It seems that American greed is once again creating issues for Native Americans. This time we focus on the Standing Rock Sioux and neighboring tribes as they fight to hang on to their sacred lands from the clutches of an oil conglomerate, Dakota Access. Unfortunately this incident fits into a larger pattern of Native Americans being trod over by business interests and the U.S. government. This needs to stop, and America needs to realize that Native Americans deserve to have their rights respected.


The Standing Rock Sioux and various other tribes have been fervently trying to get the conglomerate Dakota Access to stop laying down oil pipeline across lands which are deemed to hold burial sites and are tied to sacred ritual importance. A judge recently decided to halt certain parts of the pipeline project going through sacred land and President Obama has stopped the pipe laying for the entire project. The pipeline goes through both Dakotas. Not to mention, the pipeline will also be crossing the Missouri River, which acts as a water source for the Standing Rock Sioux. There’s a high probability the Missouri River will be contaminated by a rupture in the pipeline. Moreover, the pipeline would cross the burial grounds of Sioux ancestors. I don’t think any person anywhere would be happy if somebody started digging up his or her grandpa’s grave for economic reasons. It turns into a triple whammy when considering there is also desecration of the sacred lands that the Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes’ religions stem from. People would probably be angry if someone started destroying the Vatican to build a pipeline. So yes, Dakota Access, I unequivocally condemn your actions as they further hurt a group who has already had so much taken from them.


Unfortunately, throughout many of their interactions with the U.S., Native Americans have come out on the worse end as a result of some Americans’ lack of respect or greed. One of the earliest examples was the Catholic missionaries in the Northeast and Southwest who decided it was necessary to kill their culture so as to humanize them. Dartmouth College was created for this purpose primarily but we know it nowadays for the crazy fraternity immortalized by “Animal House.” The Catholic missionaries’ actions were essentially a cultural genocide and apologies have still never been made to this day. Then we have Andrew Jackson who created the Trail of Tears because he and his cronies wanted the land in the Southeast for their own selfish economic purposes.


In doing so he pushed several tribes into the Southwest all in the name of expelling the “savages” for the betterment of the Nation. One of the most recent events came when the United States—without consulting the tribe at large—dumped massive amounts of nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah. The U.S. government bought out a select number of votes on a local council that needed to sign off on the agreement. The U.S. government should have figured out another way to deal with the hazardous waste it created, and the idea of dumping it on native lands should never have come to fruition. There are more examples than these, but these few show the larger pattern of Native Americans coming out on the short end of the stick when dealing with Americans.


Americans need to realize Native Americans are integral to the history of North America and should thus be given full respect. The history which exists to this day is incredibly rich but it is only a fraction of what once existed. One doesn’t have to understand to come to respect these cultures that existed and mingled for millennia before the Vikings landed in Northern Canada. I hypothesize the only way for Americans to stop abusing Native Americans is to teach their history—and to do it from their perspective. When taught through the lens of Americans and Europeans, Native American history is skewed and heavily biased. If Americans understand that Native Americans are the cornerstone of the America we know today, then maybe Americans will stop abusing Native American sovereignty over their lands.


Throughout history, Native Americans have always been given a raw deal by both the government and private interests. This needs to end. Native American ways and lands need to be respected and not seen as things that can be trampled over for selfish reasons. Hopefully this incident in North Dakota will be one too many and show that US Native Americans matter too. Chief Joseph puts it best: “The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.”

Carlos Holguin is a member of the Class of 2019.