Scholarly Resource- Macy Moe

Native Nasty Women- Mary Kathryn Nagle (Found in Nasty Women book page 157)

Summary:

This essay tells about the mistreatment the Native American Tribes have been through in American history. Mainly this mistreatment has flown from our judicial system and government leaders. For years, Native Tribes have been ripped of their rights and kicked out of their homelands but numerous presidents. The mistreatments seen in the native communities are mostly directed towards women and children. For decades, women have been left uncared for by our government systems and raped by non-Natives. Presidents including Andrew Jackson, Jimmy Carter, Martin Van Buren, and Barack Obama have made laws and allowed the supreme court to pass law that strip the Native nation of power. At one time, the native people had the power to exercise criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit crimes on their territories. Nagle tells of how this power has been stripped from them so they are unable to make those who rape Native women pay for their crimes. It is stated that Indian policies are pre-constitutional. Natives should have access and jurisdiction over the lands they conquered before America existed. Even with these facts, the policies set for Natives by our government do not aline with the rights found in the constitution. Inequality is pointed towards the tribal populations as a whole, but women and children bear most of the weight.

Response:

The power for Natives the exercise criminal jurisdiction on non-Natives who commit crime on their territory was once granted to Native Americans. This could protect the women and children of past and present generations from sexual assault and mistreatment. Over time, this power was ripped from the Natives along with the possession of land they claimed. The sad thing is that the Native's power was taken by government officials who came to the land after the Natives who claimed it. Future and present presidents believe that it was their right to move the Natives from their homes and push them into concentration camps. The problem came from the fact that the white men running Washington believe they had control over the tribes because of their race and, for women, their gender. They criticized the Tribes for not working towards industrial innovation and believed that if they were not progressing by their terms they should be moved. In the process of forcing tribes to move, government leaders took away their power and suspended their safety allowing women to be raped. We run America like we were the first to discover it.