 1290 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What Is Apartheid And Economic/Political Disempowerment?

    Race and racial inequality have powerfully shaped American history from the very beginning. Americans think of the founding of the American colonies and, later, the United States, as driven by the quest for freedom when initially, religious liberty and later political and economic liberty. Still, from the beginning, American society was equally founded on brutal forms of domination, inequality, and oppression which lead to the foundation of two models of minority exclusion known as Apartheid and Economic/political disempowerment. Apartheid meaning “state of being apart” is “An official policy of racial segregation, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites” (Wk:3, Lecture 1). Originated in South Africa apartheid…

    • 1290 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Ethnography Of Cherokee Indians
    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ethnography Of Cherokee Indians

    Ethnography Report – Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma The tribe I’ll be discussing throughout my ethnography report are the Cherokee Indians. There are three sub-tribes to the Cherokee’s which are the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees. Although they all originate from the same tribe/settlement, I’m going to be discussing the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Today, this tribe of Cherokee’s live within 14 counties of Northeastern Oklahoma.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings