Federal Recognition grants the one thing that all Native American tribes strive to obtain,Tribal Sovereignty. Tribal Sovereignty grants Native American tribes the right to govern themselves. Which means that they have the right to form their own government, adjudicate legal cases and levy taxes within its borders, form its own membership, and decided on decisions about the future of the tribe. The federal governments responsibility for federally recognized tribes is to protect their tribal lands, resources, funds and treaty rights. There are currently more than 550 federally recognized tribes in the United States, including some 200 village groups in Alaska. All though for many centuries Native American tribes are still fighting for their rights to be a sovereign nation.
Since the beginning of Western Expansion the government has forced tribes to follow the governments way of life, taking away the very essence of some tribes. Many tribes lost their traditional ways of life; turning from Bows and arrows to guns and knives. Native American tribes began to lose their history by intermarrying, dressing in the "white mans clothes" and speaking English, forgetting their native tongue (language). All of these factors have aided in the governments decision to deny some tribes the right to federal recognition. I feel that this is one of the reasons behind the Lumbee tribe being denied their rights because of a sense of lost history. The interaction that the Lumbee tribe had with white people in the early 1700s and still today is something that has changed some of the traditional aspects of the tribe.
Each and every Native American tribe in my opinion should not be denied rights to be a sovereign nation. How can someone take something or withhold something that belongs to a tribe?
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3 comments:
April,
I feel like this post was written with some good ideas and I think it has a lot of potential. However, there are a lot of grammatical errors that need to be fixed and a more organized structure will help in getting your point across in a more effective manner. The basic principles of the post are good. They provide a solid base fom which you can develop a strong argument. We do live in a free country, right? Weren't the Lumbees and other Indian tribes here before any of the European settlers? We as Americans need to preserve the history of North America and allow these individuals to govern themselves in order to protect their customs and beliefs.
I really like this post because it brings up the idea that history is written by the victors. This post takes it a step further, and says what happens to the losers? What happen to their story, and then what are the effects of this. I like how you present the idea that because they lost their history, they are losing their rights to Tribal Sovereignty.
The fact that there are so many tribes that are not federally recognized, granting them tribal sovereignty, shows just how the government still feels the need to dominant people that occupied the Americas first. The government needs to release its reins and grant not only the Lumbee tribe but other state recognized tribes federal recognition.
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