With Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland this Thursday’s draw for the first time, Indigenous peoples in the U.S. Congress. You are formidable, perhaps, to tremendous expectations and a delicate balancing act.
Sharice Davids at their victory celebration in November : The 38-year-old lawyer and former martial arts athlete, won a congressional mandate
North America’s indigenous people were represented in the history of the United States, and the parliaments. They are among the most marginalized groups in the country. At the Federal level, there is now in the house of representatives, two members, who see themselves as Indigenous – in the Senate, no one is sitting.
Now, in the Constitution of the new Congress, so for the first time, indigenous people of the interior space: Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland wrote history, as they were elected last November, the Between-elections as the first U.S. Indigenous peoples in the house of representatives. They belong also to the high number of women who have ever competed in these elections and won. The American media referred to it as “the pink wave”.
Also, you are now in the U.S. Congress: Deb Haaland. The 57-Year-old from New Mexico is an experienced activist
“In the night of the election I have been waiting eagerly with you,” says Ruth Buffalo. It belongs to the tribe of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota and is part of the “pink wave”. As the first Aborigine will be members of the Parliament of North Dakota, after the Democrat in the election against the Republican incumbent. “This is so exciting that we are now represented on an equal footing with the government of the Federal state”, said Buffalo.
“The United States for more than 200 years, the indigenous people were already here. And now, finally, we get our first two members,” says the 29-year-old Samantha Nephew, an activist for the native and teacher from Buffalo in the state of New York.
Nephew belonging to the tribe of the Seneca Nation, and had, in turn, considered to be a candidate for a political office. “That is still on the table,” she says. “And to now know that there are women who look like me or my sisters, is great,” says the Nephew, with a view to the election victories of David, and Haaland
A history of violence
Indigenous women were and are repeatedly exposed to violence and exclusion. According to the American civil rights Union ACLU since 2010, at least 500 indigenous people have been murdered inside or deported. And these are only the known cases. “There is no real justice,” says Nephew. “If no one pays attention, they fall easily through the cracks.”
Native Americans and Inuits of Alaska are small ethnic groups distributed in the history systematically from their Land, and killed were enslaved. Moreover, they were exposed to fracture, such as by non-compliance with government contracts.
Until today, says Nephew, sheared the political interests of the tribes with either a comb or completely overlooked. Since it was a miracle, if natives ever decided to participate in the US policy.
Nephew reported that she had met during the Midterm election campaign, indigenous people, you said you didn’t want to go to the polls, for all of these reasons. “But that’s how incorrect this government is, after all, what happened to my people and my ancestors – at the end of the day, this policy relates to me. I don’t like the System. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t need to live in it.”
“The tribes have learned, with the System deal with it,” says Mark Carter, a lawyer at the Institute for racial justice, the ACLU, and even a member of the Potawatomi tribe in Oklahoma. Carter is good friends with Sharice Davids, his roommate during their law school years. “I think the tribes understand it, to use the law for themselves and to influence government in their favor.
Fear of healing expectations
Environmental issues are Central to many tribes of indigenous North Americans. Here, the protests of the tribe of the Anishinaabe against a Pipeline project in British Columbia
Haaland and David will have to maintain a tricky Balance between the representation of their constituencies and the expectation to give Indigenous peoples in the entire country a face. They are just two of the hundreds of thousands of indigenous people and represented only two constituencies in the United States. The political Agenda of the native American people enough of a dispute to the environment, right up to issues of violence against women.
Carter warns against exaggerated hopes of what they can do Haaland and David, in fact, for the indigenous people. He knows Sharice Davids as a passionate campaigner for the rights of minorities, expected from her but not a miracle in Congress.
“The Congress,” says Carter, “is very complex.” You should not assume that aboriginal issues are suddenly in the focus, or even waved on through. “But I think both of your voices will be heard,” says Carter.
Sharice Davids is the daughter of a single parent, veteran, and in other respects as a pioneer: As the first lesbian woman from Kansas in the Congress.
“As I grew up, we had no representation,” says Buffalo. “I am an indigenous woman, in the reserve. And now I see how two women with similar Background in the Congress voted. This is great.”
Also for Nephew, the mere presence of Haaland and David is in the Congress halls a giant step forward. “You will keep us in the public consciousness. With women like you, the native will be integrated is generally better.”