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Legislation Legacy American Indians are forced to live on reservations the United States created for them. The government implemented policies on the Indians that forced them to abandon everything about their Native American culture and convert into Americanized Native Americans. An enormous effort was put forth on transforming the Indians into model American citizens. These Indians who only knew their culture of hunting, gathering, and defending their land were forced into schools and onto farms with new clothes and haircuts. Americans tested the strength of the Indian people, who in return proved to be a much stronger culture than the United States had ever imagined.
The forced assimilation may have even brought Native Americans closer together because the education received in the boarding schools gave Indian students a shared experience and a common means of communication. In no way did America succeed in destroying the Native American culture. We can see it by looking at the situation with Native Americans today. They are treated as real initial owners of the American land and provided with sufficient privileges and financial benefits. Native Americans just might be this countrys most diverse group.
There are 562 distinct tribes with federal recognition, and scores of others recognized only locally or not at all. They are in every state of the union, some living lives steeped in tradition, others more comfortable in a law office or operating room than at a powwow. Despite a history of exclusion from the American mainstream, they serve in the U. S. military at higher rates than any other ethnic group. And while reservations and traditional lands continue to play a central role in Native American identity, 66 percent of the 4. 1 million Americans who checked the American Indian or Alaska Native box on the 2000 census lived in urban areas. (Finley) Obviously, relations between Indian tribes and the federal government can still be testy.
But another stalled bill, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, was finally slated for reauthorization just one day after the national museums opening. And in a more symbolic but particularly delicious example of Native Americans growing influence, GOP Sen. Ben Night horse Campbell of Colorado, a Cheyenne chief, had to leave the NMAI opening ceremonies early to introduce the legislative branch appropriations bill still dressed in full buckskin regalia. Youve got a chief of the Northern Cheyenne going to oversee the budget for the Great White Father, he laughs. Now thats got to be a first. For all the bright lights and determination, change has come slowly for American Indians, and the new hope remains fragile.
But perhaps what Bang says of her Chicago students is true for Native America as a whole: Sustainable change doesnt happen overnight. But its working. (Finley) Bibliography: Colin G. Calloway. Our Hearts Fell to the Ground. New York: Viking Press, 1987. Will Finley.
Current situation with Native Americans in the United States. From National Statesman Magazine, issue April 2001. Pp. 25 - 26.
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Research essay sample on Native American Culture Native Americans
