Sensitivity to Native American Beliefs - Article Example

RUNNING HEAD: NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT Sensitivity to Native American beliefs and their conflict with goals of development Author Note Name, Department, University, Correspondence address. NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT 2 Sensitivity to Native American Beliefs The United States of America has been described as the melting pot of various cultures by many. Various races and cultural groups have made it their home and the general impression that the administration would have the world believe is that of a nation that is genuinely one where these groups exist peacefully. However, this is not always the case as the goals of development are in constant conflict with the interests of people of different ethnicities. The case of the hydroelectric projects that came up in America during the 1950s and 60s is a case in point. The building of dams such as the Grand Coulee Dam and the Garrison Dam at sites that were earlier graveyards of Native American tribes indicates insensitivity to the needs of groups that are in a minority. Apart from this, it also reminds one of the cruel colonial past of the United States of America, the foundation of which required the wiping out of entire tribes that were native to this area. This paper shall look into the causes of such conflicts and try to understand their causes and also the role that can be played by Native American tribes in the resolution of this conflict. The United States of America had announced a change from its earlier policy of providing a certain special status to them, from the mid 1940s to the middle of the 60s. It then advocated an approach that would enable the tribes to become a part of the mainstream as NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT 3 individual members and not as a collective that would maintain its identity. As a part of this policy, which was called the Indian Termination Policy, Native Americans would be made subject to the state laws and would have to pay the taxes that normal Americans had to. This, on the surface, may seem like a broad-minded approach to preserving the integrity of the nation; however, it is not only short-sighted but also problematic when one considers the fact that this would mean the erasure of the history and the culture that the Native American tribes believed in and the ways of life that they followed. Relevant to the purpose of this paper is the clause in the acts that were formulated during this period according to which a lot of land lost the protected status that was granted to it earlier. As a result, it became possible for a lot of land that was considered sacred by certain Native American tribes to be acquired for the purposes of constructing dams and other buildings. This created a lot of tension between the tribes and the government and a lot of the tribes took to approaching the judiciary as a means of redressing their grievances. This led to long drawn out battles that ended in some tribes regaining the sovereignty that they had lost to the government. However, their lands which had been sites of burial had already been lost to huge hydroelectric projects that could not be displaced. This gives rise to the question as to where the fault lies and to whether the question could have been dealt with in a better manner. The question of whether the rights of the tribes could have coexisted with that of the goals of development is a significant NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT 4 one since the answer may be able to provide directions and guidelines for the future that may enable lesser conflicts arising from insensitivity to the concerns of various ethnicities. Establishment of dams leads to the displacement of people from their traditional ways of living that is based on the flora and fauna of the particular place in which they live. Displacement from these regions leads to trauma that accompanies the loss of identity that these people face as a result of the loss of the modes of living that they are used to. The rights of the tribes over their land is something that is a cause championed by people like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak who place great emphasis on the creation of a voice for the subaltern groups that are at the mercy of their governments which are run by people who are not interested in their empowerment. It was owing to the politics of pressure that majority groups are able to exert on individual governments that legislation was pushed through in order to remove burial sites of the Native American tribes from the list of places that enjoyed a ‘protected’ status. As a result of this policy, however, there was no appreciable gain in the stature that America enjoys and the international standing that it has as a protector of human rights has only improved after the enforcement of legislation that seeks to reverse the laws that were created under the Indian Termination Policy. This led to the enforcement of a policy that encourages self-governance, a new policy that allows tribes to develop their businesses and gives incentives for the preservation of tribal Indian culture (Kessel 64, 2005). This increased autonomy was welcomed by the tribes that were native to America. NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT 5 A part of the reason as to why the policy of termination failed was because certain tribes recognized the need for tribal unity to survive in the new dispensation (Waldman 55, 2006). The position of the tribes within the crisis is thus not free from its own politics of power. Larger tribes have a greater say in negotiations and power politics plays a role within the group of tribes as well. This results in a complex situation where both parties are not clear about their position. It is thus important that both the government and the ethnic groups involved conduct negotiations based on the concerns of their beliefs and goals of development rather than that of power equations within each group. The concern that the tribes may have, related to the insensitivity to their sites of burial may be explained by referring to the theory of the archive that Jacques Derrida propounded. Derrida claimed that the archive was a site where a memory could be stored as a means of authorizing certain groups that derive their validation from the archive that in turn derives its authority from its geographical location as well (Derrida, 1995). The sites of burial thus may be termed as forms of archives. An attempt to demolish these sites would be tantamount to an obliteration of the history that is formed with the help of these archives. The aim of the government too, may have been the same. The aim of creating a uniform society without any cultural ethnic differences through the destruction of the cultural symbols of marginalized communities has time and again proved to be counter-productive and seems to be the real cause NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT 6 of terrorism and insurgency in many parts of the world. An attack on the community’s sense of identity fostered through symbols that are archives that help rebuild centuries of ancestry, it is important that these steps are not taken without the consent of the concerned group. Such steps may be necessary for the purpose of development of the larger community and all groups concerned must be ready to make concessions. However, it is only by taking these groups into confidence and reassuring them about the protected status of their holdings of land that it is possible to achieve the growth targets that are set for an economy and for a community. The tribes that are a part of America have had a history that reeks of intense marginalization. Their integration, however, cannot be achieved through a denigration of their history that would further marginalize them. Integration, however, would require compromises from both sides, which ensures the protection of sacred sites while members of native tribes take up employment in the mainstream which may be provided them under special schemes. Such incentives may offer them incentives to get integrated into the mainstream. Since the philosophy of a federation implies the coexistence of many groups as a single unit while maintaining the individuality of each, the integration of the tribes as a group makes sense. The tribes are groups which feel a sense having being wronged and have mistrust towards the other races in America, not only in the United States of America but also in other North American nations like Canada. This is because of the genocide that happened during the colonial past of the federation and the NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT 7 marginalization of the tribal communities that followed. This needs to be remedied. The balancing of the needs of development with the aims of integration is possible and is what is needed for the unity of the federation. The insensitivity that was once demonstrated by a section of the American government by positioning hydroelectric projects where burial sites of the Native American tribes were located is now absent in the creation of policies, with the protected status being restored to these sites. There needs to be such policy decisions to maintain the unity of a multicultural multilingual federation. NATIVE AMERICAN BELIEFS AND DEVELOPMENT 8 Works Cited Kessel, William B; Wooster, Robert. (2005). Encyclopedia of Native American wars and warfare. New York: Book Builders LLC. Print. p. 64. Waldman, Carl. (2006). Encyclopedia of Native American tribes. New York: Checkmark Books. Print. p. 55 Derrida, Jacques. (1998). Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Tr. Eric Prenowitz. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Print. Jones, Lisa. “A Dam Brings a Flood of Diabetes to Three Tribes”. The Crisis Jones Report. Accessed on 15th July, 2011. Grand Coulee Dam -- Native American Culture Was Destroyed, Forgotten. The Seattle Times. Accessed on 16th July, 2011. Read More