Should the USA pay compensation to all the Native American peoples for the wrongs done to them?

Answer 1

Yes. They should be the majority of the government. Because they never ask for anything, they are easy going and use common sense.

Answer 2

Why is it the developed countries have parts of their populations with this "guilty consciences" for something they had no control over? The slave situation - world wide - there was all kinds of slaves, white ones and black ones!? The world wanted South Africa`s white population to be "sorry" for the wrong done to the part of the population that couldn't develop themselves and the rest of Africa are still stuck with that mentality - Zimbabwe who chased off and murdered "the settlers" is a current example.

There was a time in this world were a stronger people ruled and abused other people and took the weaker peoples land. And we can define "stronger", "abused" and "weaker" in many different ways, take your pick. The native Americans killed amongs themselves, do they owe each other something for the so called wrongs they did to one another??

Nobody owes anybody for the past.

Let the past be, and lets focus on what we have, and make sure that we don't do wrong to others in a time and a place that we have control over.

Answer 3

I am against this model of business. It is wrong for Native Americans to abandon their culture for the white man's world of commercialism. I say this having Native ancestry that I am proud of, though I am almost completely assimilated into the larger culture.

If Natives want to be a part of the larger world, let them. Also let them settle their land claims, which the U.S. started a process for in the sixties. I favour the return of land, criminal prosecution of abusers and violators of human rights, compensation for unlawful arrest and seizure of property, the release of stolen assets, also acquired assets and some form of municipal or regional self-government. Then the tax breaks can be phased out over a period of five to ten years.

I do not favour a huge cash handout to chiefs without land reform on the reserve system that forces women out of their homes as single mothers or divorcees and bans them from property rights and inheritance rights. I also favour more responsibility on the tribe and more provisions by the government to collect money and redistribute more fairly based on actual economic needs and not favouritism.

I also feel that getting one's land back with private property off the table is a better solution. I also favour allowances for division of individual lots when suitable and control over the natural resources on the land. Money and tax breaks can be given in lieu of land settlements that cannot be settled completely.

Answer 4

"I Didn't Do IT" had the story just right.

We're not even done doing the damage, how could we even begin to measure the damage. I've frequented reservation land from South Dakota and Northwest Nebraska which is dismal, and reservation lands down thru Southwest Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona where the school conditions are truly third world in nature.

We took the best and left them the rest. Now we tell them what they can do on the land we stole from them to begin with. Since we were so effective at committing genocide on the American Indian, and we're not satisfied with our ability to conquer other countries, we've now declared war on Mexican's, er, uh, I guess I'm supposed to say, "illegal aliens".

After all dark skinned people are scarey. We of Europian descent are much kinder and better people. Just ask us!

Answer 5

I wish we could go back and re-do history. I wish we hadn't done all the wrongs to any people. However, unless the Native Americans are truly suffering from what our ancestors did to them, any amount of compensation is not going to right the wrongs.

Answer 6

Absolutely. I don't think the government can do anything about the land. But there is a little matter of genocide. My boyfriend's ancestors were killed off in the forced march from the East Coast. A few survived but most perished. This genocide is a huge stain on America's past, as is slavery, and won't be erased until reparations have been paid and a true heartfelt apology from the President of the United States is made.

Answer 7

I am Native American & what many of you do NOT seem to realize is that WRONGS ARE STILL BEING DONE TO THE NATIVE AMERICANS!!!!!
Do me a favor... Go to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation & drive through it. For those of you who do NOT know, that is the reservation that the Government pushed the Sioux people onto in the Bad Lands of South Dakota After a WHITE soldier found a chunk of gold caught in his horses hoof while the soldiers were going through the BLACK HILLS.
Pine Ridge is one of the MOST poverty stricken places in the U.S.
The Sioux are STRONG & PROUD people. They have been fighting for centuries to keep their old languages & ways of life. The Federal Government is STILL afraid of them....

Answer 8

That makes about as much sense as paying compensation to every black American who can trace there ancestry back to slavery. HELLO! IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO, GET OVER IT! Fact is, I have never killed an American Indian or pushed one off their land. I have never owned a slave. I am not about to pay for a crime that happened over a hundred years ago and nobody else should have to either.

Answer 9

Get a GRIP or a job BOY!

I am sure if I serched hard enough I could find a distant relative that was wronged in England or Scotland.

If you were NOT DIRECTLY affected get on with IT and forget about the BIG CHECK.

Answer 10

I don't think the USA should have to pay them outright- but i think the USA should help make the reservations larger and better. We always have to move forward- not back.