America's First Refugees

There's been a lot of talk and discussion (and believe me, there will be a lot more) concerning the acceptance of Syrian refugees into the US during the upcoming years. Other Middle Eastern peoples will also be lumped together with those fleeing Syria. And well the US should be a part of this relief system. It's something we've done for may years..it's part of who we are. And logically, a large amount of money will play no small part here. However, there is living in this great nation a people who are its first refugees. And they remain so.

A great many Native Americans in this country are living in conditions thought only possible in the blighted and decaying urban portions areas of our large cities. They are, indeed, our first refugees and they have been in that sorry state of affairs ever since the federal government sought to "help" them in the 19th century. That "help" was, in fact, only initiated to benefit the white man in his continued lust for land and wealth.

The "help", in the form of the reservation system, a sort of "planned community" effort, has merely left the members of the nearly 600 recognized tribes to fend for themselves as best they can despite the oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As I see it, the BIA was established pretty much to act as a babysitter, property manager, watchman and jailer for America's initial settlers. Early on, armed troops backed up the jailer's sworn duties. That doesn't happen now because, generally, the people of the "rez" have nowhere else to go. The reservation is now home and has been for almost two hundred years. For the most part, reservation life is the only life they know.

The irony is that Native Americans are refugees in their own land! It belongs to them, regardless of what over 400 forced treaties state. In addition to that, historically, Native Americans have been on the short end of the stick ever since that stick was first lopped off the tree. The 14th Amendment gave freed slaves citizenship in 1868. America's first citizens didn't achieve that until 1924. The Civil Rights and Voting Acts, while clearly necessary, were never really intended to include Native Americans. And as to those treaties, equal treatment under the law has usually fallen short of reality.

Urban and suburban renewal programs have sought to improve the conditions of people living in and around populated areas. Thus, being black, Latino, Asian and any other social classification, has made it possible to at least be in a position to receive federal help of some kind. It's pretty hard to send the right kind or right amount of assistance needed to the far-flung, isolated reservations within the boundaries of the US. Window Rock, Fort Peck, Colville, Wind River or Monument Valley ain't downtown Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Houston, San Francisco or Winona, Minnesota. It boils down to being "out of sight, out of mind."

As a final thought, bear in mind that while countless urban areas within our cities are decaying and eroding by the second; that poverty and unemployment ascends new heights in Detroit, Michigan and elsewhere, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is poorest community in the United States, in this "land of milk and honey." For these people, it's more like bread and water. And as far as I know, it's always been that way.

While the residents of Pine Ridge do receive donations (domestic CARE packages!) from various relief programs, just under 29,000 hapless souls hope to get the crumbs left over from an overstuffed and complacent nation. This is how we Americans treat descendants of America's first settlers; descendants who are forever refugees...in their own land. Shame on us.