2020 Democratic Candidates’ Views on Native American Rights

2020 Democratic Candidates’ Views on Native American Rights

After learning about America’s bloody history of violently displacing hundreds of thousands of Native Americans when Europeans first arrived, I thought it would be interesting to research how people today treat Natives and what they are trying to do to make up for their ancestors’ wrongdoings. Because the coming 2020 presidential election is very relevant today, I thought combining both topics would be relevant to our lives while still connecting to the history we are currently learning in class.

In the months leading up to the presidential election in 2020, there have been many different democratic candidates who have stepped up in hopes to beat out current president Donald Trump. While most of these candidates mainly focus on issues like healthcare, environmental protection, and equal opportunities, a few have made comments on their stances on Native American rights, especially regarding their land. 

I first stumbled upon this issue when I read an article about democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren’s alleged Native American ancestry. Realizing she had made a controversial mistake by trying to prove her ancestry through a DNA test, Warren is now making an effort to help today’s Natives. Just two weeks ago, Elizabeth Warren rolled out an extensive proposal addressing numerous Native American issues. The first step of her plan is to revoke the permits for the Keystone XL and Dakota pipelines, two projects Natives have been against due to the destruction of native land and potential impact they could have on tribal drinking water. Elizabeth Warren also advocates in her proposal for more rights for Native Americans to be able to prosecute non-natives for crimes committed on tribal land. Moreover, Warren calls to establish a permanent white house council on Native American affairs, something that has not seen action since the beginning of Trump’s administration. Other democratic presidential candidates that have issued platforms addressing Native American needs include Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, and Marianne Williamson.

I feel that today’s candidates stepping up and actively trying to help Native Americans is a really great step in the direction of atoning for Americans’ past wrongdoings. These candidates have the most influence over the American population and can create positive change for Native Americans in both legislature and people’s views on these issues. Under Trump's administration, policies protecting Native American have been rolled back and the administration has failed to honor and respect Tribal Nations. The fact that these democratic candidates are actively trying to fix these mistakes made under Trump shows that a big part of the society is making efforts to atone for our country’s despicable past.

Sources:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/20/20812193/elizabeth-warren-native-american-apology-policy-deb-haaland

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/16/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-native-american.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-elizabeth-warren-proposes-plan-to-aid-native-american-communities/2019/08/16/8a4490e8-bf9e-11e9-9b73-fd3c65ef8f9c_story.html?noredirect=on

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/native-american-voters-2020-democrats-iowa_n_5d586a71e4b0d8840ff41dbb

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/presidents-day-under-trump-dishonoring-native-peoples

The Murals of George Washington That Are Dividing San Francisco

Just a couple weeks ago, the San Francisco Board of Education voted on whether or not they would conceal, destroy, or preserve a series of controversial murals of George Washington at the George Washington High School that were painted in the mid-1930s. So why are these murals so controversial?

The controversy of these murals goes back to the time of the American Revolution with George Washington as the icon of American freedom. Despite the fact that Washington was the icon of American freedom and liberty, he himself did struggle with the concept of slavery. He expressed his disapproval of the idea of slavery while still possessing over 100 slaves. Regarding his views of Native Americans, Washington was notorious for his command to his army during the Revolution to destroy Iroquois lands in the hopes that they would leave. The result? Forty burned Iroquois towns, orchards uprooted and cut down, thousands of bushels of corn destroyed, and an Iroquois famine. These inherent disparities between how Washington viewed white bodies as superior to all other bodies of color is evident in the frescoes at the high school (seen below).



Painted by Victor Arnautoff, his frescoes were intended to be critical of Washington’s racism.


Advocates against the mural state that the murals are racist and are harmful to black and Native American students who have to see these depictions every day in the halls. Others who oppose the covering of the murals state that painting over the murals or destroying them would be harmful to censorship.

On a 4-3 vote, the board came to a decision to hide the murals from view, but not to destroy them.

Despite the finality of the decision, the vote has still opened up a discussion of whether or not depictions of violence against any minority continues to perpetuate their oppression or spread awareness on the history of their oppression. I personally haven’t come to a final opinion on the matter as I do see both sides to this story, and I am torn. If there was a mural of Vincent Chin’s brutal murder (a Chinese-American, mistaken to be Japanese, killed in the ‘80s during a time of resentment against Japan for “stealing” American autoworkers' jobs) hanging at our school, I’d probably feel disturbed and traumatized, and it would stunt my ability to learn. Nonetheless, I would also feel a sense of solace knowing that his death and the violence against him and people who looked like him would be recognized.





Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/arts/san-francisco-murals-george-washington.html

Land Acknowledgments

     While learning about how the growth of America was dependent on the exploitation of the Native Americans, I was reminded of a practice that I recently learned about called land acknowledgments. 

     I’m sure some of you have heard about land acknowledgments before, but I was first exposed to this practice during a summer class I took at De Anza College. Before every class, we would read a statement that said something along the lines of “We respectfully acknowledge that we are learning on the traditional homeland of the Ohlone people. We offer our respect to their Elders and to all Ohlone people of the past and present.” Upon further research, I learned that the recital of similar statements is widely practiced in universities, meetings, and education settings in many different countries. The purpose of these acknowledgments is to remind ourselves of the significance of living in a post-colonial world and learn to be better stewards of the land we inhabit. While I wholly agree with this general sentiment, I also see some faults. 

     For starters, as we learn more and more about the history of colonialism in America, the repetitive story of white settlers earning their freedom by forcefully stripping others of theirs is reinforced. Without getting into specifics—because basically all interactions between Native Americans and white settlers were the same—it is clear that regardless of differing initial attitudes, the Native Americans were always dispossessed in the end. This narrative serves as the groundwork for people in the US to essentially apologize to the Native Americans through land acknowledgments.

     I cannot speak for everyone, but I feel as though land acknowledgments serve more to make people feel better about the history of colonialism than actually aiding those who were displaced. The gestures are more symbolic than genuine and just trivialize something of greater importance in order to ease peoples’ conscience. After all, it does not make up for hundreds of years of brutality by saying “I acknowledge that we took your land and I am sorry, but also we are not actually giving it back.” Despite this, I do think that the idea behind land acknowledgments comes from a place of good intentions, it is just poorly executed. Reconciliation would involve countless things such as spreading awareness of modern issues and preserving sacred lands. Therefore, acknowledging the issue is a small first step, but I do not think it can make a difference until meaningful action follows. 

Sources:

https://www.sapiens.org/culture/land-acknowledgment/

http://landacknowledgements.org/

Welcome!

Welcome to our classroom blog!  I sincerely hope you find this a valuable resource for information and sharing ideas.  Please remember to observe classroom guidelines on the blog but also understand blogs are often informal rather than formal writing assignments.