Repaying the Native Americans with Money | Teen Ink

Repaying the Native Americans with Money

February 24, 2017
By jennamallery BRONZE, Union, Kentucky
jennamallery BRONZE, Union, Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

What is our issue? When the settlers came to the Americas, Native Americans took up 100% of the population. Right from the beginning there was a tension and battles over the land. Many years from when the first settlers came to America in May 28,1830 president Andrew Jackson signed the Indian removal act, because there was gold found on Native American lands. Then the Natives were rounded up and forced to walk west to their reservations, many died on the way. In today´s day and age the Natives live in some of the poorest areas in the U.S, deal with drugs and alcohol, and have the highest ethnic group suicide rate.

What’s our solution? We as Americans need to treat the Natives with more respect. In the BBC video we watched the Natives said ¨Want to see our people thrive and not get caught up in what outsiders think we are, the stereotypes. But rise up and show the world what we can do basically .¨ Which just further states they don´t want to be seen as these poor people. They want to be respected more. Also we personally think that we should give the Natives money so they can build themselves up and become the type of people they want to be seen as. Giving them the money they desperately need, will provide them to be able to buy food and other necessities for their families.

Making a Difference… We need to inform the public about the Natives and how they feel about America today. We also think that we should ask the government to get involved and help. By doing so, we could hold public speeches or hearings for anyone to be able to come and listen, and voice their opinion or ideas on how we can all come together to help/

Critics Argue That… We should give them land but that  however is not the case. We as Americans have no land to provide to the Natives other than the land they are already on. It would be very difficult to clear land for the Natives. Then new problems arose if we were to clear all the land for the Natives we would have all the homeless American citizens. Also land may not be what they want how could you give them land when they can't do anything with it because they are so poor.

Overall… What the government did to the Natives was very wrong. A way to show our respects and repay the Natives is to give them more respect and help them financially. The Natives want their culture to thrive again and they want to show the world who they are and what they can do.


The author's comments:

Learning through all the hardships Native Americans had gone through, giving them money will help them finnancially and they will be able to support themselves.


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