21st century Bureau of Indian Affairs following playbook from racist past

Am I invisible? That is the question I have asked myself on occasion when dealing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and another federal agency concerning an issue facing me on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

While I write this piece, I am referencing my own situation. But, please take note that I do realize that we have far more consequential concerns facing us in Indian Country as well. Yet, we are treated like we are not even there, unseen and our pleas for justice, unheard. Did you ever ask yourself, “Why do they treat us like that?” I will attempt to offer one explanation.

According to one source, institutionalized racism, also known as systemic racism, is defined as “a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, education, and political representation.”

In 1967, Kwame Ture, also known as Stokely Carmichael, a prominent civil rights leader and activist wrote, that while individual racism is often identifiable because of its overt nature, institutional racism is less perceptible because of its “less overt, far more subtle” nature. Institutional racism “originates in the operation of established and respected forces in society, and thus receives far less public condemnation than individual racism.”

In other words, it remains hidden, in plain sight. When left unaddressed, it becomes and is maintained through the Organizational Culture of an institution.

When I think of this type of racism, the Bureau of Indian Affairs quickly comes to mind. Why? Because, for starters, as a human being, my “Indian Affairs” are held under the umbrella of the Department of Interior, right along with the Fish, Wildlife, and Fauna.

That says a mouthful right there, but there are other reasons. Pretending it does not exist or turning a willful blind eye to it, will not make it go away. Under this umbrella, I am treated as a natural resource, the same as my land.

I am nothing more than something to be exploited for the benefit of the “career federal official” and the big-time corporations, whom the feds and their politician bosses, pander to.

Sometimes, this type of racism is so embedded within an organization such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, that individual employees of that institution may or may not even be cognizant of the fact that they are carrying out racist actions and denial of human rights. Rather, they see it as carrying out the mission and goals of the department.

Their ignorance, however, does not excuse their depredations to me, to Indian People in general; or to our land.

Some will discount or dismiss my point of view as “playing the race card” so I ask: “Does institutionalized racism exist in the United States, the most advanced and free civilization of the modern world?” I ask this question, because, after almost 10 years of trespass by the Tesoro High Plains Pipeline upon my land, I and the affected allottees have continually sought justice and have pushed for the federal government to enforce existing laws, to no avail.

I find the absence of qualified law enforcement in any jurisdiction, unacceptable. Especially when the health, welfare, and safety of private, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens and our property are being compromised. Yes, Indians do pay taxes, it is the super-rich that doesn’t pay their fair share.

For almost a decade, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has totally ignored the problem and allowed the pipeline, which is a subsidiary company of Marathon Petroleum, to unjustly enrich itself on my land and on lands owned by my fellow allottees, which are located on Fort Berthold.

Rather than work with me as an individual, or any of us, to enforce our property rights, the government has done nothing but constantly turn a deaf ear, disregard our rights for our own property, and pander to the offending party as if they were the ones who had legal standing and the legal right, including a treaty right, to be there.

In 1928, almost a century ago, during the Hoover Administration, the Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work, requested the Institute for Government Research, IGR, commission a study to compile information and report the conditions of American Indians across the country.

The commission, led by Lewis Meriam, is given credit for authoring the report, which shone a bright light on the conditions facing American Indians at the time. The realities that Indian people faced in the report were dark and sinister.

The racist, sanctimonious, prejudicial, pessimistic, one-sided attitudes of the team and the resulting Meriam Report was not a document for reform, but rather, a “how-to manual” that corrupt government officials still use to this day.

No matter how well-intentioned an individual employee might be, the organizational culture preempts those notions and carries the weight during the decision-making process. The report is written by the oppressor, while blaming the suppressed.

Lewis Meriam fails to take an objective view of the downtrodden. He could not likely look at my elders’ situation from their point of view. He did not, nor could he. Mr. Lewis was a member of the East Coast Ivy League elite, born with a golden spoon up his ass.

His report, biased, and full of contempt, was written for the ruling class of the federal government, hell-bent on the total removal and disappearance of a people. My people.

The racial degradation and discriminatory undertones of the document are still incumbent today. When exercised by certain federal personnel, coupled with the same tactics of temporization subtly pointed out in the report; the Feds do it all in an effort to belittle, mute and marginalize me and my people. It justifies their thievery and stealing, of what is rightfully Indian-owned property.

The attitude of the feds and the projection of dehumanization upon me and mine, while covert in its philosophical declaration, are extremely overt through action, inaction, and policy both written and otherwise.

I do not make my observation or choose my words lightly. But, after dealing with Tesoro’s criminal trespass on my property for almost a decade, and being subjected to varying levels of federal institutionalized discrimination, incompetence, foolishness, willful political blindness mixed with periods of intentional wrongdoing, law-breaking, and willful negligence; I stand behind every word.

The official title of the Meriam Report is The Problem of Indian Administration (1928). I have compiled some examples of the report, and it states:

The health of the Indians compared with that of the general population is bad. The prevailing living conditions among the great majority of the Indians are conducive to the spread of disease. With comparatively few exceptions the diet of the Indians is bad. It is generally insufficient in quantity, lacking in variety, and poorly prepared.

From the standpoint of the white-man the typical Indian is not industrious, nor is he an effective worker when he does work. Much of his activity is expended in lines which produce a relatively small return either in unearned income from leases of his land, per capita payments from tribal funds, or in exceptional cases through rations given to him through the government. The number of Indians who are supporting themselves through their own efforts, according to what a white-man would regard as the minimum standard of health and decency, is extremely small.

Very seldom do the Indians work about their homes as a typical white-man does. Even where more advanced Indians occupied structures similar to those occupied by neighboring whites, it is almost always possible to tell the Indian homes from the white by the fact that the white-man did much more than the Indian in keeping his house in condition.

Some people assert that the Indians prefer to live as they do; that they are happier in their idleness and irresponsibility. The question may be raised whether these persons do not mistake for happiness and content an almost oriental fatalism and resignation.

Several past policies adopted by the government in dealing with the Indians have been of a type which, if long continued, would tend to pauperize any race. They have thus, developed a pauper point of view.

The solution was to permit the Indians, through the government to lease their lands to the whites. In some instances, the governments officers encouraged leasing, as the whites were anxious for the use of the land and it was far easier to administer property leased to whites than to educate and stimulate Indians to use their own property. The lease money though generally small in amount, gave the Indians further unearned income to permit the continuance of idleness.

Since the Indians were ignorant of money and its use, had little or no sense of values, and fell easy victim to any white-man who wanted to take their property, the government, through its Indian Service employees, often took the easiest course of managing all the Indians property for them.

The government kept the Indians’ money for them at the agency. When the Indians wanted something, they would go to the government agent, as a child would go to his parents, and ask for it. The government official would make all the decisions, and in many instances, would either buy the thing requested or give the Indians a “store-order” for the purchase.

Although money was sometimes given to the Indians, the general belief was that the Indians could not be trusted to spend the money for the purpose agreed upon with the agent, and therefore they must not be given the opportunity to misapply it.

At some agencies, this practice still exists, although it gives the Indians no education in the use of money, is irritating to them, and tends to decrease responsibility and increase the pauper attitude.

The typical Indian, however, has not yet advanced to the point where he has knowledge of money and values, and of business methods that will permit him to control his own property without aid, advice, and some restrictions, nor is he ready to work consistently and regularly at more or less, routine labor.

The Meriam Report went on to surmise and explain that the work of the federal government directed towards the education and advancement of the Indian himself, as distinguished from the control on conservation of his property, is largely ineffective. It is a tag that remains to this day.

Despite this, my people have and continue to advance and overcome overwhelming odds to survive oppression. Yet, the Bureau of Indian Affairs remains stuck in its own dark past.

I have often wondered why the wheels of justice move so slowly if they move at all in Indian Country. Especially, when dealing with harm, unjust enrichment, or civil and criminal wrong-doing by outsiders. The Meriam Report attempts to answer some of those questions. Albeit while stating several instances of self-imposed, self-gratifying “back-patting” of the feds’ current Indian policies of the times.

The report prophecies the path as to how it intends to wash its hands of the “Indian Problem” and eventually enact the period of termination to follow. The Meriam report served as a roadmap to the future policies of removal, through Public Law 280, relocation, temporization, diversion, and other means.

It states:

Much of the best work done by the Indian Service has been in the protection and conservation of Indian property, yet this program has emphasized the property rather than the Indian. Several legal situations exist which are serious impediments to the social and economic development of the race.

Most notable is the confusion that exists as to legal jurisdiction over the restricted Indians in such important matters as crimes and misdemeanors and domestic relations. If criticism is to be directed against the Indian Service in this matter of crimes and misdemeanors, it should be directed primarily toward the fact that apparently, it has not formulated a constructive program for bringing Indians under state law and the state courts where the Indians are sufficiently advanced to warrant the application of this law to them and where the white communities in the neighborhood of the Indians are sufficiently developed to afford the requisite judicial administration.

Although the Indian Service has rendered much valuable service in conserving Indian property, it has not gone far enough in protecting the individual Indian from exploitation. The explanation is in part the usual one of lack of adequate personnel, both in the Washington office and in the field, but the division of jurisdiction between the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice must be noted.

The Department of Justice conducts the court cases through the United States district attorneys. Under this system, long delays are inevitable, minor cases are likely to be ignored as too small to warrant starting the involved machinery, and at times, the United States district attorneys are not active and aggressive in protecting the Indians’ rights, even if their sympathies are not actually with the Indians’ opponents.

There is a notable absence of adequate organization to protect the Indians in petty cases and to educate them in how to secure legal aid. Many Indian tribes still have outstanding against the government claims arising out of old treaties and laws.

The existence of these claims is a serious impediment to progress. The Indians look forward to getting vast sums from these claims; thus, the facts regarding their economic future are uncertain. They will hardly knuckle down to work while they still hope the government will pay what they believe is due them.

Some Indians, mostly mixed bloods, are maintaining their tribal connections and agitating because they have rights under these claims. Attorneys are naturally interested, and a few are perhaps inclined to urge the Indians to press claims which have comparatively little real merit.

The settlement of an old claim involves a long and extremely detailed procedure and hence is necessarily slow. The question must be raised, however, as to whether the government is pressing for their settlement with maximum promptness. The evidence suggests that material improvement is practicable. Until these claims are out of the way, not much can be expected of Indians who are placing their faith in them.

Going Forward

Throughout the Meriam Report, when read in its totality, my elders are referred to as “the restricted Indian.” A reasonable person might claim, this is 2023, the feds’ tactics, bad attitude, deception, wrong-doing, and perception has been wiped out, over time.

The sad truth, however, is that is not the case. In reality, and to this day, I am still a restricted Indian. Although I have no tattoos, I am branded. One of the brands I carry is my tribal enrollment number. My family pedigree is kept on file by the government. They fractionate me like I am less than a human being.

Contrary to the law, the federal government strives to hold on to maintain complete control of my lands and strives continually to remove me from my own property. Government officials seem hell-bent on settling claims not on merit, but as a matter of convenience to them and the corporations who wish to usurp my land, my rights, and unjustly profit.

After all, the Meriam report said, “Until these claims are out of the way…” it did not say until justice is served.

The phrase “rights of the Indian” is often used solely to apply to our property rights. We have other rights, however, as individual human beings, living in a free society. The fact that we are Indian and a citizen of the United States does not nor should not legally abrogate the rights of one or the other.

Our treaty rights are “in addition to” our rights as United States citizens, not “instead of.” Our rights were not given, they were paid for, with the blood, sweat, and tears of our ancestors. After all, freedom is not free, they say.

In the United States of America, justice is not free either, it costs a lot of money. That is why, the rich think they own it and we the people, Mi Agawa Nux Baga (All My Relatives), like any other average United States citizen, “the backbone of America”, discounted.

Some dismissed more than others; Indian People’s pursuit of justice remains elusive as we are classified as “something else”.

Currently, with the threats of condemnation of our lands, which were uttered not as a last resort; but as the fed’s first option, freedom and justice remain elusive. Notwithstanding the fact that we are tax-paying, law-abiding citizens.

Other than threats, all the feds have offered in return are empty words of how much federal officials respect, honor, and are listening and mindful of our Indian ways. When we speak back to them, with civility and intelligence, in an effort to right the wrongs of the issues at hand; our words fall on deaf ears.

The feds offer nothing of substance, they do nothing of value. It is a method of temporization dating back to the Grant Administration.

In other words, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Am I playing the race card? Maybe, but it sure as hell beats holding on to a handful of “aces n’ eights,” better known as “the Dead Man’s Hand.”

Todd Hall lives in New Town, N.D., on the Fort Berthold Reservation. He can be reached at 701-260-5770.