Monumental Controversies: Mount Rushmore, Four Presidents, and the Quest for National Unity by Harriet F. Senie

Author:Harriet F. Senie [Senie, Harriet F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS054000 HISTORY / Social History, HIS036000 HISTORY / United States / General, ARC024010 ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments
Publisher: Potomac Books

Native Americans Today

Deb Haaland, a Democratic representative from New Mexico, is the first Native American to become a cabinet secretary and head of the Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, the National Parks Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the Bureaus of Indian Affairs, Indian Education, and Trust Funds.14 The Department of the Interior manages nearly one-fifth of the land in the United States, overseeing 109 million acres of wilderness and 422 national park sites. It is charged with safeguarding more than one thousand endangered species and managing massive projects pertaining to clean and accessible water in the West. The department largely determines the way the federal government treats Native Americans. It is both significant and telling that only in 2021 was a Native American appointed to this post.

There is no way to undo the damage of the past treatment of Native Americans but there are some indications that the United States is beginning to reckon with some of the atrocities that were committed in the past. In June 2021 Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which will undertake a search for the burial sites of children who were forced to attend these punitive institutions.15 Haaland’s own grandparents were taken to live at Carlisle Indian School from the age of eight to thirteen, but at least they made it home. She first learned about their experience when interviewing her grandmother for a college assignment. Haaland recalled, “It was an exercise in healing for her and a profound lesson for me about the resilience of our people, and even more about how important it is to reclaim what those schools tried to take from our people. . . . This attempt to wipe out Native identity, language and culture continues to manifest itself in the disparities our communities face, including long-standing intergenerational trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, premature deaths, and additional undocumented physiological and psychological impacts.” She concluded, “Though it is uncomfortable to learn that the country you love is capable of committing such acts, the first step to justice is acknowledging these painful truths and gaining a full understanding of their impacts so we can unravel the threads of trauma and injustice that linger.”16

Of late there has been more publicity not only regarding past crimes against Native Americans and their current needs, but also their contributions, especially to worldwide conservation. Their cultural and spiritual beliefs regarding the land led them to protect both the lakes and the land, including the animals that inhabit it.17 In January 2021 Gina McCarthy, Biden White House national climate advisor, announced an initiative called America the Beautiful acknowledging that “tribal nations have been serving as stewards of their land since time immemorial.”18

Native Americans have also contributed to U.S. military actions. They have served in the U.S. armed forces in every major conflict since the Revolutionary War in greater per capita numbers than those of any other ethnic group.19 These contributions were concretized in the National Native American Veterans Memorial, which opened on 11 November 2020.

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