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Elizabeth Warren publishes a massive, detailed plan for addressing the injustice of US relations with indigenous American peoples
Even by Elizabeth Warren's high standards, her plan for "honoring and empowering tribal nations and indigenous peoples is detailed, ambitious, and important.
Warren's plan is a top-to-bottom reimagining of how the US relates to indigenous peoples: American Indians, Alaska natives and native Hawai'ians, from broadband plans to criminal justice reform to nation-to-nation treaty negotiations to finance reform to curriculum reform and much, much more.
From creating a permanent, cabinet-level post for nation-to-nation negotiating with indigenous peoples to addressing the systematic problems that gives rise to the epidemic of missing and murdered native women to making budget allocations for indigenous peoples automatic and nondiscretionary, Warren's plan is thoughtful and bold.
The plan covers physical and mental health provision, addiction treatment, community health for chronic disease, physical infrastructure improvements (including broadband provision), free postsecondary education, and a program of reparations for broken treaty promises and centuries of abuse.
A cynic might say that Warren's attention to this issue is a savvy way to head off cheap "Pocahontas" jokes, but a better explanation is:
1. This is totally in keeping with Warren's other plans in its seriousness and its commitment to fundamental justice;
2. The issue of reparations and justice for indigenous American peoples is urgent and long overdue;
3. To the extent that Warren's belief in her indigenous ancestry plays a role here, it is in that it makes the issue of these injustices personal and serious for her.
I am a donor to both Elizabeth Warren's and Bernie Sanders's campaigns.
Read the restThere is so much more we should do from leveraging our trade deals to improve indigenous human rights abroad to living up to the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to consulting with tribal officials to better repatriate artifacts that rightfully belong to tribes.
Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/va1CRhtAIGg/nation-to-nation.html