Are there any Real Indians left?

Are there any real Indians left?

fiction
edward w Pritchard

this is about Native Americans who will be by convention be called Indians, or Native Americans



Any there any real Indians left?

I read today that real Indians are concerned about oil drilling rights, fracking and coal mining on their reservation lands. I guess the tribes have to be lead by practical leaders, men up to date with the times, and women who understand the realities of obtaining wealth and pursuing progress.

In the past Indians had strong values that they stuck to, often to a fault in the face of the rolling progression of  America's Manifest Destiny to conquer the Continent. Over and over in the nineteenth century Indian leaders refused to change with the times and refused to address the implications of having thirty million aggressive, ambitious, goal driven land hungry European immigrants crossing their homelands. Later when military Resistance to American imperialism of their land was impractical and often sadly pathetic Indians leaders such as Tecumseh, Tall Bull and many others choose to die rather than assimilate into American/ European civilization and culture. When a victim to changing fortunes in the nineteenth century Native Americans typically stoically and nobly endured come what may; a trait which the conquering Americans secretly admired. As a result of a perfect storm of American duplicity, injustice and indifference most Native American  by the end of the nineteenth century were imprisoned on reservations, living in poverty, their way of live demolished.

Now in the twentieth century vast amounts of mineral wealth lies under Indian lands on some Indian reservations. Several tribes may be able to extract mineral and oil wealth of several hundred million dollars that could be used to vastly improve the lot of Native Americans in the twenty first century. Indians leadership wants autonomy to make decisions to choose how to use Indian land most efficiency. At the same time the policies of the American Government concerning land use, oil drilling and fracking come into play despite the special types of unique sovereignty on Indian land by Indian leadership. Indian leaders want exemption from some of the regulations required by the American government to control land use concerning mineral rights, drilling and fracking.

Interestingly many of the green policies to protect the environment and the land now part of the regulations and bureaucracy in America come from Native American beliefs about land, nature and the sacredness of the Earth.

How will Native American beliefs about the Sacred Earth evolve to accommodate the realities of wealth and progress in the twenty first century?  Practical people today be they Native American or  other usually concede that it is no longer possible for the majority of people to hunt, fish and sit around camp fires on a daily basis.

Are there any real Indians left? Many modern Americans secretly cherish the idea that our Country was once a Paradise inhabited by only a few million people who wisely used the land and would do nothing to hurt the Sacred Earth. Sad if it's an idea that died at Wounded Knee or some other one sided battle.