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Jayson Lee English 1 Mrs. Knowles 23 October 2013 Getting Reparations Native Americans have suffered on large plots of land that they were forced onto. Reservations are similar to concentration camps that the U.S. has used. These places were built to place Native Americans so that the U.S. government could take the land and call it just. Although Native Americans have received some reparations it has had a negative effect on the people. The casinos that were built but they brought in more poverty due to excessive drinking and gambling has caused poverty and alcoholism. They moved them on to these reservations, which are a major downside to the Native Americans. The U.S government was looking at the newly formed reservations. Then they started seeing how many natural resources were on them, and so greed took over and treaties were broken. The Native Americans have suffered major losses over these many years. Poverty and alcoholism has been a wide spread pandemic. As a founder of Reparations for Native Americans, an organization that helps get some reparations for all that has been lost for the indigenous people. Native Americans should have reparations from the United States government because the government wanted the indigenous peoples land. One of the reasons the U.S. government should give reparations to the Native Americans is that they have forced out people from their own homes over greed. In 1830 the IRA (Indian Removal Act) was completed, which was the movement of south eastern Indians to Oklahoma

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(Aliprandini, Bourassa, Michael). This movement was over the governments greed and the expansion of white settlers. According to the article By 1990 over two percent of lands within the United States were actually governed by Native American tribal government (5). The authors are arguing that the Native Americans have got enough land and that it has grown and they are receiving enough reparations. The Native Americans have been discriminated against and have been forced to these barren lands filled with homes that are no richer than the sands of the Sahara desert. The Indigenous people have suffered for so long to gain so little in return. The native population has begun to increase over the years as they received more equality. Poverty and alcoholism are major effects due to the United States movement of the Indigenous tribes. According to Barbra Saffer Today alcoholism is the most wide spread medical problem to the Native Americans(2). Saffers point is that because of the high poverty rates, which helped increase the alcoholism on reservations is so widely spread. It is not just on one type of Native American tribe but all of them as a whole. Alcoholism is a major problem for Native Americans, which results in them wasting their money on the alcohol because the vast majority dont have jobs, live in poverty, or they just are depressed about their situation as a whole. The TLC (The Leadership Conference) emphasizes that the Struggle for equal education and employment opportunities are major in Native American reservations (TLC 1). This article acknowledges that equality in education as well as employment is a very major concern for Native Americans. The Native Americans have been given only the basic rights as American citizens. They only learn about their history until now they are just now being able to get some of the same education on the reservation as they do outside of it. The poverty rates on Native American reservations are high. As a result, high poverty affects many lives of those who live on the reservations and alcoholism is just as high as the poverty rates. The alcoholism is a

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major factor due to the poverty and the casinos. Though the casinos generate a good income there negative affects out weight their positive ones. On the other hand the opposing argument of my topic argues that the Native Americans have received plenty of reparations over the many years of the more recent government. They argue that the Native Americans have received better education, more jobs, and all around better lives. When in truth they may have better opportunities, but they are denied jobs and they are highly depressed. Which causes heavy drinking and they are in poverty, which is because they cannot get jobs. Which also leads to no houses being built and also leads to depression, which in turn leads to drinking. My side of the argument is stronger because Native Americans are deemed to be poor and uneducated which is true, but only because of no major reparations have been made to change that. Reparations are needed to help get this culture back up and bring our society as a whole to greatness again. Imagine this a country where everyone is equal and held on the same standards and everyone respects everyone no matter what, and everyone is free from poverty and alcoholism. The world would be so much better if restorations to Americas indigenous people were made. To make these restorations one of the organizations, which I have founded is primarily based on getting the things that have been lost. The things that have put these people so far behind and they are so desperate to get back to everyone else in the world. My organizations primary purpose is to get this declined culture back on its feet and ready to fight for equality with everyone else in this world. With the help we receive we can make this change and make sure that Native Americans can have a great and successful lives. The goal is to help decrease the poverty and alcoholism on Native American reservations. Also to start increasing the

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employment and education rates. While also trying to get money and knowledge for these people instead of being homeless and ignorant of the ways of the outside world.