Sunday, September 12, 2010
The 7 Rights
I find Napoleans list of the 7 rights interesting. It seems like it would be hard for the American Government to accept, because we are all supposed to be one nation and all that, we all have the right to vote, we pick who our leaders are, so the Natives should be able to accept that. It's not like they can't vote. But, the 7 rights is exactly what they need. Other people have been taking care of them for so long, whether it was the missionaries harshly telling them to do, or in later years the government trying to compensate that with money and phsycologists and whatnot. If the Natives have a real reason to live again, like working for their money, like working for the substitence by hunting, fishing, berry picking, they need to have the chance to do that. There is a whole different life style they could be living if there wheren't laws saying they could only hunt in this way, they can only fish here...They are people who were meant to live off the land. And if they do so as they have done so would there really be a shortage of bears? or moose? or fish? When they were still their own people, no, they only took what they needed to survive and they didn't waste. If they had a chance to do that and use the new technology that has come with the advance of humanity, then maybe they could revive their culture in such a way, that the native culture and the white man culture could blend together even better, and they would have a chance to recover from the blows the Great Death left.
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I agree that it would be hard for the government to accept the seven terms because we are all supposed to be on people and follow one law, that's part of being an american. But he does make good points about how doing the things listed in the seven terms would help bring back the people. Maybe there's a middle ground that the government and the natives could meet so that they were still following the laws of america, while getting to work together. It seems to me that if they were allowed to do subsistence hunting and living off the land that wouldn't hurt anyone. If they were allowed to have the right to tax exemptions like other natives on reserves, and if they were allowed to govern themselves in the sense of a village counsel, that they might thrive and help rejuvenate their culture. That's not to say that they shouldn't have to abide by the governments laws, but i'm curious if there's a way within these laws for them to get the seven terms.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Especially because it would give them a chance to have something more meangingful to do. And if the government is already giving them so much money, wouldn't it be better for them to find that middle ground? So maybe they wouldn't need that much money?
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