Native American Compensation Essay

506 Words3 Pages
Americans have given the Native Americans compensation for the land they took. The past is the past, so nothing we can do will change the injustice, but we’ve still helped them in terms of their living quality. Since as early as 1920, the federal government has worked to give them the chance to fit into our society. They granted all honorably discharged Indians who fought in World War I full citizenship, and later, in 1924, they gave citizenship to all other Indian tribes. In 1934, the government passed legislation for the Johnson-O’Malley Act, giving states money to put Indians in their school systems. Before that, Indians could not go to public school because they didn’t pay property tax on their reservation land. In other words, Indians live freely on their land and get to go to public school. By 1970, the US census reported 44.6% of Indians living in major urban areas. This shows that the effort to help them join the US society was working. They still had reservations to go back too, but they clearly were able to feel at home with the US citizens. After the 1970 census, it was clear to all US citizens that an effort to appease the Indians was being made. Organizations such as the Native American Rights Fund and the American Indian Movement used the sudden interest to help the Indians. They felt that full compensation for the Indians’…show more content…
Indians are in public school systems, are able to live in major cities, have their own reservation land, receive money from the annual US budget, and have control over federal programs on their land. Indians are involved in the society more than ever, and now they need to start weaning off of government help. They can’t expect them to do everything forever. They should start to get used to independence while they still have help, or else they could have major problems. But, if they start the effort now, their future could be very
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