Apartheid. USA 1988

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July 6, 1987:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People returned to New York City for its 78th annual convention. More than 15 000 delegates and supporters gathered in the New York Hilton Hotel to listen to the opening address by Executive Director, Benjamin L Hooks Jr. He said, ‘One should never forget that, like every other urban city in America in 1987, there is a dark side of hatred, bitterness and intolerance, which is alive and well in the Big Apple (meaning New York City) tonight.’^127.

Time magazine devoted a special report to the United States Constitution. Under the heading: ‘Adrift in their own land’, one section was devoted to the American Indian. ‘Most American Indians on reservations earn less than 7 000 dollars a year,’ wrote Time. At least 35 percent are unemployed and those who do work tend to be found in low-wage jobs. Roughly two-thirds live off the reservation, where they often find themselves unprepared for urban life. Native Americans constitute one of the poorest minorities and are likely to be less educated, more prone to illness and more resistant to assimilation into the mainstream than any other ethnic group, even though they have been here the longest.

The isolation of the Indian set adrift in his own land was in a sense built into the Constitution right alongside its ennobling visions of governance. The Founding Fathers viewed Indians as foreigners who shared the continent, not citizens whose rights required enumeration and protection. While women were disenfranchised by assumption, and blacks by infamously intricate calculation, Indians were excluded flat out. Tribal Indians were not to be counted when figuring the representation or the taxes required from each state. Article I of the Constitution empowered Congress to regulate commerce ‘with the Indian Tribes.’ The power proved to be all but unfettered. In almost 400 treaties with various

127. The New York Times, from a report by Lena Williams

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tribes, the US predatorily acquired nearly 1 billion acres of Indian land. Time reminded its readers that in 1924 Congress granted citizenship and the right to vote to all Indians. But it was not until 1968 that Congress extended guarantees of free speech and due process to Indians on reservations, ensuring that tribal custom did not preclude constitutional rights. The Reagan Administration has been dealing with the Indian Tribes on a government-to-government basis in a reaffirment of Indian sovereignty. ‘Despite recent moves,’ concluded Time, ‘toward greater economic development and self-government, in many respects the Indians remain an occupied nation. The suffering has merely slowed, not stopped.’^128.

128. Time magazine, special report, page 51