Last week I met with the founder of the Indigenous Peoples Student Association, Tim Benally, and it was amazing to hear his experience here at Penn State and all that he has done for the Indigenous students here at Penn State. Tim is from the Navajo Nation and is graduating this spring, looking to pursue a Ph.D. in Anthropology.  

While talking to Tim, it made me think about and realize that Indigenous people in the United States have long struggled with access to education and continuously have fewer opportunities when it comes to education. “According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the average high school retention rate [of indigenous children] was at 74 percent between 2018 and 2019, compared to the national average of 86 percent (Powwow).” Not only is this a trend in secondary education but it is just as prevalent an issue in higher education, with “only 19 percent of Native Americans ages 18 to 24 . . . enrolled in college compared with 41 percent of the overall U.S. population, according to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute (Powwow).”  While indigenous people make up a small portion of the US population, I believe these statistics show how important it is to bring attention to this issue the indigenous people in America face today.  

While the reasons behind this problem are rather complicated, it comes down to the persistent marginalization and discrimination faced by indigenous people all around the world which leads to a “lack of quality education that does not align with their rights as indigenous peoples (Consentino).”  

When people are developing policies and curriculum for schools, they are made most of the time without indigenous people’s consent or participation in mind. Tim told me how he took a class here at Penn State on indigenous ways of life and medicine and when the teacher began to describe the medicine wheel he had some questions. Tim raised his hand to ask what tribe this was from, if the school got permission to teach it, had the curriculum been designed with the help of an indigenous person and more because the colors and symbols used were different from those of the Navajo and he wanted to know since he never saw anything like this before. The short answer was no. Like most curriculum used when it comes to Native Americans/Alaskan native it was research done by a white man who did not fully understand the culture and put his own values and ideas in the work. This curriculum has since changed and encapsulates a truer view of indigenous practices.  

On top of education on indigenous cultures being inappropriate and wrong, the education system and curriculum in the US has a long history of attempting to assimilate and systemically discriminates indigenous peoples and often, even if unintentional, destroys indigenous cultures, rights, languages, and more. Not only that but when the government does try to put programs in place to help solve this problem and give more resources and opportunities to native Americans, they usually do not consult them and this leads to the program being unhelpful since it is not in the correct language, doesn’t respect indigenous history, and/or culture and more.   

There are many other factors contributing to this issue that I could go into but for now I emphasized some of the main causes of why native Americans/Alaskan Natives face this issue in the US. I highly encourage you to look more into this issue to get a better understanding of the scope of this problem and to learn more about these cultures that are rich in knowledge and traditions and why it is important to not forget them and help them in any way we can.  

• Sources:  
• Native American Issues Today | Current Problems & Struggles 2023 – PowWows.com 
• Indigenous peoples have a right to quality education. But so far, we’ve failed them | World Economic Forum (weforum.org) 

The extinction of animals, plants, and insects is at a historical high and has finally begun to receive the

Fire Dreaming Waru Tjukurrpa by Jorna Newberry a Pitjantjatjara artist who has represented the importance of fire for hunting and land management to the aboriginal people of Australia

attention it so desperately needs. Something that many fail to realize, is that this historical high is connected to the erasing of indigenous beliefs and practices. This is why it makes absolute sense why there is such a high loss of biodiversity. In an article published by The Conversation, Krystyna Swiderska, an expert in traditional knowledge and biocultural heritage of indigenous peoples and local communities, states that “. . . biodiversity loss cannot be effectively addressed without tackling the rapid disappearance of indigenous cultures.”  

Indigenous peoples have curated their culture and ways of life for thousands of years. Their language, religious beliefs, and practices are embedded with a millennium of knowledge and wisdom. They have a vast “knowledge about ecosystems, conservation methods, plant life, animal behavior and many other aspects of the natural world (LaPier)” that if we lose, would be beyond detrimental to the world.  

“The world’s 370 million to 500 million indigenous people play a critical role in conserving biodiversity (Swiderska)” and it is not surprising to find that climate change and the rapidly growing decline of biodiversity is not occurring as quickly within indigenous societies and land.  

Indigenous peoples all around the world have a great respect for nature and see the relationship between man and nature to be dependent on one another. “The health of the Earth goes hand in hand with the wellbeing of humankind (UN News).”  

An example of the impact of eradicating indigenous knowledge is the continued fires that occur within California. As a direct result of settler colonialism, climate change, and suppressing indigenous practices, the California wildfires have gotten out of control. As settler colonialism in California increased, the settlers made it illegal to burn and those caught setting fires would be faced by penalties. This greatly hurt the indigenous people of the area seeing as this was/is a part of their life and culture. It also clearly hurt California in the long run because without low intensity surface fires, forests have become overgrown and vastly dense. This then builds up fuel for when a natural or human fire breaks out and leads to megafires. Once I heard about this in my anthropology class, I thought it was crazy, especially since there is evidence that the indigenous practice of lighting low intensity surface fires decreases the likelihood a wildfire will spread and creates a positive ecological effect on the environment.

          Dario Mejia Montalvo at the UN

Luckily though, California has recently begun to realize the effect this has had on the environment, but a lot more needs to be done, not just in California, but around the whole world. On behalf of himself and other indigenous people Darío Mejia Montalvo, an indigenous member of the Zenú community in the Colombian Caribbean, argues that “. . . we go beyond science, beyond economics, and beyond politics, and think of the planet as Mother Earth. Our knowledge, which goes back thousands of years, is valid, important, and contains innovative solutions (UN News).” I think it vital that we listen to Montalvo and learn from indigenous peoples and the wisdom they have of the land that themselves and their ancestors have worked with for numerous years. I think sometimes we focus too much on modern technology to help solve our problems and claim indigenous peoples to be different form us and therefore not as important. However, I believe that the opposite is true. Indigenous people and their knowledge, even though not modern in our sense of the word, is just as important and could help us solve many environmental problems we face today and open out eyes to a whole new perspective. I hope in the near future more people realize the importance of preserving indigenous wisdom.  

Sources:  

• Protecting indigenous cultures is crucial for saving the world’s biodiversity (theconversation.com) 
• How the loss of Native American languages affects our understanding of the natural world (theconversation.com) 
• INTERVIEW: Knowledge of indigenous peoples can promote harmony with Earth | UN News 
• Dr. Bird and my lecture notes  

For my third civic issues blog I want to focus more on Native Americans’ struggles with the dispossession of their land and forced migration.  

To make this issue a little more personal, we can see the effects of land dispossession and racism, towards Native Americans in the use of our own college’s land. As you may know, Penn State is a land-grant school, but many do not actually know what that means. I didn’t until my ANTH45 teacher, Dr. Bird, discussed it in class. In short, a land-grant school is a school that was created in the mid-19th century after the passing of the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862, which was where schools were created using the proceeds from “federally-owned” land to promote agricultural and scientific education. According to a Cambridge article though, “The land that was sold to support colleges was available because of a deliberate project to dispossess American Indians of land they inhabited” and “the colleges exist only because of a state-sponsored system of Native dispossession.” The land used/owned by Penn State was settled by European colonizers before Penn State was established, but Penn State properties are still on the ancestral lands of Erie, Haudenosaunee,

Map of land grant universities in the US

Lenape, Monongahela, Shawnee, Susquehannock, and Wahzhzhe First Nations and has majorly benefitted from the dispossession of Native American land. To give you some statistics on how much Penn State has profited from the Morrill Act, the original endowment of the land that was $39,000 is now worth $4 billion. Another statistic that Dr. Bird told us that I found astounding was that out of roughly 75,000 undergraduate students at Penn State, only about 103 are American Indian/Native American. 

Penn State has acknowledged the use of the land: “As a land grant institution, Penn State acknowledges and honors the traditional caretakers of these lands and strives to understand and model their responsible stewardship. We also acknowledge the longer history of these lands and our place in that history.” But more can and should be done to teach the students at Penn State the history of why it is here today, could/should work to develop ties with native tribes, and teach Native History.  

Moving away from land-grant colleges, Native Americans have historically been forced out of their historical land and still face the effects of ongoing colonialism. According to a “Science” article, “Indigenous people in the United States have lost nearly 99% of the land they historically occupied, . . .”  Today, native land is at a greater risk for climate change hazards like extreme heat and decreased precipitation. Not only that but settlers often forced Native Americans onto land they deemed less valuable, which excluded them from key parts of the U.S. economy. This is truly detrimental to Native Americans and their culture seeing as they have land-based religions and are connected/know their land better than anyone else.  

The continued challenges Natives face in maintaining their land and culture make me unbelievably livid. More needs to be done to bring attention to this issue. As young adults, it is hard to see how we can help but I think it is important to learn about these issues and the history of Native Americans. We can raise awareness for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their land and teach others why this issue is important. Indigenous cultures benefit all of us and hold so much value and knowledge that would be devastating to lose.  

• Sources:  
• Native tribes have lost 99% of their land in the United States | Science | AAAS  
• Land-grant universities profit off Native lands (insidehighered.com) 
• Entangled Pasts: Land-Grant Colleges and American Indian Dispossession | History of Education Quarterly | Cambridge Core 
• What does it really mean to be a land-grant college? | UCR News | UC Riverside 
• Federal Land Policies Affecting Native American Sovereignty and Traditional Use – Native Tribe Info 
• Why Native Americans struggle to protect their sacred places (theconversation.com) 
• Dr. Bird  

For my second civic issues blog I want to focus on the lack of access to clean water and the high prices and poor food quality Native Americans are fighting. According to a report done by the First Nations Development Institute which researched variations in food pricing across native communities back in 2016 found that “Native consumers in or near reservation communities generally have to spend more on food products than the national average, despite the fact that incomes are usually much lower in these communities while food access is, largely, much more difficult due to distance and transportation issues.” To highlight the extent towhich this goes I will provide you with some statistics. In the 2016 study, researchers found that milk per gallon totaled $4.99, which was $1.29 over the national average of $3.76. Even worse natives had to pay $4.26 more for coffee per pound than the national average of $5.03, which makes coffee come out to $9.29 or more. And as terrible as this is, this discrimination of native communities is historical and has been happening for decades.  

As colonialism arose in the new world, indigenous peoples experienced land-theft and were driven out of their land which they had inhabited for decades. This led to a devastating disruption in their traditional ways of life and food systems. It didn’t stop there either. Laws were put into place restricting their way of life and they were continuously driven out of their land in the name of colonialism. Even today natives are still fighting for their land and rights.  

Even in a world that has people in space, talking toilets, and robots, the basic human right and necessity of clean water is often ignored in native communities in the US and Canada. Both governments know of these struggles, but they do nearly nothing about them and push these communities to the side. In the US there is an estimated 1 in 10 native Americans that lack access to safe tap water and basic sanitation. Even Canada which has the 3rd largest freshwater reserve in the world, natives don’t have access to clean water, and there is close to 51 long-term drinking water advisories. This leads to an increase in diseases and physical and mental health problems. Not only that, but it also disrupts and damages the spiritual connections and traditional teaching/knowledge associated with water in indigenous communities.  

These ongoing struggles are nothing new to indigenous communities, but they are reinforcing institutional racism and need a lot more attention brought to them. These governments should not push natives to the side. They are citizens as well and deserve to have basic human rights, like clean water and access to food. Even with the small initiatives these governments have taken to help combat these issues, it is not enough. Just being one person it is hard to incite change, but if these issues are brought to the attention of more people, it would highly benefit indigenous peoples. Some things we can do to help is to write to government officials, telling them it is time to focus more on indigenous communities and demand change. We can volunteer, raise awareness for the issues, and educate ourselves and others on the severity of these issues.  

Indigenous communities are communities that have fascinating traditions and knowledge of the world, and it is devastating to see the struggles that they must face on a day-to-day basis. Even though they may have a different way of living from a lot of us, they are still humans and deserve basic human rights.  

• Sources:  
•  High prices for food – Navajo Times 
•  Native American Tribes Fighting High Prices, Poor Food Quality (voanews.com) 
•  Indian Country Food Price Index: Exploring Variation in Food Pricing Across Native Communities | First Nations Development Institute 
•  Tribes without clean water demand an end to decades of US government neglect | US news | The Guardian 
•  Lack of Clean Drinking Water in Indigenous communities — The Indigenous Foundation 

For centuries diverse, rich indigenous cultures and perspectives have been shunned and seen as primitive, backward cultures by those whose cultures differed. However, these communities and cultures are far from primitive and backward. They are full of rich, unique knowledge and traditions. As Chi Luu said in What We Lose When We Lose Indigenous Knowledge, “There are many ways of seeing the world, and indigenous cultures all around it have had a long time to amass a great knowledge about how things work.” Yet indigenous people all around the world are forgotten about and face a vast number of challenges in their day-to-day lives, from impoverishment, discrimination, and poor access to education, and health services, to the continued disrespect and attempts to erase their history and culture.  

One of the many challenges of Indigenous people that I would like to focus on in this blog post is the unprecedented statistics on the number of Indigenous women who are missing/murdered. According to the National Institute of Justice, “more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women (84.3 percent) have experienced violence in their lifetime” from sexual violence, and stalking, to psychological aggression by an intimate partner.  Not only that but, as stated in a Department of Justice-funded study, in some places, Native American women are more than 10 times more likely than the rest of the population to be murdered. Despite these unbelievable statistics and a national movement to raise awareness of the MMIW (missing and murdered indigenous women) crisis, the federal government has yet to take any direct action.  

Rightfully so indigenous peoples are angry and frustrated at the lack of justice for their women and children. At a march in Vancouver for the 32nd annual MMIWG march back in 2023, NDP Minister Melanie Mark, the only indigenous person in the B.C. legislature, could not hold back her anger and frustration at the continued rise of MMIWG cases: “I’m sick and tired of all the people. All the people today are sick and tired. It’s not politically correct to say it, but if you want to get away with murder you kill an Indian because we don’t get justice. We need justice now! (APTN News)” 

With all this said, it is vital to consider future directions for public policy on this civic issue. As one person it is hard to make a stark difference in an issue this big, but one way you can help is by educating yourself and others on the history and violence committed against indigenous women. Share messages on social media. Donate to or volunteer with groups that provide resources and help to the MMIWG movement. Write to political representatives and urge them to support policies, legislation, and funding for the protection and safety of Indigenous women.  

Some action has been taken by both the Canadian and U.S. governments to combat this issue. In 2016 the Canadian government launched a national inquiry and by 2021 a national action plan was released. Similarly, the U.S. passed the Violence Against Women Act and Tribal Law and Order Act back in 2010 and 2013. However, many advocates believe progress is too slow and more needs to be done. Overall, even though some government action has been taken, this ongoing challenge needs sustained efforts by the government and more attention brought to it.   

• Sources:
• Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and the Criminal Justice Response: What is Known (ojp.gov) 
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls | Center for Native American Studies (nmu.edu) 
• Erasing Indigenous History, Then and Now | Origins (osu.edu) 
• What We Lose When We Lose Indigenous Knowledge – JSTOR Daily 
• Why do so many Native American women go missing? Congress now aiming to find out | CNN