We need to do more for Native Americans – especially Native American women
We need to do more for Native Americans – especially Native American women
We need to do more for Native Americans – especially Native American women
Pictured: 2020 presidential candidate Joseph Ambrose Sestak Jr.(Photo: Joe Sestak for President)
The US government needs to be accountable to Native Americans and respect tribal sovereignty says presidential candidate Joe Sestak
Native American people serve in the military at a higher rate than any other ethnic group. During World War II, some tribes saw 70% of their able-bodied men enlist. During my time in service in the United States Navy, I served with many Native Americans who always distinguished themselves and did your community and our entire country proud. And I thank them for their service. As a former Navy Admiral, I believe we need to be accountable to Native American citizens of these United States – not only for the debt we owe them for their service today, but for the injustices throughout our nation’s history that we are still struggling to mend.
After my first Senate run, rather than become a lobbyist, I became a lecturer at different universities, including holding a chair at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania — at the very same site as the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where native children from across the country were brought to further the goal of assimilation. Children were punished for speaking their own language and expressing pride in their culture. It was at Carlisle that the US government began its forcible assimilation program, with its racist "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" ideology. At Carlisle, and places like it, children were kept from their loving families, from their cultures, and their histories. Girls were taught to be homemakers, because that's what the Euro-American culture demanded of girls, while in their own communities women served as healers, religious leaders, warriors, and chiefs. Unknown native children are still buried at Carlisle today.
During my career, I traveled to over 80 countries. I saw many marginalized communities. In places like Africa, I encountered traumatized peoples, fragmented and weakened by generations of colonialism, by a foreign system being inflicted upon them. They lost their sense of community, their sense of identity, their ability to pass down their own governance practices, how to relate to one another, even their language. Americans need to recognize that we did the same thing here, to Native American communities. Above all, we need to understand that today's poverty, ill health, addiction and substance abuse, depression, alienation, and suicide, are all the tragic result of what we inflicted on Native American communities.
Yet I've also seen countries that struggled in the post-colonial era become shining examples of strength and independence. And now the same must happen in Indian Country (and, indeed, it is happening already, driven largely by Native American people themselves). That is why in healing past wrongs we must start with the increased funding that is necessary for tribal education, especially language revitalization and immersion programs, as one important way tribes can take back what was stolen from them.
This work will require doing much better at respecting tribal sovereignty. Tribes are sovereign nations and our treaties with Native American tribes are treaties between equals. However, when I walk off a United States ship into another sovereign nation overseas — Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, or wherever — I am subject to their laws and judicial system. Often, there will be what we call a "status of forces” agreement that ensures fairness for our military members when charged with a crime — but both nations have to agree to that — while they are subject to the other nation’s jurisdiction. Why isn't it the same when I walk into Pine Ridge Reservation? I should be subject to its sovereignty — its rules and jurisdiction should pertain to me when I am within its borders. Without that, there can be no accountability for justice, because a non-Native American can walk onto a reservation, commit a crime, and escape justice due to jurisdictional issues. More than 80% of sex crimes on reservations are committed by non-native men.
This issue of accountability extends into the unacceptable failure to even know how many tribal women and girls are missing each year. One estimate from 2016 calculated over 5000 reports of missing women and girls, yet not even the federal government knows how many are missing. We need to get the data on missing Native American girls and women, then we can — and must — also focus resources where we need them: police, prosecutors, judges. We need to fully fund tribal justice programs, including restorative justice programs, because local tax revenue is simply not enough.
We need to do more for Native Americans – especially Native American women
Pictured: 2020 presidential candidate Joseph Ambrose Sestak Jr.(Photo: Joe Sestak for President)
The US government needs to be accountable to Native Americans and respect tribal sovereignty says presidential candidate Joe Sestak
Native American people serve in the military at a higher rate than any other ethnic group. During World War II, some tribes saw 70% of their able-bodied men enlist. During my time in service in the United States Navy, I served with many Native Americans who always distinguished themselves and did your community and our entire country proud. And I thank them for their service. As a former Navy Admiral, I believe we need to be accountable to Native American citizens of these United States – not only for the debt we owe them for their service today, but for the injustices throughout our nation’s history that we are still struggling to mend.
After my first Senate run, rather than become a lobbyist, I became a lecturer at different universities, including holding a chair at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania — at the very same site as the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where native children from across the country were brought to further the goal of assimilation. Children were punished for speaking their own language and expressing pride in their culture. It was at Carlisle that the US government began its forcible assimilation program, with its racist "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" ideology. At Carlisle, and places like it, children were kept from their loving families, from their cultures, and their histories. Girls were taught to be homemakers, because that's what the Euro-American culture demanded of girls, while in their own communities women served as healers, religious leaders, warriors, and chiefs. Unknown native children are still buried at Carlisle today.
During my career, I traveled to over 80 countries. I saw many marginalized communities. In places like Africa, I encountered traumatized peoples, fragmented and weakened by generations of colonialism, by a foreign system being inflicted upon them. They lost their sense of community, their sense of identity, their ability to pass down their own governance practices, how to relate to one another, even their language. Americans need to recognize that we did the same thing here, to Native American communities. Above all, we need to understand that today's poverty, ill health, addiction and substance abuse, depression, alienation, and suicide, are all the tragic result of what we inflicted on Native American communities.
Yet I've also seen countries that struggled in the post-colonial era become shining examples of strength and independence. And now the same must happen in Indian Country (and, indeed, it is happening already, driven largely by Native American people themselves). That is why in healing past wrongs we must start with the increased funding that is necessary for tribal education, especially language revitalization and immersion programs, as one important way tribes can take back what was stolen from them.
This work will require doing much better at respecting tribal sovereignty. Tribes are sovereign nations and our treaties with Native American tribes are treaties between equals. However, when I walk off a United States ship into another sovereign nation overseas — Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, or wherever — I am subject to their laws and judicial system. Often, there will be what we call a "status of forces” agreement that ensures fairness for our military members when charged with a crime — but both nations have to agree to that — while they are subject to the other nation’s jurisdiction. Why isn't it the same when I walk into Pine Ridge Reservation? I should be subject to its sovereignty — its rules and jurisdiction should pertain to me when I am within its borders. Without that, there can be no accountability for justice, because a non-Native American can walk onto a reservation, commit a crime, and escape justice due to jurisdictional issues. More than 80% of sex crimes on reservations are committed by non-native men.
This issue of accountability extends into the unacceptable failure to even know how many tribal women and girls are missing each year. One estimate from 2016 calculated over 5000 reports of missing women and girls, yet not even the federal government knows how many are missing. We need to get the data on missing Native American girls and women, then we can — and must — also focus resources where we need them: police, prosecutors, judges. We need to fully fund tribal justice programs, including restorative justice programs, because local tax revenue is simply not enough.
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