Commentary
John Stossel Fails to
“Get It”
When it Comes to American Indians
by Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Condition. Discussion »
Help John Understand
Fox News contributor John Stossel said Thursday on “Fox and Friends” that no other group has been helped by the US government more than American Indians.
Commenting about the what Stossel feels is excessive pay for an advertised job position at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he made these comments:
“Why is there a Bureau of Indian Affairs?”
he said.
“There is no Bureau of Puerto Rican Affairs or Black Affairs or Irish Affairs. And no group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians, because we have the treaties, we stole their land. But 200 years later, no group does worse.”
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, first established under the War Department in 1824, is part of the United States Department of the Interior. See their website.
While his admission that American Indians had land stolen, Stossel misses a key point of the obligation the United States government has to American Indians because of treaties…that he did mention.
Apparently, he feels we, American Indians, should be left stripped of our land and move on with our lives. What Stossel fails to recognize and understand is those treaties, he alludes to, have never fully been fulfilled by the United States.
Broken treaties…have equated to broken promises, which, in turn, have equated to broken lives in many instances throughout Indian Country.
Instead of worrying about the salary grade of a posted job position at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Stossel should worry about the fulfillment of the broken treaties and use his high visibility to correct the ills afflicted against American Indians.
John Stossel fails to “get it”
when it comes to American Indians.
See Stossel video below:
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John Stossel needs to do more research on Native American Indians
John Stossel needs to do more research on Native American Indians and their treaties and US laws concerning Native American Indians There are specific...
About Levi Rickert
Levi Rickert is the editor-in-chief and co-producer of the Native News Network. Mr. Rickert is a tribal member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and is the former executive director of the North American Indian Center of Grand Rapids.
Mr. Rickert writes book reviews for The Grand Rapids Press and has had several articles dealing with American Indian concerns published in various periodicals. In 2000 he contributed to the American Indian Review, a national American Indian magazine with an essay entitled American Indian Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. Additionally, Mr. Rickert has contributed to numerous American Indian tribal newspapers across the nation.
He has had two essays published in two different books. An essay he authored in 1999 was published in Grand Rapids Indians at the Millennium for Heart and Soul: The Story of Grand Rapids Neighborhoods (November 2003 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company). In May 2007 Mr. Rickert became a contributing essayist for Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Grand Rapids with his essay Even Though I Was Not “Raised Indian” (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company).
Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief
Mr. Rickert has been a guest lecturer on college and university campuses, speaking on American Indian affairs. For the past two years, he has served as a moderator for two different presentations at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan featuring Dennis Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement. In November 2009, he moderated “A Conversation with Dennis Banks” and in November 2010, he moderated “Dennis Banks: A Vision for Our Nation’s Future.”
In June 2010, Mr. Rickert served as the lead planner for Indigenous People representation at the World Communion of Reformed Churches’ Uniting General Council held at Calvin College and a one-day powwow at Ah-Nab-Awen Park in downtown Grand Rapids.
Mr. Rickert is a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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