Today we watched a video in class called “100 Years: One Woman’s Fight for Justice.” The video was about the governments involvement to break up the Native American Reservation and to manage the trust fund distribution of funds for the oil, gas, and timber for the Native American’s. The truth is the government failed and has been commuting fraudulence to the Native American’s. The government has been failing to correctly file documents and has failed to document the amount of resources taken from the Native Americans without proper compensation for the resources taken. Elouise Cobell fought for her people because she could see the injustice the government was commuting to them. She demanding for over 27 billion dollars for proper compensation from the governments failure and stealing without compensation for the resources the government took from the Native American’s. The government replied with removing the supreme court judge and claiming he was biased, even though the facts clearly show the governments criminal acts against the Native Americans. Then they have the balls to negotiate for a lower settlement in the law suit. The settlement settled was for a little over 3 billion dollars.
Now lets get to the how I feel about after watching the video. to put it simply it made me “sick!!” because this is something that is still happening and most of the Native Americans have not seen a dime after the settlement or have been paid very little. While watching the video, I kept thinking did they really get justice after the settlement? The truth is no because taking in consideration all the profits the companies and government have made off of stealing from the Native Americans would be pennies compared to the settlement. I also kept thinking about what is to stop them from doing it again if they can continue to profit even if they have to make a small payout.
Amanda June 28, 2018
I feel the exact same way with your reaction to the video we watched in class. It makes me sick to my stomach to hear the things stated in the film. I think that the government needs to mimic the story that Jen McClung mentioned to us today. She explained that a native friend of hers convinced investors who had put money into an Indian casino to come out to their tribe and see the people and the living conditions there. She brought them there so they could understand that the casino owners need their profits to go toward the hospital in the tribe. Otherwise, it would have been closed down. Before the visit the investors threatened to close the casino, one of the only sources of real income entering the tribe. After their visit, they came up with a plan of how the casino owners could pay them back later so they could focus on helping the hospital. Maybe if we did the same thing with members of the government and congress, the same outcome would occur.