Post by blackcrowheart on Mar 31, 2008 13:59:57 GMT -5
We should atone for our 'aboriginal sin'
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03/29/2008
Today's Top Headlines
from the Kennebec Journal
Kevin Mattson redeveloping Augusta's largest building
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Obscure office in budget battle Lawmakers clash over funding for watchdog agency
Be wary of posted roads
Maine's budget clock goes tick tock, tick tock
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SOMERVILLE Voters prove easy to please
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from the Kennebec Journal
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from the Morning Sentinel
Cambridge grapples with questions surrounding an aging, deteriorating structure
WATERVILLE:Program for youth to open Aucoin to head North End office for Boys & Girls Club
Fields of snow:Teams are anxious to play but need a spring break
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'IT'S A BEAUTIFUL SPACE':New Mount View school taking shape in Thornd**e
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Hunger, budget & dogs
What's killing pickup?
All of today's: News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
We usually think of ethnic cleansing and apartheid as occurring in other lands. But we have our own historical brand of these offenses against humanity. Under the banner of "Manifest Destiny," our Europe-derived ancestors decimated the Native American population and displaced the survivors to undesirable tracts of land.
The "apartness" of these peoples has been buttressed, not by military checkpoints, but by an indifferent Bureau of Indian Affairs and a complacent public. Indian reservations are among the poorest areas of rural America, with the poverty-associated problems of inadequate education and unemployment.
A small spark of justice was ignited in January when Appeals Court Judge James Robertson ruled that the Interior Department "unreasonably delayed" its accounting for billions of dollars owed to Indian landholders.
The Blackfeet Nation claimed in Cobell v. Kempthorne, filed in 1996, that the government has mismanaged more than $100 billion in oil, timber and other revenues held in trust since 1887.
The judge said that a remedy must be found for this breach of fiduciary duty over the past century. It remains to be seen how fully the government complies with the court's finding.
Professor Jay Adler has called our treatment of native people our "aboriginal sin."
It may not be possible to return all their land, but we can continue the process of atonement initiated by Robertson's ruling and restore to Native Americans some greater equality of opportunity and dignity.
Charles W. Acker
Bookmark & share:
E-mail this page
E-mail a letter to the editor
Reader Comments (below)
03/29/2008
Today's Top Headlines
from the Kennebec Journal
Kevin Mattson redeveloping Augusta's largest building
Fields of snow add to challenges for central Maine school athletic teams
Obscure office in budget battle Lawmakers clash over funding for watchdog agency
Be wary of posted roads
Maine's budget clock goes tick tock, tick tock
CAMBRIDGE: Dam represents watershed for town
SOMERVILLE Voters prove easy to please
What's killing pickup?
All of today's: News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
Today's Top Headlines
from the Morning Sentinel
Cambridge grapples with questions surrounding an aging, deteriorating structure
WATERVILLE:Program for youth to open Aucoin to head North End office for Boys & Girls Club
Fields of snow:Teams are anxious to play but need a spring break
Budget debate over state watchdog office strikes a chord
'IT'S A BEAUTIFUL SPACE':New Mount View school taking shape in Thornd**e
State building code plan irks some towns
Hunger, budget & dogs
What's killing pickup?
All of today's: News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
We usually think of ethnic cleansing and apartheid as occurring in other lands. But we have our own historical brand of these offenses against humanity. Under the banner of "Manifest Destiny," our Europe-derived ancestors decimated the Native American population and displaced the survivors to undesirable tracts of land.
The "apartness" of these peoples has been buttressed, not by military checkpoints, but by an indifferent Bureau of Indian Affairs and a complacent public. Indian reservations are among the poorest areas of rural America, with the poverty-associated problems of inadequate education and unemployment.
A small spark of justice was ignited in January when Appeals Court Judge James Robertson ruled that the Interior Department "unreasonably delayed" its accounting for billions of dollars owed to Indian landholders.
The Blackfeet Nation claimed in Cobell v. Kempthorne, filed in 1996, that the government has mismanaged more than $100 billion in oil, timber and other revenues held in trust since 1887.
The judge said that a remedy must be found for this breach of fiduciary duty over the past century. It remains to be seen how fully the government complies with the court's finding.
Professor Jay Adler has called our treatment of native people our "aboriginal sin."
It may not be possible to return all their land, but we can continue the process of atonement initiated by Robertson's ruling and restore to Native Americans some greater equality of opportunity and dignity.
Charles W. Acker