Fear mongering or scaremongering is the deliberate use of fear based tactics including exaggeration and usually repetition to influence the public in order to achieve a desired outcome, according to Wikipedia. I remember during the presidential election, this word or phrase was being thrown around a lot, every news outlet was calling either Republicans or Democrats fear mongers. In my opinion, it was fairly even from both sides, the accusations and attempting to instill fear in our hearts and minds and influence the way we vote. Even after the election, this is still going on, now targeted toward Indian Country, hence the reason why I decided to address the topic.
You may have seen the headlines that read something like ‘Trump Administration to Privatize Oil Rich Indian Land.’ The articles go into the fact that the Federal Government owns the land managed by the Department of Interior and the Indian Tribes enjoy their sovereignty under this system. They bring up the recent #NoDAPL victory when the Army Corp. of Engineers denied Energy Partners easement to continue construction near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and how that may be overturned. #NoDAPL spokesperson Tom Goldtooth “confirmed” that spiritual elders would not support privatizing reservation lands.
The reality seems to be that there hasn’t been much investigative journalism done on this issue, but only many articles published highlighting the same fears. I for one am not afraid. I have sat in on discussion with Trump’s Native American Advisory Council and they did suggest that handing over all rights and control over to Native American Tribes would be in the best interest of Tribes in promoting economic growth and self-sufficiency. YES, natural resource development would promote economic growth but why is it not happening now at a faster rate? Because the government burden of regulation is often too much even to develop renewable energy resources and Native American people are struggling.
In the instance of #NoDAPL, the pipeline was originally planned to be built further away from the Standing Rock reservation. During the public comment period, PRIVATE land owners we concerned with the possibility of an oil leak or spill that would affect their livestock and agriculture businesses. The pipeline was rerouted. This tells me that PRIVATE land ownership is given much more weight and consideration as opposed to Federal lands. So the argument that private land ownership would make it easier for the oil industry to do what they want is misleading. In the United States of America, land ownership is really the American Dream and respected by all Americans.
It’s sad to see my fellow Native American people buy into this fear of privatization of land. I’ve even heard the argument from Native people that we aren’t ready or we don’t have the capacity to manage our own land and resources. I hear that the government has an obligation to protect our land and provide education and healthcare to all Native Americans, which is true but it that obligation will never be met. We need to privatize our land but not under the United States but under the individual tribal government and truly become sovereign states with government-to-government relationships with the United States.
SUPPORT NAVAJO SOVEREIGNTY 