Modern American Indians

Modern American Indians
“I intend to send a clear message that all of our people, whether they live in our biggest cities or our most remote reservations, have the right to feel safe in their owncommunities, and to raise their children in peace and enjoy the fullest protection of our laws” (Obama, 2010). This quote was stated by President Barack Obama on July 29, 2010 before signing theTribal Law and Order Act. Although it is slowly becoming easier for American Indians to live peacefully, it took a very long time for them to gain equality. In this paper I discuss the inequalitiesAmerican Indians experience and why they do.
There are 562 tribes with federal recognition in American Society today. They make up a large percentage of the population, but comprise less than one percentof our population. The American Indians migrated to America long before Europeans, but when the Europeans came, everything changed for the Indians. Europeans began to think that the American Indiansneeded to be civilized and when they did not conform to the Europeans way of life, they were seen as uncivilized barbarians.
The rates for crime victimization for American Indians are a lot higherthan a lot of other races. The rate of crime victimization for the Indians is 120 per 1000 persons, compared to Asians at 50 per 1000. Due to the great amount of discrimination they experience, manyhave a rough childhood and their parents have an extremely tough time raising a family. In 2007, the U.S. military came up with a war strategy that has been nicknamed “The Surge”. During this time,“hundreds of officers from the National Park Service and other federal agencies swarmed the reservations and crime was reduced at three of the four reservations” (Williams, pg. 1, 2012). However, theWind River reservation crime rate was not reduced. Instead, it increased by seven percent.
Wind River has always been known to be a gloomy place according to Kim Lambert, a tribal advocate on the...