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Native American advocacy: Policy solutions

MCC works with the Oglala Lakota Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation and administers the Return to the Earth project, which seeks to respectfully bury unidentifiable Native remains that are housed in museums, universities and scientific labs. The MCC Washington Office focuses its advocacy in three areas:

  • sovereignty
  • broken treaties
  • respect for native remains

Sovereignty

For justice to exist for Native Americans, the sovereignty of Native tribes must be respected. The MCC Washington Office urges the U.S. government to address past infringements on tribal sovereignty, and to make policy changes that would respect the governing authority of American Indian Tribes.

Infringements on Native sovereignty include, but are not limited to:

  • The confiscation of 2/3 of all Native land from 1887 to 1934 in an attempt to assimilate Native Americans by allotting parcels of Tribal and communal land to individuals and then selling the “surplus” to white settlers.
  • The misuse and loss of billions of dollars gained from natural resources on Native lands (such as oil, timber and minerals), under a trust managed by the U.S. government’s Bureau of Indian affairs.
  • The inability of Tribal courts to enforce laws within their borders because of limited jurisdiction over non-Natives who commit crimes on Native lands, even if the crime is committed against a Native American.

Broken Treaties

Along with the Constitution and legislation passed by Congress, treaties are referred to as “the supreme Law of the Land” in Article IV of the U.S. Constitution. This means that any treaty ratified by the Senate is U.S. law and that, by ignoring these treaties, the federal government has repeatedly broken its own laws.

  • Commitments to honor Native lands have been continually broken, resulting in fragmented communities and fatal relocations like the Trail of Tears, during which 17,000 Cherokees were forced off of their land and 4,000 died.
  • Permanent services promised in return for land – education, protection, medical care, food – were (and are) insufficient and underfunded.
  • Today, Indian Health Services still receives 1/2 of the funding, per capita, that Medicare receives.

Respect for Native Remains

Mennonite Central Committee U.S. administers the Return to the Earth project, which seeks to assist in the repatriation of unidentifiable Native remains. Return to the Earth seeks to find respectful burial grounds for the remains and provides cedar and pine burial boxes and burial cloths.