Comments on: Native Americans: Question Four

By: jjk5071

jjk5071 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:43:43 +0000

honestly, and it hurts me to say this, but i do not think the average person could do anything about this topic. we do not know enough as a culture in this day and age to really grasp what went on hundreds of years ago. sure we read about it in books but thats all heresay when it comes down to it. i do think though is someone wanted to do something they would have to physically go to these people and ask them what it would take to fix this, how did this happen to them specifically, why do you think it happened, and finally if we did try to help would you even take an apology. if they wouldnt accept our try to help whats the use? i know if i try to help someone and they dont want it, ok see ya later, because why try and try and try when your not going to accomplish anything. they have to want our help for our help to work. most of them probably do but im just throwing it out there that sometimes when a cut gets deep enough it never properly heals.

By: samj113

samj113 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:39:55 +0000

I think we could do what Sam told us to do. We need to learn about this situation as much as possible and tell as many people as we can. I, personally, have told at least 3 of my friends so far about this situation. It is so insane that we live on the land that was taken from poor, innocent people. We tell ourselves that we made peace with these people. We even created a holiday to celebrate this time in our history! We celebrate it every year with our families! When we can create a holiday to mask the time we spent destroying their lives, we may have gone too far. Learning about this in elementary school, dressing up like an Indian at times, now seems like mocking their culture. Genocide is not something we should celebrate in my church's preschool classes!

By: Veggie_man

Veggie_man — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:11:24 +0000

I think that raising awareness is one of the best things we can do. I know you wanted to know on an individual level, and I think that whenever people make a derogatory comment on Native Americans, we can correct them. I also think that getting children to think about them in a different light would make a difference. If we have any children, we should teach them about how we basically killed an entire civilization—we can at least act decent to the ones who are here now. At least help them out so they don’t have such high suicide rates and alcoholism. And I think small changes like starting off with children would certainly help.

By: lar5074

lar5074 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:55:38 +0000

I understand where you are coming from. It is hard to think of something that one individual can do, specifically a student, to fix a problem as giant and severe as this one. However, i believe that education is the best solution to this situation. It is only right for everyone to know their history, whether it be their own personal one, or the history of the land they live on. I have heard that certain schools at one time or another refused to teach students about the holocaust, because they believed it did not actually happen. I feel like this situation is very similar, as Americans we did something bad and we want to just brush it under the rug and pretend we did not do anything wrong. But we cannot do that, we need to educate people because we did make a mistake and we need to learn from that mistake so that we do not make more in the future.

By: jholzberg8

jholzberg8 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:27:05 +0000

I think this raises a very interesting question. While we sit pondering what we can do to better the situation of Native Americans, I have to wonder what the Native Americans wish for us to do. I agree that they need a good education so that they can have more opportunities and be able to upwardly mobilize and become successful. However, do the Native Americans want to be assimilated into American culture and society? Because while I know they need our help, I don't know if they want to become part of our society? They have a very different set of traditions and cultural differences that might not necessarily work on a day to day basis in our society.

By: badkarma13

badkarma13 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:04:51 +0000

The first thing I would do is educate kids earlier and better as to what the true history is and how that has led to the current situation for the Native tribes. the first step is to accept reality and stop the false belife that the Natives of this country were savages and we brought them civility when we brought savagery far more than civility and then we purpetuated the savagery for centuries. the next thing I would do is to endorse the Tribal casino's that many tribes have started in order to fund their people this won't solve anything but it will be a start. people fight these casino's in order to prevent the gambling or the crime but also to prevent the tax exemptions that the tribes are privy to. we need to work with the tribes to get them better support for schools and whatever else they need so they can thrive as they want to. we also need to educate people as to how the reservations work it's a mystery to most people me included. we need to remember that any suffering they feel is a direct result of our indiscretions both in the past and today.

By: jayjewelzisme

jayjewelzisme — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:09:00 +0000

I feel that just spreading the word could bring awareness to the problems with the Native Americans A lot of people aren't aware of what happens to the Native Americans or how they are treated and how they are the poorest group of people in America. I feel that if people just spread the word and didn't turn a blind eye to the problem then some change would come. I believe that if more people knew about the problem that Native American’s face they would be more likely to help, people help when they see that there are people in need.

By: nms5201

nms5201 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:00:25 +0000

To make a difference in the lives of Native Americans, I think that the average person can play an enormous role. By simply telling other people what you know and educating people on this subject is an enormous help. Education is the key. Because the average American and student is unaware of the genocide of Native Americans and the living conditions in which these people now live, the average American and student, therefore, does not know that something needs to be done.
Once people become aware of this situation, they will then talk about it to their friends and families. If enough people talk about Native Americans’ living conditions, the world will see that this is a serious problem. Since the average person isn’t talking about it, the needs of Native Americans are being pushed aside. This can be related to LGBT issues. Since the average person and people who are LGBT were not talking about the issues in society caused by orientation, nothing was being done to fix the issues. Once the LGBT community and the average person started talking about it, changes started to be made. I believe that the same thing has to happen with the issues Native Americans deal with every day.
Aside from simply spreading your knowledge, the average person can help Native Americans in many other simplistic ways. Students can visit reservations and find out what the living conditions are really like. This will allow for a greater sense of knowledge to be spread. You can donate used books to schools are reservations, or write to your local politician voicing your concern about Native Americans. Ultimately, what that average person can do is spread his or her knowledge about Native American living conditions as well as your concern for their well-being. It is important to make people realize that Native Americans are people who have been shoved aside in our society.
I also think that once people spread their knowledge about Native American issues, educators will eventually hear this and teach their students about these conditions. It is important for people to learn about these issues when they are young. This way, young students can spend a life time (if needed) thinking about what to do. This allows the younger generating to come up with solutions that may be better than any of the older generation.
Ultimately, my thought about making a difference in the lives of Native Americans is to simply spread your knowledge. Without knowledge of the on going situation, there is no way a person would know to do something about it. This, I think, is our biggest problem.

By: emw5209

emw5209 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:29:20 +0000

Besides acknowledging the truth about Native Americans, I think that students can be involved in becoming more aware of what conditions Native Americans are living in. As Sam said, Native Americans are by far the poorest people in our country. They also have the highest suicide rate and addiction rate. I definitely think that things need to be done to improve the Native Americans well being. Native Americans most likely have the highest suicide, addiction, and unemployment rates because as Sam put it, the King of the mountain is always making sure that they stay down. An example of this is putting them on reservations that have only a small piece of land and which is mostly useless. The land has very little natural resources so they can’t farm.

By: emw5209

emw5209 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:28:57 +0000

The biggest lie that I've heard was teacher teaching their class that when the settlers came to the United States that it was this whole "New World' that was completely empty. I mean come on. What is the likely hood that a part of a continent is going to be completely inhabited with human beings? When little kids believe what the teachers say, they never get the truth that Native Americans were here way before the settlers even thought to travel to the "New World". If teachers began to teach students about what really happened when the settlers came to America then the United States would not be so naïve about Native Americans today.