- "Native Americans, sometimes called First Americans or Indigenous Americans, are the Indigenous peoples of the United States or portions thereof, such as American Indians from the contiguous United States and Alaska Natives."
A study of the contemporary issues facing Native American communities including poverty, health disparities, environmental justice, and political representation.
Sovereignty: The concept of Native American sovereignty, its legal and political implications, and the historical and contemporary challenges to its recognition.
Indian Gaming: The history and significance of Indian gaming as a form of economic development and political sovereignty.
Termination and Relocation Policies: The impact of US government policies of termination and relocation on Native American communities and their efforts to resist and recover.
Boarding Schools: The history and legacy of residential boarding schools for Native American children in the US and Canada.
Treaty Rights: The legal and political significance of treaty rights for Native American communities.
Repatriation: The process of repatriation, or the return of Native American cultural items to their rightful communities, and the efforts to support and enforce repatriation.
Standing Rock: The events and significance of the Standing Rock resistance movement against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Native American land.
Language Revitalization: The importance of language revitalization efforts for Native American communities and the challenges and successes of such efforts.
Healthcare Disparities: The disparities in healthcare access and outcomes faced by Native American communities, including historical and contemporary factors.
Environmental Justice: The disproportionate impact of environmental degradation and pollution on Native American communities and the efforts to address this issue through environmental justice movements.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: The ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the efforts to address and prevent this violence.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge: The importance and value of traditional ecological knowledge for Native American communities and its potential implications for resource management and conservation.
Land Rights: The challenges and opportunities for Native American communities to reclaim and assert their land rights in the US.
Mascots and Stereotyping: The effects of sports team mascots and other forms of stereotyping of Native American culture and identity, and the efforts to challenge and eliminate these harmful practices.
Contemporary Art: The emergence and significance of contemporary Native American art as a form of cultural expression and resistance.
Land and resource rights: Native Americans continue to face challenges regarding land ownership and management, including issues surrounding sacred sites, resource extraction, and environmental protection.
Tribal sovereignty: Tribal nations seek recognition and protection of their inherent sovereignty, which allows them to govern themselves and make decisions regarding their people and resources.
Cultural preservation: Native American cultures and traditions are at risk of being lost as a result of assimilation policies and practices, as well as ongoing challenges to language, arts, and other cultural practices.
Health disparities: Native Americans experience significant disparities in health and healthcare, including higher rates of chronic diseases, infant mortality, and suicide.
Education: Native American students experience lower rates of high school completion and college attendance, due in part to inadequate educational resources and cultural barriers.
Historical trauma: Native Americans continue to grapple with the legacy of colonialism, genocide, and forced assimilation, which has had ongoing impacts on mental health and wellbeing.
Economic development: Native American communities seek to build sustainable and equitable economies that support their peoples and cultures, including challenges related to job creation, entrepreneurship, and access to capital.
Representation and media: The representation of Native Americans in media and popular culture is often inaccurate, stereotypical, and harmful, perpetuating harmful myths and stigmas.
Reproductive justice: Native American women experience higher rates of reproductive health issues, such as unintended pregnancies and poor maternal health outcomes, due to a lack of healthcare access and cultural biases.
Criminal justice: Native Americans are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system, including high rates of incarceration, policing, and violence that is often racially motivated.
- "The United States Census Bureau defines Native American as 'all people indigenous to the United States and its territories, including Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders.'"
- "The European colonization of the Americas that began in 1492 resulted in a precipitous decline in Native American population because of newly introduced diseases (including weaponized diseases and biological warfare by European colonizers), wars, ethnic cleansing, and enslavement."
- "The United States... continued to wage war and perpetrated massacres against many Native American peoples, removed them from their ancestral lands, and subjected them to one-sided treaties and to discriminatory government policies."
- "When the United States was created, established Native American tribes were generally considered semi-independent nations, as they generally lived in communities separate from white settlers."
- "The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 ended recognition of independent Native nations and started treating them as 'domestic dependent nations' subject to applicable federal laws."
- "The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States who had not yet obtained it."
- "However, some states continued to deny Native Americans voting rights for several decades."
- "Titles II through VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applies to the Native American tribes of the United States and makes many but not all of the guarantees of the U.S. Bill of Rights applicable within the tribes."
- "Since the 1960s, Native American self-determination movements have resulted in positive changes to the lives of many Native Americans."
- "Today, there are over five million Native Americans in the United States."
- "78% of whom live outside reservations."
- "The states with the highest percentage of Native Americans in the U.S. are Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana, and North Dakota."
- "This law did preserve the rights and privileges agreed to under the treaties, including a large degree of tribal sovereignty."
- "The actions of tribal citizens on these reservations are subject only to tribal courts and federal law."
- "That Act appears today in Title 25, sections 1301 to 1303 of the United States Code."
- "When the United States was created, established Native American tribes were generally considered semi-independent nations."
- "The European colonization of the Americas... resulted in a precipitous decline in Native American population because of newly introduced diseases (including weaponized diseases and biological warfare by European colonizers), wars, ethnic cleansing, and enslavement."
- "The United States... subjected them to one-sided treaties and to discriminatory government policies."
- "Though there are still many contemporary issues faced by them."