20th-Century Challenges

Indigenous Anthropology ANTH 2301 20th-Century Challenges By using the natural resources on their reservations, some tribes became self-sufficient or even rich in the 20th century. It was discovered that the Osage Nation of Oklahoma have substantial subterranean oil deposits. During the height of the oil boom, citizens of the country who had oil allotted to them were extremely affluent; in fact, some of them were among the richest individuals on the globe. Nevertheless, White neighbours started marrying into the tribe not long after they became wealthy. When tribal members started being killed, officials took a while to look into it. Eventually, a large portion of the Osage lands belonged to White cousins. A number of novels have chronicled the narrative of the Osage killings, such as David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon, which was adapted into a Martin Scorsese film. In a related tale, the Oregon Klamath tribe founded a prosperous logging business on their reserve at the beginning of the 20th century. One million acres of ponderosa pine were part of the reservation. The Klamath people became extremely wealthy by establishing sawmills and selling the timber outside the reserve. On the reserve, they even constructed an airfield. However, their wealth was short-lived. The federal government had been handling the profits from the Klamath money and acting as its bank administrator. It became out that federal authorities were mismanaging the land and that some money had vanished. The tribe was only awarded a portion of the money they were due despite their successful lawsuit against the government for mismanagement. Talks for Klamath tribe liquidation and termination started in the 1940s. At first, some members of the Klamath Party supported the notion of termination because it would release them from federal government authority. After the government informed them the property would be auctioned, they were no longer assured they would obtain their reserve land. 1954 saw the start of terminations. The remaining reservation areas that were auctioned were converted into the Winema National Forest in 1961. Members of the Klamath tribe were compelled to leave their native countries and look for work in nearby towns. The Klamath people lost their land and a number of their privileges as Native Americans as a result of termination. Because of their dispersed population, it was challenging to preserve the culture. Most tribal languages were vanished by the 1960s, and many individuals had broken with their tribal heritage. A few of the tribe elders who had stayed close to the old reserve started to activate for restoration in the 1970s. In 1983, the tribe was reinstated (Lewis 2009). The movement of Indigenous peoples who participated in the 1930s Okie migration is a stark illustration of the marginalisation of Native Americans. The Okie migration refers to the exodus of people from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl disaster, a time when inadequate land management techniques and drought caused agriculture production to plummet. Thousands of people lost their jobs and their property when topsoil swept away in massive clouds. A sizable portion of the thousands of Native Americans were mixed-blood individuals. In quest of employment, many who were unable to make a livelihood by cultivating the deteriorated land relocated to Arizona, California, Oregon, and other western states. These migrants had hard lives, travelling frequently in pursuit of seasonal labour and working at low-paying occupations. A consequence of this westward migration was the relocation of Native American communities to the West and the consequent decline of Oklahoma's tribal numbers. Photos shot by government employees who visited the migrant camps are included in the Okie migration artefacts. Photographer Dorothea Lange's 1936 shot, now dubbed "Migrant Mother," is probably the most well-known of them. Florence Thompson, a Cherokee lady, has been recognised as the subject of Lange's photograph. The majority of Native Americans in the US remained extremely impoverished by the 1970s. Several laws were established at this time to assist Native Americans. These legislation granted tribes the authority to manage their own foster care systems, maintain cultural integrity, and educate their members. Without financial resources, it was challenging to take action on these rights. Tribes started looking for new revenue streams in the 1980s so they could support their members. Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. On their reservations, Native Americans were able to open casinos because to this rule. The catch is that in order to get permission to run a casino, tribes need to "compact" with the state in which they live. This requirement has drawn criticism from a large number of Indigenous people who claim that it lowers their degree of sovereignty compared to the governments since they must seek for permission. Tribal reserves are federal trust lands with sovereignty equal to that of the states, according to the federal government's own legislation. Nevertheless, the majority of tribes have signed compacts with the states in which they are located, committing to provide the state a portion of their casino earnings in exchange for help paying for public services like road upkeep and education. Many tribes have been able to create completely functional governments that provide services and programmes for their members in areas like health care, housing, education, and employment thanks to the earnings from their casinos. The most famous of these challenges against a tribe's ability to build casinos took place in California during the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even after tribal casinos were twice decisively approved by voters, Governor Schwarzenegger refused for years to meet with leaders of Native American tribes to negotiate a statewide casino agreement. The tribes believed that the government of California was being influenced by Nevada casino owners, who stood to lose a great deal of money from the competition. Following their victory in a 1999 case, other tribes negotiated compacts with the state. Suits against California have persisted, alleging that the compacts take an excessive amount of the state's casino revenues. However, California tribes now have the legal authority to open casinos, and the money they generate significantly improves the services provided to their members.