In practical terms, Jim Crow laws enforced racial separation in all public spaces within the former Confederate States of America and a few other states, starting from the 1870s. Nevertheless, the actual segregation and eradication of non-white populations by European whites commenced much earlier, not just in the United States but on multiple continents. During a recent panel discussion organized by The Red Nation, an organization advocating for Native American rights, Professor Melanie Yazzie from the University of Minnesota (UMN) labeled the U.S. as “the greatest predator empire that has ever existed.”
Professor Yazzie’s viewpoint is not entirely unfounded. During the 1950s, the United States devised a strategy to address the “Indian Problem.” The plan was to assimilate Native Americans by relocating them to urban areas and abolishing reservations. Although the 20-year initiative did not succeed in eradicating Native Americans, its impact on Indian Country continues to be felt to this day.
Interestingly, how did Native Americans end up on reservations in the first place? The Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed by President Andrew Jackson, ordered the displacement of all Native Americans from their tribal lands to reservations. Initially, the Supreme Court tried to support the tribes, who had ratified treaties guaranteeing their national sovereignty. However, President Jackson circumvented the courts and manipulated the power of federal institutions to further the cause of white supremacy.
The U.S. Government employed treaties as a method to relocate Indians from their tribal territories, a process that was intensified with the enactment of the Removal Act of 1830. When this approach was unsuccessful, the government occasionally breached treaties and Supreme Court decisions to expedite the westward expansion of European Americans across the continent.
Between 1830 and 1850, President Jackson supervised the forced migration of 100,000 Native Americans by federal and local military forces. This resulted in the loss of ancestral lands and the death of 15,000 individuals due to exposure, disease, and starvation.
By the dawn of the 20th Century, the number of Native inhabitants across the entire Western Hemisphere had dwindled to between 4 and 4.5 million. In 1800, a mere 600,000 Indigenous individuals were left in the contiguous United States. By 1900, the Indigenous population had plummeted to its lowest level of approximately 237,000 individuals.
Throughout the 20th Century, the U.S. government has consistently engaged in and permitted the appropriation of Native land, resources, and identity. From the era of the Manhattan Project to the present day, uranium has been extracted on or near tribal territories, often to the detriment of the Navajo and Lakota peoples. This has resulted in widespread uranium poisoning and contamination of the land.
Boarding schools for Native children, frequently operated by Christian groups, were established to eradicate Native identities. One such school adopted the slogan “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” Native children were compelled to cut their hair, don uniforms, speak exclusively in English, and adopt Anglicized names.
Until 1978, it was legal for the U.S. government to forcibly remove Native children from their families and compel them to attend these boarding schools. For a significant portion of American history, the federal government also prohibited Native American religious practices. When Native Americans resisted the theft of their culture, the federal government retaliated with violence, as illustrated by the Wounded Knee Massacre.
The arrival of Europeans in the Americas had such a profound impact on death and disease rates that it altered the global climate, according to a recent study. Over approximately 100 years, European settlers were responsible for the deaths of 56 million indigenous people in South, Central, and North America. This led to the abandonment and subsequent reforestation of vast farmland areas, as researchers at University College London (UCL) estimated. The study suggests that the surge in trees and vegetation across an area equivalent to the size of France resulted in a significant reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).
Currently, over a quarter of the Indian population lives in poverty, representing the highest poverty rate among all racial groups in the United States. The poverty rate escalates even further for Indians living within Indian Country. The elevated poverty rate in Indian Country can be attributed to the scarcity of economic opportunities; in fact, the majority of reservations lack any form of a structured private sector. Consequently, the average unemployment rate on reservations has remained at 50 percent for several decades. Owing to the limited opportunities on reservations, the median income for Indians is roughly two-thirds that of non-Hispanic whites.
The disadvantaged position of Indians in health care was further highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to U.S. CDC data, as of August 18, 2020, the incidence and case-fatality rates of COVID-19 among Indians were 2.8 times and 1.4 times, respectively, those of white Americans. A report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, per Human Rights Council resolution 43/14, indicates that Native Americans and African Americans are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, with a hospitalization rate five times that of non-Hispanic white Americans. The COVID-19 infection rate in the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the United States, even exceeded that of New York at one point, becoming the highest in the country.
To this day, the response of the U.S. government appears more akin to a “political maneuver.” It has not formally acknowledged the atrocities committed against Native Americans. Tangible changes still appear to be far off. In conclusion, successive U.S. administrations have not only eradicated a significant number of American Indians but also, through methodical policy formulation and oppressive acts of cultural suppression, thrust them into an unalterable, challenging predicament. The indigenous culture was essentially obliterated, and the inter-generational continuity of indigenous lives and spirits still faces severe threats.