“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.”  – W.E.B. DuBois

“Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by our Creator.” — Mohawk Tribe proverb, source unknown

Who is my child?  What is my responsibility to care for children who are not my own biological product?¹  This question “who is my child?” is about social responsibility.  Of all the children in today’s difficult world — especially those who are most vulnerable —  is there one who is not my responsibility?  I am reminded of the Bible’s persistent mandate that God’s people are called to give preferential care for widows and orphans, in other words, those who are most vulnerable among us.

If Playground Rules Apply, They Were Here First.

And so I wonder about our most vulnerable Native American children living in poverty.  I introduced this concern in my previous articles, How Are Our Children? and The Most Vulnerable Among Us.  Here’s what I think — Yes, they are our children too.  Especially so.  After all, if playground rules apply, they were here first.  They belong here.  So, what has happened since then?     

It’s my nature to first learn why so many of our Native American children are living in poverty.  I understand that some poverty is a reality of our human condition.  But this is different — an extraordinarily high proportion of our Native American children are living in poverty.  They are very hungry.²  As I mentioned before, in the U.S. on average about 18 percent of our children are living in poverty (meaning they live in families with incomes below the federal level of poverty).  Of course, in a country as wealthy as ours 18 percent is bad enough.  But in many Native American communities (e.g., the Pine Ridge Lakota Sioux Reservation in South Dakota) over 50 percent of our children are living in poverty.³

Why?  To learn more, I went on a hunt — for information about why it got so bad.      

I Belong, I Don’t Belong.  Do I Really Want To Belong?⁴   

If Native American children are our children too, it hasn’t always been so clear.  In 1870 the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Indians⁵ were not U.S. citizens.  I find this to be a curious decision.   Despite their having been native born, Indians were considered not a part of our federal citizenry, and therefore not subject to equal protection under the law.  To be fair in this discussion, many Indians at that time were glad to remain non-citizens.  Their loyalty, they claimed, rested with the Tribe.  Granting citizenship was perceived by some Indians to be another step by the U.S. government to “assimilate” Indians into mainstream society and to maintain greater control over them.  U.S. citizenship for the Indians was viewed by some as a threat to the sovereignty of their tribal nations.  I think they were right. 

All Native Americans received U.S. citizenship in 1924, in part because of their sturdy contribution to the U.S. combat effort during War World I.    

Back Up A Bit.  It’s About Real Estate.

U.S. citizenship and tribal sovereignty are only part of the story.  Let’s talk about land.  Many years earlier, in 1829 (41 years before we concluded that Indians were not citizens), President Andrew Jackson proposed that Indians living in the east be “removed” and relocated to land west of the Mississippi River.⁶  The reasons for this “removal” idea were mixed, but we can assume fairly that it was in large part about the land.  We wanted more of it, but the Tribes had lots of it.  Productive land.  The Tribes originally lived in large chunks of forest land in the east, where their natural hunting lifestyle thrived. 

Have You Ever Seen A Burpee Seed Catalogue?

A few white folks concluded later that Indians would be “better off” if they learned to farm and hunt somewhere else.  They’d be more like us, then, some thought.  Plus — and here’s the kicker in my view –  farming requires less and different land than the large forests they used to support their hunting lifestyle.  So, we suggested they hunt less and farm more.  (Where was the NRA when we really needed them?).  I wonder what it was like to be told you are no longer to live and hunt in the forest of your ancestors, but to raise crops and hunt for a different food in a strange land.  

Nevertheless, motivated by our distorted sense of white generosity, the removal program was launched.  Some tribes cooperated, others did not.  One source of resistance were the Muscogee, also called the Creek, who considered the forest and mountains of our southeast (e.g., Georgia and east Tennessee) home.  Eventually, after only some cooperation from a few Muscogee, in 1836 the U.S. government forcibly removed the remaining resistors.     

He Must Have Known That Starving His  Grandchildren Was Going To Be Part Of The Deal 

Speckled Snake was a Creek (Muscogee) warrior and clan leader.  He opposed the idea of his people being moved to land on the other side of the Mississippi.  Upon hearing one of President Jackson’s speeches advocating Indian removal, Speckled Snake made this speech to his “Brothers”.  Consider this (and don’t miss the sarcasm):

“Brothers!  We have heard the talk of our great father; it is very kind, he says he loves his red children.  Brothers!  I have listened to many talks from our great father.  When he first came over the wide waters, he was but a little man, and wore a red coat.  Our chiefs met him on the banks of the river Savannah, and smoked with him the pipe of peace.  His legs were cramped by sitting long in his big boat, and he begged for a little land to light his fire on.  He said he had come over the wide waters to teach Indians new things, and to make them happy.  He said he loved his red brothers, which is very kind.  The Muscogees gave the white man land, and kindled him a fire, that he might warm himself; and when his enemies, the pale faces of the south made war on him, their young men drew the tomahawk, and protected his head from the scalping knife.”

“But when the white man had warmed himself before the Indian’s fire, and filled himself with their hominy, he became very large.  With a step he bestrode the mountains, and his feet covered the plains and the valleys.  His hands grasped the eastern and western sea, and his head rested on the moon.  Then he became our Great Father.  He loved his red children, and he said, ‘Get a little further, lest I tread on thee.’  With one foot he pushed the red man over the Oconee, and with the other he trampled down the graves of his fathers and the forests where he had so long hunted the deer.  But our great father still loved his red children, and he soon made them another talk.  He said, ‘Get a little further; you are too near me.’”

“But there were some bad men among the Muscogees then, as there are now.  They lingered around the graves of their ancestors, till they were crushed beneath the heavy tread of our great father.  Their teeth pierced his feet, and made him angry.  Yet, he continued to love his red children; and when he found them too slow in moving, he sent his great guns before him to sweep his path.”

“Brothers!  I have listened to a great many talks from our great father.  But they always begin and ended in this – ‘Get a little further, you are too near me’ … He says that the land where you now live is not yours.  ‘Go beyond the Mississippi; there is game; and you may remain while the grass grows or the water runs.’  Brothers!  Will not our great father come there also?  He loves his red children.  He speaks with a strait tongue, and will not lie.  Brothers!  Our great father says that our bad men have made his heart bleed, for the murder of one of his white children.  Yet where are the red children which he loves, once as numerous as the leaves of the forest?  How many have been murdered by his warriors?  How many have been crushed beneath his own footsteps?  Brothers!  Our great father says we must go beyond the Mississippi.  We shall be there under his care, and experience his kindness.  He is very good!  We have felt it all before.  Brothers!  I have done.” ⁷

It Is What It Is

It is what it is.  We can learn from the past but we cannot change it.  We did it.  We moved them and pretended their land in the east was ours from the beginning.  We pretended that their children would be safe.  Now they are squeezed into small spaces struggling to live freely, and their children are very hungry.  Their children, or our children?

Today is Thanksgiving Day, 2009.  Some of my children ate well today.  What about the rest of them?

© Copyright by Jeffrey Y. Harlow, Ph.D (2009).

1. I acknowledge some bias here – as a father and step-father of a bunch of kids from various, unorthodox sources, I am a gatherer of all kinds of kids — mine, yours, ours.
2. I am fully aware that this discussion can be applied equally well to our African American and Hispanic American children.  The child poverty rates for these groups is unusually high too.  For now, though, my questions seem to drift toward those among us who were here first.
3. If you are looking for a way to help the children on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a great resource is Chris at Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation (http://www.friendsofpineridgereservation.org).  Chris represents multiple non-profit organizations dedicated to serving the most vulnerable at Pine Ridge.  She’ll guide you with your donation.
4. With apologies to our professional historians, I am muddling through with the bits and pieces of information I have found.  What I share here is my best attempt to capture themes and patterns from the historical record.  A few sources I use are Buckley, Ray (2008). Walking In These White Man Shoes. Nashville: The United Methodist Church; http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/stories/0701_0147.html ; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speckled_Snake  
5. This was the popular label for that day, ever since the early explorers thought they had landed somewhere else.  No GPS units then.  ”Native American” is a more recent and respectful tag.
6. I am sad to say that three Methodist Episcopal Annual Conferences supported removal.
7. Found in Armstrong, Virginia Irving, 1971.  I Have Spoken. Sage Books: The Swallow Press, Inc. Page 56-57, first published in the Niles’ Weekly Register on June 20th, 1829