250 years and most native tribal groups continue to not be federally recognized. Embarrassing!
Hey so a small thing that literally everyone who sees this is capable of is correcting any “used to” statements about native people in this country.
“Native people used to live in this National Park” No. They still do.
“Native people used to tell these stories-” No. They still do.
“Native people used to use this plant as a natural remedy-” No. They still do.
Better yet, familiarize yourself with the tribes local to you. Odds are, they do not yet have federal recognition. You can still read the stories they have to share, you can share their ongoing battle for recognition with others, you can sign petitions and spread the word to others to do so as well. But do something.
Just a reminder that the Chinook Indian Nation was one of the very few tribes to be recognized and then have that recognition rescinded. They've been fighting to regain recognition ever since, and you can find out more about how to help them no matter where you are at ChinookJustice.org.
70+ tribes have lost their federal recognition since the 1800s for various reasons that mostly boil down to treaties and policies that prioritized termination of tribes and “integration into American society.” Many tribes are also unrecognized as separate from a larger tribe, meaning they can access benefits by enrolling in the recognized tribe but by doing so weaken the chance of their own tribe ever gaining recognition because the government only recognizes one tribal affiliation per person (also screwing over the many people with ancestors in multiple tribes). And since they have no support, they struggle to continue as a community to practice their traditions and consistent community, which is a (hard to prove) requirement for regaining that recognition
Find and learn about the people near you. My closest tribe is one of those that lost their federal recognition thanks to legal nonsense. I regularly hear people around here calling them “pretendians” while at the same time they’re barred from many activities like educating others at schools and public events due to their lack of recognition. Yeah, there are people out there faking things, but there are also many people who have been fighting for recognition for decades, and with a little looking and listening it’s not hard to learn the difference
