Paladin Team Policy 2020-2021 Resolution Tour: American Indians
Voting is open right now for the brand new Paladin League. Here, we offer some insights to help guide your vote.
No Wrong Answers
We wrote these resolutions, so this time we don't have a preference about which ones win. They both offer tremendous depth, a solid aff/neg balance, and support value-centric and application-centric case patterns. Your decision should be made based on which topic most interests you.
Resolved: The United States should substantially change its policy toward American Indians.
What it Means
American Indian is an umbrella term for a group of people that are difficult to define. It describes hundreds/thousands of unique tribal and national identities.
Our personal definition:
"An indigenous person of North America, especially the mainland United States and Canada."
Why "American Indian"?
We've gotten some questions about this term. Let's explore it.
Identities change over time, and the political-correctness of terms evolves too. The term "Indian" fell out of favor a few decades ago. It has since returned to prominence.
Many American Indians prefer to identify with their specific tribe, which makes a lot of sense historically. You should do so whenever possible. However, we need a broad term to describe all the various nations and tribes across the country in order to address policy relating to them. It's not feasible to have resolution that ends with a list of hundreds of specific identities.
The term Indian comes from Christopher Columbus, who miscalculated the circumference of the Earth and thought he had found a new route to the Indies. But the actual origin of the word is a bit more complex. It is believed that Columbus called the people he found gente en dios, which means "People of God." The term morphed into En dios, then Indios, then finally Indian. The term Indian primarily described the people on this continent until comparatively recently. Now, it used with the American identifier at the beginning to differentiate it from people on the Asian sub-continent of India.
Many of the other terms for American Indians are either derogatory or ambiguous. For example, Native American literally describes anyone born on an American continent.
Admittedly, there is no ideal term. American Indian evokes violent colonialism to some. We picked the most precise, palatable, PC term we could find. American Indian is generally accepted, and it is the term used by the federal government (see: Bureau of Indian Affairs). So that's the one we used.
Final note on this: there is almost never a good reason to refer to someone by a term that offends them. If someone tells you they prefer Native American, or Indigenous Person, or First Nation, or some other term, use it.
Policy toward American Indians is rife with fascinating case possibilities, including:
Poverty
Poverty and unemployment are rampant in American Indian communities. In fact, the three poorest counties in the country all contain Sioux reservations (source).
Sovereignty
This issue has no easy answers. On one hand, one of the main ways that the US government obtained land was by violently displacing, betraying, and outright slaughtering American Indians by the millions. The US has been breaking its treaties with American Indians since the beginning, which has concerning practical and moral implications.
On the other hand, having semi-sovereign nations inside the country is messy (more on that in a moment), and seems increasingly unfeasible. Second, the worst of those crimes were over a century ago. Perhaps it's time to re-think the meaning of Indian territory.
Jurisdictions
If someone commits a crime in Pierre, South Dakota, there's usually clear understanding of how it will be handled. The local, state, and federal police and courts know how to cooperate and who is in charge.
But if the same crime happens on a nearby reservation, things get murky. There's a lot of confusion over who has jurisdiction. That can lead to someone not being punished for a crime, or being punished twice - once in federal court, and again by the tribal government.
Justice
American Indians are significantly overrepresented in arrests, convictions, and police killings. For example, they make up a tenth of South Dakota's population, but a third of its prison inmates (source).
American Indians are also far more likely to be the victims of violent crimes, usually from people of other races. Shockingly, American Indian children are just as likely to suffer from PTSD as combat veterans (source).
Reparations
American Indians have received some reparations, including cash, land, and formal apologies. Some would say it hasn't been enough; others would say we've already gone too far.
Natural Resources
Some Indian communities have potentially lucrative natural resources (like oil). Some have tapped into them to build wealth. Others have resisted in spite of significant financial and legal pressure. There are big economic, environmental, and cultural implications to how those resources are handled.
Various Social Problems
Many of the basic metrics for a developed human society leave much to be desired in American Indian communities. Affirmatives might consider ways to ensure that all American Indians have health insurance, a good education, and a safe, decent home.
Culture
There are hundreds of federally-recognized tribes. All of them are struggling to preserve their culture in an increasingly global society. Languages are vanishing; customs are fading. Should we work to preserve them? Or should we hit the gas pedal on assimilation?
Rights
Many American Indians aren't recognized as such by the federal government, which means they don't get the protections and privileges to which they are entitled. Many also face disenfranchisement; for example, they have to make a day trip to get to the nearest polling place to cast their votes.
Just the Start
This is a brief survey of the potential case options for this resolution, and we didn't even mention casinos. There's no denying that American Indians and their neighbors deserve better. The question is: how do we fix these complex, overlapping problems? If this resolution wins, we'll have a chance to find out.
Come back soon for an exploration of the other policy resolution.