Indian Country: The Situation is Bleak, But Not Hopeless

http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/21627/indian-country-the-situation-is-bleak-but-not-hopeless
Date Written:  2018-12-17
Publisher:  In These Times
Year Published:  2018
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23667

A discussion of Stephanie Woodard's book "American Apartheid: The Native Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion" and looking at how present-day colonial practices impact Native people in the US.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

In the summer of 2016, members of the Battle Mountain Band of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Tribe mounted legal action against mining operations that endangered large portions of the Tosawihi Quarries—a 15,000-year-old tribal sacred tribal site in Nevada that includes ancient-stone gathering places and an ancestral healer's trail that qualified for the National Register of Historic Places. The mining company didn't wait for a final ruling to begin operations and irreparably damaged the Tosawihi Quarries....

Despite the public interest in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, Woodard writes that it remains "just one of many oil, gas, and electrical transmission lines, roads, railroads and other infrastructure projects that cross Native lands nationwide." The exploitation of Native people isn’t a thing of the past; it’s hardwired into our democracy and institutionalized at every level of government.

Patrick Wolfe, the late historian of colonialism, wrote that colonization is a "structure rather than an event." Woodard's thesis is similarly grounded. She maps the federal policies, broken treaties and public attitudes that exacerbate "economic distress and keep tribal people separate, unequal and exposed to predatory interests."