Litigation Between Native Americans and the Government

After reading Tracks, I feel like I have gained a perspective on the Government/Native American relations, in regards to the "pushing the Native Americans off of their lands and onto reservations, that, before now, I have never given too much thought about. Erdrich brings readers into a mix-match tribe of 'resistant' Native Americans and shines light on some of the actual legal process of how these Native Americans were losing their lands and why. Traditionally, students are simply taught that the Native Americans were stripped of their land and forced to live on "reservations". The majority of students never thought beyond what was taught, myself included.  When thinking about it now, especially after reading Tracks, - of course it was more complicated than the evil simplicity that was spewed into our young minds during our youth.  After thinking about the complete process, the billing, indebted tribes, shaded tribal zones, and the logistics of how the encroachment occured, this assignment became really easy.

What I was looking for was any sort of public legal situation, and not just a headline. Recently, The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe joined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their lawsuit against the Dakota Access Pipeline Easement. The reason this stood out to me was simply reading about the litigation, the court system, and the obvious urgency of the tribes versus the notorious (but also obvious) sluggish pace of America's legal system. 'A temporary restraining order until a hearing is held at the court's earliest convenience.' Is a line that is burned into my head after reading the article. While it's good to see that our "vanishing" Native Americans are still 'resisting', it is depressing to see that they are using the legal system that is virtually in place to hinder them in order to help their own cause. Essentially, they are lighting their torches from America's bonfire and trying to dimish said bonfire by using their given flames in 'battle'.



The article I used, among others, was found online.
abcnews.go.com - This was a headline article on their site.