The America’s were founded on the lands of Native American peoples. It goes without dispute that here is not one section of land we currently claimed that was once indigenous territory. We are founded on taken land and historically and currently we do not value or compensate these groups adequately if at all. the Tohono O’dham people are an interesting case to look at with this in mind.
Legally speaking has there been effort shown to compensate the tribe? They do have a college on the terrirory that is very cheap for identified Tohono O’odham indians to peruse secondary education. They have received a large sum of land totaling 3 mill. acres of land to the west of Tuscon , Az. and have been given more groundwater rights which enables their community to run more sucessfully.
Does this legally free the U.S from the Tohono O’odham after the u.s. annexed most of their lands in 1853? Should the U.S. have to be put in such a position for decisions such as the Gadsen purchase that was made so many decades ago?
I think we have to understand that this is not just a group of people being upset that they can’t have something. Ethiclly, its about a group of peoples who history is fundamentally founded in the land and resources of the area. Who, for almost their entire exsistance as a people have lived in that one area and then another group of peoples comes along. Gives them a PIECE of their own land and says the rest is now theirs along with the resources it contains. The most certainly is not fair. And then to survive in the new landscape created for them the indigenous people who are outnumbered by the white settlers have to adhere to another governments laws. Instinctively it’s easy to say but that was so long ago or but i, personally didn’t take their land away i don’t know why its such a big deal.
the big deal is that to say that the Tohono O’odhan are compensated already is to deny that as a separate people they suffered or continue to suffer the effects of losing their autonomy as a people. In the reading it talks about the high rates of poverty, low rates of secondary education and prevalence of crime. These are not unique to this reservation, across the bored this is a symptom of reservations no matter the location. Ethically speaking i have no clue how the U.S. government could improve the situation but i can say without hesitation it will done be done easily or quickly.