Dakota Beacon

United States (and Indigenous Nations) of America

The “good old” US(IN)A

By Lynn Bergman

Definitions:

Nomad – A person or member of a group who has no permanent home and moves from place to place, usually following a traditional route or searching for food, water, and pasture.

Pastoral Nomads – Groups who raise and herd animals, moving seasonally to find fresh grazing land.

Hunter-gatherers – Societies that move continuously following wild animal migrations and seasonal plant growth.

Peripatetic (craft-sharing) Nomads: travel between settled communities to offer specialized trades, crafts, or services (other than farming or herding).

Bands – small groups composed of a single family unit.

Tribes – larger groups composed of several communities that may or may not be related by blood but are united by having the same culture.

Examples of notable nomadic groups throughout history:

Radhanites – Dispersed Jewish merchant communities who traveled the “Silk Road” (trade routes connecting Asia and Europe)

Arabs – One of three Semitic tribes (Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic) of the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Desert who speak Arabic. Current usage often limits “Semitic” to Hebrew-speaking Jewish people.

Mongols of East-Central Asia (Mongolia, China, Russia) – excellent horsemen and archers

Hadzas of northern Tanzania – hunt animals, gather wild plant foods

Masai of east Africa – domestic cattle

Sami of Scandinavia – follow caribou herds and domesticate them (reindeer).

Nomadic North American tribes:

North American Interior Plains tribes, including Lakota (northern great plains), Comanche (southern great plains), Cheyenne (traveled widely), Crow (Montana & Wyoming), and Blackfoot (Montana and Canada) moved seasonally to follow food sources, mainly vast bison herds on the Great Plains, supplemented with berries and foraged plants. They traveled over and fought for territorial hunting grounds, traveling with portable tipi shelters of wood poles with animal skins carried by dogs dragging travois frames… and later horses.

Agricultural North American tribes:

North American agricultural tribes cultivated diverse crops and developed sophisticated farming methods suited to local climates. Major groups include the Iroquois and Cherokee in the northeast and southeast, the Mandan and Pawnee in the Great Plains, and the Hopi, Zuni, and ancestral Puebloan peoples of the southwest. Maize agriculture began in about 900 AD and was practiced up to the advent of European explorers in about 1750. The most important crop was maize, planted along with beans and squash, including pumpkin. Minor crops of sunflowers, goosefoot, tobacco, gourds, plums, barley and marsh elder were also grown. Wild plants included the prairie turnip and chokecherry.

Agrarian cultures often traded their harvested crops with non-agricultural nomadic tribes.

Ritual Sacrifice of the Pawnees

One of the rituals of the Pawnees during the spring planting season to ensure fertility of the soil was the Morning Star ceremony and the ritual sacrifice of a young girl captured from an enemy tribe, the last occurring in 1838.

Archeologic Record (Feeding the Gods)

Human sacrifices are prevalent in the archeological record of ancient tribes such as the Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs and Toltecs. “Priests” opened the chest cavity on temple pyramids to remove the beating heart. Victims were sometimes beheaded and their skulls were mounted on racks known as tzomoantli. Other rites included arrow sacrifices, drowning, burning, or ritual combat where captives faced elite warriors. The “Ball Game” was a contest begun by two opposing players sitting on the ground with the ball between their hips. The losing “team” may have been sacrificed after the “Ball Game”. Victims included war captives, slaves, dedicated “tribute” individuals, criminals, and children.

Ownership?

Nomadic groups have historically traveled through unclaimed (except, perhaps, by Monarchs from afar) lands in search of migrating wild game, native fruits and edible plants, or a more suitable climate. Agrarian tribes that have occupied smaller tracts of land for continuous subsistence would seem to have a much more logical right to “ownership” of their “homeland”.

For example, if we wish to hunt game legally on land owned by a farmer or rancher, it is a common courtesy to first ask permission and then express appreciation with a token gift.

If every person who passed through any land was entitled to partial or complete ownership of said land, what a mess it would be! Disputes and resulting mayhem would very likely be intolerable. Nomadic claim to ancestral land is, by definition, a fleeting claim.

Thanks to England for Slavery in the Colonies

The United States of America arose out of British colonies that were designed by England to grow and harvest crops utilizing Indentured Servitude of Irish and English “criminals” and Chattel Slave labor from Africa. Founder Benjamin Franklin loved his native England but hated the British Monarchy for its brutal promotion of slavery in its colonies, even as he kept one or two house slaves for his own comfort.

Pre-European Settlement

Of the well over 1,000 “Pre-European Settlement” Indian tribes, 574 federally recognized native American tribes in the United States hold 326 federal Indian land areas. Some tribes share land while others do not currently have a formal land base. Federally recognized Indian tribes are considered distinct sovereign nations within the United States. Their inherent right to self-govern predates the U.S. Constitution (Thus, it does not come directly from the Constitution). Their sovereignty is “domestic-dependent”, meaning they exercise self-government under the ultimate authority of the U.S. federal government rather than as completely independent foreign countries.

Powers of Tribal Sovereignty

• Tribes can create their own governing bodies and structures
• Tribes have the sole authority to set rules for tribal citizenship and enrollment
• Tribes can pass laws, run police departments, and operate tribal court systems
• Tribes manage internal affairs, business operations, and land use within their jurisdictions

Limits of Tribal Sovereignty

• Tribes cannot make treaties with foreign countries or declare war
• Federal laws can limit or override tribal laws in certain circumstances
• State governments have very limited power over tribal lands; interactions between States and tribes are governed by complex federal and case law.

14^th Amendment to the Constitution

When the 14^th Amendment passed in 1868, members of tribal nations were considered members of separate, sovereign governments and were excluded from birthright citizenship, as shown below:

Amendment XIV, Section. 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. 

The same 14^th Amendment [as a result of the 13^th Amendment abolishing (except for criminal punishment) slavery and involuntary servitude] granted birthright citizenship to those subject to the jurisdiction of the United States (i.e. “subjects of the U.S.”).

What about U.S. Citizenship?

Through the “Indian Citizenship Act of 1924” signed by President Calvin Coolidge, all native-born (born within the territorial limits of the United States) indigenous people are U.S. citizens.

Dual Citizenship Status

Native Americans are citizens of the United States and of the individual states where they live. They are also citizens of their own sovereign tribal nations.

Summary

At the time of the 13^th and 14^th Amendment, freed slaves were granted birthright citizenship, but Native Americans who “paid no taxes” (i.e. were members of a tribe living on Indian land) were excluded.

It was only later, in 1924, that Indians born and living on their land within the territorial limits of the United States were granted U.S. citizenship.

No subsequent amendment to the U.S. Constitution dictated that the babies of citizens of foreign countries that happened to be born on U.S. territory have a right to U.S. citizenship.

Americans simply cannot accept the concept of “birthright tourism”! The Chinese Communist Party loves it. Allowing unlimited access to the Unites States and its territories by thousands of “birthright tourism infiltrators” from communist countries is unacceptable.

This writer believes that the recent birthright citizenship ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States will be reversed upon its further examination following acceptance of the pending appeal.

Love = Work + Courage