Poverty & Race POVERTY & RACE RESEARCH ACTION COUNCIL PRRAC November/December 2008 Volume 17: Number 6 Native Americans and Alaska Natives: The Forgotten Minority American Indian Tribes and Structural Racism by Sherry Salway Black American Indian tribes and people tribal governments face in providing face circumstances unique to any other the infrastructure, services and condi- CONTENTS: racial or ethnic group in the United tions necessary for healthy community States. No other racial or ethnic group development. Native Americans: has as the basis of its relationship with Analysis of the socio-economic con- Structural Racism ..... 1 the U.S. a legal framework of trea- ditions confronting tribes and Indian US Human Rights ties, executive orders, judicial rulings people today typically focuses on this and laws spanning centuries. This le- unique federal Indian history and re- Network .................. 2 gal framework, developed over the past lationship. It is not often described in Cobell Litigation ....... 7 300 years, has resulted in a system that terms of racially-based policies and Tribal Self- was supposed to protect the rights and inequities, but rather a direct “[fed- Government ............ 8 trust assets of tribes and Indian people, eral] nation-to-[tribal] nation” rela- Apology Resolution .. 9 but in reality has created structures and tionship, from which the federal trust Housing .................. 10 systems that thwart self-determination responsibility is derived. Yet, one can- Health ..................... 14 and diminish the value of Native as- not overlook or undermine the racial Boarding Schools .... 17 sets. These constraints, coupled with basis of many policies of colonialism Juvenile Justice ...... 19 social and economic inequities, are the and paternalism that are the hallmarks root cause of the severe problems that of federal-Indian relations—and are Blacks & the reflected in present-day policies. Economic Crisis ........ 3 Sherry Salway Black (ssblack53@ Historically and continuing into the cox.net), a member of the Oglala modern era, the Indian policies of the Annual Funding Lakota tribe, has worked more than federal government have been aimed Appeal ...................... 5 30 years on American Indian issues either at dismantling tribal govern- Witt Internship with the US Congress, the federal gov- ments and assimilating Native people Award ..................... 12 ernment and nonprofit organizations. or at paternalistically isolating tribes Sentencing Among the boards she sits on are the to misappropriate their assets. By all Enhancement Zones 22 First Peoples Fund, the Policy Re- accounts, these mixed and often mis- Greensboro Truth/ search Ctr. of the Natl. Congress of guided efforts resulted in the devas- Reconciliation American Indians, the Hopi Education tating social conditions found on many Commission ............ 24 Endowment Fund, and Harvard reservation communities today. More- Resources ................. 27 University’s Honoring Contributions in over, these policies left tribal govern- Index Vol. 17 ............. 30 the Governance of American Indian ments facing a host of structural im- Nations. (Please turn to page 6) Poverty & Race Research Action Council • 1015 15th Street NW • Suite 400 • Washington, DC 20005 202/906-8023 • FAX: 202/842-2885 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.prrac.org Recycled Paper Indigenous Peoples Response to the Periodic Report of the United States to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination February 2008 Prepared by: U.S. Human Rights Network CERD Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, Alberto Saldamando, Work- ing Group Co-coordinator, International Indian Treaty Council; Julie Fishel, Working Group Cocoordinator, Western Shoshone Defense Project; Indian Law Resource Center; Hope Clark, Candidate for Masters in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management from the School for International Training; Manuel Pino; Josh Clark; Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network; Jaime Arsenault; Roxanne Ornelas, University of Minnesota; Sakura Saunders, CorpWatch. Executive Summary of the Report of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples The International Convention on guarantee the right of everyone to sponds to Indian property and Indian the Elimination of All Forms of Ra- equality before the law, particularly claims by enacting legislation that cial Discrimination provides numerous with regard to the “right to own prop- would be forbidden by the Constitu- protections for indigenous peoples. erty alone as well as in association with tion if addressed to any other group’s Article 1 addresses freedom from dis- others” and the “right to freedom of property or claims. Because the fed- crimination based on race, color, de- thought, conscience and religion.” eral government asserts essentially lim- scent or national or ethnic origin. Ar- Articles 5(e)(iv), (e)(v), and (e)(vi) itless power over Indians, and engages ticle 2 requires States to refrain from provide that signatory States must in constant intrusion in the affairs of practicing racial discrimination. Ar- guarantee the right of everyone to indigenous peoples under the plenary ticle 5(a) guarantees the “right to equal equality before the law, particularly power doctrine, Indian governments treatment before the tribunals and all with regard to the “right to public cannot effectively govern their lands other organs administering justice,” health, medical care, social security or carry out much-needed economic and Article 5(b) guarantees the “right and social services,” the “right to edu- development. This denial of simple to security of person and protection by cation and training,” and “the right to justice has long served to deprive In- the State against violence or bodily equal participation in cultural activi- dian nations of a fair opportunity to harm....” Article 5(c) guarantees ties.” advance the interests of their commu- equality in the enjoyment of political Despite these protections and obli- nities. The untenable and insecure po- rights. Articles 5(d)(v) and (d)(vii) gations, by every measure, indigenous sition of indigenous peoples vis-à-vis provide that signatory States must peoples in the United States continue the federal government in the US is to rank at the bottom of every scale of unique, and gives rise to multiple vio- Poverty and Race (ISSN 1075-3591) economic and social well-being, in and lations of the rights of indigenous is published six times a year by the of itself powerful evidence of the ex- peoples under the Convention. Poverty & Race Research Action Coun- istence of racial discrimination in the The federal court system of the cil, 1015 15th Street NW, Suite 400, US. Moreover, the domestic laws and United States has affirmed that the fed- Washington, DC 20005, 202/906- policies of the United States perpetu- eral government is under an obliga- 8023, fax: 202/842-2885, E-mail: ate a legal system that has blatant and tion to conform its laws as much as [email protected]. Chester Hartman, significant discriminatory impacts on possible to international law. Despite Editor. Subscriptions are $25/year, $45/two years. Foreign postage extra. indigenous peoples, particularly with this obligation, the United States con- Articles, article suggestions, letters and regard to rights to property, religious tinues to flagrantly violate many of its general comments are welcome, as are freedom, cultural activities, health, legal obligations under the Convention notices of publications, conferences, education and political rights. The fed- when developing and implementing job openings, etc. for our Resources eral government, acting through Con- domestic policy relating to indigenous Section. Articles generally may be re- gress and the executive branch, con- peoples.... ❏ printed, providing PRRAC gives ad- tinues to take tribal lands and re- The full report is available at http: vance permission. © Copyright 2008 by the Poverty sources, in many cases without pay- //:ushrnetwork.org.files/ushrn/im- & Race Research Action Council. All ment and without any legal remedy for ages/linkfiles/CERD/5_Indig- rights reserved. the tribes. Congress frequently re- enous%20 Peoples.pdf 2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 17, No. 6 • November/December 2008 Scapegoating Blacks for the Economic Crisis by Gregory D. Squires A simple, yet likely powerful, ex- credit needs of the local communities more subtle practices by mortgage lend- planation has now been offered for the in which they are chartered.” This ers (e.g., refusing to finance, or pro- subprime mortgage lending and fore- included all communities in a lender’s viding loans only on more onerous closure problems that have fed the service area, and federal financial regu- terms, for older and lower-priced nation’s gravest economic crisis since latory agencies were charged with the homes), steering by real estate agents, the Depression. The beauty and sim- responsibility to “assess the insti- fraudulent appraisals and other prac- plicity of this explanation makes one tution’s record of meeting the credit tices reinforced racial segregation wonder why it took so long for us to needs of its entire community, includ- throughout U.S. metropolitan areas. see it. According to this view, it was ing low- and moderate-income neigh- The CRA was enacted as part of an the fault of black people! The federal borhoods, consistent with the safe and effort to undo the effects of such pub- government, another favorite whipping sound operation of such institution.”