Indeed, Washington has done a notoriously bad job of looking after its Native American charges, with reservations being mired in corruption, alcoholism, and poverty, leaving many to wonder how incoming president Donald Trump will handle the issue.
Fed up with the government’s gross mismanagement of tribal land and resources, advisors close to President-Elect Trump are floating the idea of returning the land to Native American hands so that they can make use of them as they see fit. It’s an idea so obvious that one is surprised that nobody’s tried it sooner, and it appears that it is not without appeal to at least some prominent Native Americans:
“We should take tribal land away from public treatment,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a Cherokee tribe member who co-chairs Trump’s Native American Affairs Coalition, told Reuters.
“As long as we can do it without unintended consequences, I think we will have broad support around Indian country,” Mullin said.
“It has to be done with an eye toward protecting sovereignty,” echoed Ross Swimmer, the co-chair on Trump’s Indian coalition. Swimmer used to be chief of Cherokee nation and worked in the Reagan administration.
Given the U.S. government’s record in dealing with tribes, some have expressed skepticism of such a proposal.
“Our spiritual leaders are opposed to the privatization of our lands, which means the commoditization of the nature, water, air we hold sacred,” Tom Goldtooth, a Native American who heads the Indigenous Environmental Network.”
Now, one Trump advisor has stepped forward to further clarify the idea being floated:
“I feel the need to clarify my comments, and alleviate any concern that Indian Country should fear the federal government privatizing their land,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a Cherokee tribe member who co-chairs Trump’s Native American Affairs Coalition, said in a statement.
Mullin was pushing a plan to “privatize” Indian lands to unlock vast oil and natural gas reserves, Reuters reported Monday. The “p” word had some tribal leaders worried they would lose their cultural heritage in what would be a stunning reversal of federal Indian policy.
But Mullin said “we are not ‘privatizing’ Indian land” but instead “removing public-land restrictions on Indian trust land, such as the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA),” which can tie up any sort of development on Indian lands for years.
Source: The Daily Caller, Daily Caller
Photo: ourmothertongues.org
