Marco Alvarez: Voices of indigenous people usually go unheard

A problem that has silently plagued America for quite some time is the mistreatment of Native Americans. Native Americans are constantly mocked by media and shunned by the government. Written in the American Declaration of Independence, indigenous people are referred as “merciless Indian Savages.” Teen suicide and infant mortality are rampant problems throughout the reservations. According to The New York Times, native youth have the highest suicide rate of any United States ethnic group and natives suffer from infant mortality 60 percent higher than Caucasians. According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, indigenous people are more likely than any other racial groups in the United States to be killed by police. One case is the killing of John T. Williams of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe. John was a mentally ill 50 year old man, deaf in one ear, who carved wood for a living. John was shot four times by a police officer within seconds of dropping a knife and a piece of cedar he was carving. He died; the folding knife was found closed on the ground.

We have the power to unravel these dilemmas and to truly fix them. The main root of these problems is the lack of knowledge and recognition. The casual American most likely wouldn’t know that the name “Redskin” is a term for native bounty gained. The casual American most likely wouldn’t know that native people are calling for help from the ruins of the reservations. The casual American most likely wouldn’t know that natives are second and third class citizens in their own lands. We have the power to solve this, but we haven’t taken big enough steps yet. Nothing has ever started without someone acting upon it. If we could resolve these predicaments, we could make peace with the tribes and government. Natives are constantly calling for help, but are continuously overlooked. Indigenous people protest their spirits out onto the road, but they are quickly consumed by the hum of American traffic.