Washington, Wounded Knee, Pawnee: Issues and the Native American Community
Diocesan Press Service. July 5, 1973 [73162]
Now! I am to make my appearance!
Crow, I speak well!
Events concerning the Indian people in the United States within the past year in particular, have highlighted an immense reservoir of good will toward the Native American community in this country. But, in the same instance there exists a sense of frustration and confusion over the events and sense of direction that emerges from these difficulties.
Wounded Knee has through its name alone brought images of death, needless destruction, and bigotry. But, there remains clear cut issues that underlie the events at this small village on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, which were many of the same issues that were voiced in Washington, D. C. during the Trail of Broken Treaties, and will find renewed expression in events that are yet to unfold.
The issues that have emerged at Wounded Knee through the period of the takeover by the American Indian Movement and the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization are of particular importance in that they are based firmly in treaty rights and the tribal form of government. One of the first of these issues to be articulated was the need by the United States Senate to investigate possible violations of the 371 treaties between the federal government and the Indian tribes. While a tremendous amount of attention is given the treaties between the United States and the small nations of Southeast Asia or Europe or Latin America, those treaties made between the United States and the Indian nations are all too willingly forgotten. The United States government's record in this area is all too poor. Existing treaty rights cannot be abrogated legitimately by only one party -- only an international outlaw would do so.
Beside the personal differences on the Pine Ridge Reservation among the Oglala Sioux people, there are objective issues that should be dealt with the federal government. First, the Senate should re-examine the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Interior Department's handling of affairs of the Oglala Sioux tribe to pull policy and practice in line with treaty obligations. Second, the current tribal constitution formed in 1935 under the Indian Re-organization Act of 1934 is inadequate to meet the requirements of the present. The Interior Department must order a tribal constitutional Convention to rewrite the tribal constitution to bring it in line with the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and make it sophisticated enough to deal with the demands for self-determination. Third, alleged discrepancies in the execution of land leasing, welfare assistance, landowners' rights-of- way on their own land, and forced sales of individual land make it necessary for widespread reforms in policy and practice on the part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Interior Department.
In the same instance, the Tribal Council of the Pine Ridge Reservation has articulated issues that are just as real and again show the intense need for legislative reform. It has been stated that there has been an illegal suspension of tribal authority on the Pine Ridge Reservation. It is believed that there has been a de facto suspension of all tribal business by the United States Justice Department as it deals with the insurgents, which constitutes an illegal and dangerous usurpation of tribal sovereignty and elected tribal government. This action is seen as a threat to all existing local government, whether Indian or non-Indian. The Tribal government has, because of the present paternalistic relationships between the federal government and itself, been made almost non-existent.
There is real truth in the recent testimony of Frank C. Carlucci, Under Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, in testimony before the House Interior Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, that is seemingly ignored by most sources. This is the need for speedy passage of reform legislation concerning Indian affairs. There is at present no coherent Indian policy in this country. Without reform, there will be continued confusion and confrontation. All Indian people, wherever they reside must be served by their tribal authority. This tribal authority in turn must be more than a convenient alternative for the central bureaucracy.