Native American tribes have been shaping the North American landscape far before colonial powers arrived. Through the centuries, Native tribes have faced countless environmental conflicts, like disease and displacement.
There are many laws that have kept these colonial conflicts in place. Promising changes to the system emerged around 30 years ago and developed especially well under President Obama. Under the conservative Trump administration, however, years of environmental legal progress in Midwestern tribes is at risk.
Through colonialism and the growth of the United States, indigenous people of this country were forced off their land by a foreign, unforgiving government. The Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 was an act that forced Native people in the U.S. to assimilate to farm lifestyles. While tribes struggled to adapt to an unknown way of living, Congress transferred their former land to non-native owners and limited Native access to that land. The Act took nearly two-thirds of Native land in a matter of years, and with it many sacred traditions and sites.
While the Dawes Act is outdated, and Indian law has evolved greatly since 1887, Native people still struggle for proper nation autonomy. The federal government treats tribes as sovereign, but only if they are federally recognized—a qualification granted by Congress. Despite being sovereign, tribes are expected in many facets, such as environmental policy and criminal justice, to submit to state and federal law.
Not only does the federal government extend laws onto tribal nations, but they also control tribal land. Protected land, according to the Department of the Interior (DOI), is only granted to federally recognized tribes. The DOI admits that not every tribe has protected land, and lands allotted are not always the original tribal land. The DOI also holds title to the land, and Congress has the option to take jurisdiction in any matters on the land that they see fit.
While tribes are technically sovereign nations on their land, is the government to be trusted with this executive power? Native people need the right to sacred lands, the right to benefit off their land and natural resources without a looming federal government that has the final say.
The Red Lake nation in Minnesota was planning a deal with a corporation, giving up a small parcel of land for an oil pipeline and in turn receiving payment and a piece of land over 300 times larger. If successful, the Red Lake nation would have gained $18.5 million and 164 acres of land. The Red Lake nation pulled out— Trump-appointed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke pushed the tribe to seek approval from Congress rather than the DOI. Native land cases are routinely delayed and denied by Congress more than other federal reviewers.
Unfortunately, is likely that these delays and denials by dominantly Republican and Trump-appointed officials will only increase in number. Without legal approval and claim to their land, the Red Lake nation lost the ability to benefit and profit off their natural resources. Native communities are kept socially and financially immobile by misplaced environmental protections and denied land claims. With poverty rates twice that of the rest of the country, Native nations are in need of financial growth free from biased federal legal systems.
Even the government agencies that aid Native nations in many ways are threatened by the Trump administration. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created wide-ranging water clean-up projects that successfully protected crucial water systems for tribes like the Fond du Lac tribe in northern Minnesota. However, the EPA has already lost stability, funding, and staff under Trump and several under-qualified directors. Beneficial government agencies that help Native people are at risk.
I would like to focus on the way that Native people in the United States grapple with the federal government to have autonomy and environmental justice—specifically in the Upper Midwest—and how these processes might change under President Trump.
Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
https://www.indianz.com/News/2018/08/31/prominent-indian-country-attorney-reassi.asp