Opinion | Politics

Native Sun News Today Editorial: A bumpy ride with Donald Trump

Thursday, December 8, 2016

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Buckle up for a bumpy ride with Trump
By Native Sun News Today Editorial Board
nativesunnews.today

What’s going to happen to Indian Country under the presidency of Donald Trump is anybody’s guess. Since he was born and raised in New York City we can rest assured that you could take all of his knowledge about American Indians and put it in a thimble.

He was dead set against Indian casinos because they were competitors to his casinos in New Jersey. He eventually filed for bankruptcy on his casinos. How many Indian casinos went bankrupt? Only one that we know of and that was in the State of Washington.

The things we do have to fear about the Trump Administration are the people he is placing in cabinet positions. For example for the head of the Health and Human Services, and the Indian Health Service would be under his command, is Tom Price, a fierce opponent of the Affordable Health Care Act, or Obamacare as it was labeled by the Republicans.

As of this moment he still has not named a Secretary of the Interior and it is rumored that the person we thought he would name, Sarah Palin, is being considered for the head of the Veteran’s Administration.

We do know that many of the appointments to cabinet positions will have a profound impact on the future of Indian Country. For instance, the Secretary of the Interior is also the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BIA is still instrumental in the land management, education, and many other aspects of the lives of the Indian people.

Betsy DeVos, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education, is a very wealthy woman who believes that private schools are much better than public schools. How will that impact the Indian schools on the reservation?

So many things impacting the tribes often go through the Attorney General’s office and his choice, Jeffrey Sessions, is a hard-nosed Republican from Alabama who wouldn’t know an Indian treaty from a breakfast menu.

And the one we probably have the most to fear is the choice he will make to fill the vacancy on the U. S. Supreme Court.

If there are any legal challenges filed by the Indian Nations still on the waiting list for the Supreme Court we can consider them null and void. And for the next 4 years it would be totally unthinkable for any Indian tribe to file a case that would end up before the Trump Supreme Court.

So tighten your seat belt and get ready for a bumpy ride and it doesn’t matter if you are a Republican Indian or Democrat; the power to uplift or crush Indian Country is now in the hands of extremely conservative people mostly with little or no knowledge or concern for that matter for the Native Americans of America.