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An Unlikely Indian Rights Champion
You might not think A. Jay Adler would have much to say about Indians.
The Jewish-born son of eastern European immigrants, Adler grew up in New York City, where the only exposure he had as a child to Native Americans came through school stories and western movies. Today, he practices Zen Buddhism and works as an English professor at a small community college in Los Angeles.
Not exactly the makings of a defender of Native rights.
But wait, there's more to the story.
"When I lived in Minnesota for a few years in the early '90s, it was the first time Native Americans were a part of my landscape, and the first time I witnessed directly what seemed a quite astonishing open racism," he said in an e-mail recently.
The state of Minnesota was involved in disputes with tribes over fishing rights, Adler said.
He decided to learn more.
He read and traveled, to far-off places like Pine Ridge. He began contributing money to Native causes, like the American Indian College Fund and the Native American Rights Fund.
Having grown up around African Americans in New York, he had always appreciated their plight. But he also began to wonder why indigenous issues in America were never discussed on a national level the way black issues were.
"I began to feel that one can't be a politically committed person in this country, a person who feels part of the American story, and not focus, finally, for all the reasons I state in my piece, on THE American story," he said.
His "piece," as he refers to it, is an insightful and scathing article entitled "Aboriginal Sin" in the March-April edition of Tikkun, a Jewish-interest magazine that focuses on religion and politics.
In his article, Adler writes of the failure of dominant societies to recognize and correct centuries of "genocidal destruction of aboriginal populations." He documents the continued assault on the "dignity, culture and lives" of Native people.
"More than a century later all of the expected social afflictions and human maladies of a conquered and denigrated culture are present: inadequate education, joblessness, drug dependence, despair and poverty," he writes.
And yet, despite the wealth of evidence — historical and contemporary — to justify reform of Native programs and services, the U.S. government continues to fight any effort to seek such reform.
It continues to fight efforts to address decades of mismanagement of Indian trust accounts, efforts that have taken the form of lawsuits like Cobell v. Kempthorne and Nez Perce Tribe v. Kempthorne.
"We will require the Germans to confess and pay for their genocidal crimes. We will admonish the Japanese for refusing, still, to fully acknowledge theirs," he writes. "Yet how well do we confront our own?"
Adler offers two solutions, one symbolic, one very real:
• Institute a national day of mourning and atonement in recognition of the many crimes against Native people. The day could coincide with Columbus Day and should be accompanied by education of students on the complex legacy that calls for such a day, he writes.
• Settle the Indian trust lawsuits, not through the courts, but through congressional legislation.
"If we are ever to deserve the various appellations we take upon ourselves to claim we are unlike those who came before and we would not do what they did, then we must freely acknowledge, without reservation, the sins of those who produced the world in which we live," he writes.
As I read Adler's article this week, I thought about other non-Indian advocates, apostles like Adler who have taken it upon themselves to educate those like themselves about the Indian "problem."
I thought of Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota speaking on behalf of tribes across the country on the Senate floor in January in support of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.
I thought of the numerous non-Indian professors and mentors I have known over the years working tirelessly to tell the Indian story.
It's easy to be cynical, to question these people's motives. What do they have to gain? How are they profiting off Native misery?
And it seems naive to dare to see these rare acts of empathy for Native causes as sincere attempts to help.
That said, when I see a Jewish professor from Los Angeles invest the vast amounts of time and energy it undoubtedly took to write this fine article, I can't help but see it as a small step in a long march toward reconciliation.
And I can't help but hope those who read his article will begin to enlighten themselves about Indian issues and eventually become, like Adler, apostles for Native rights.
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Comments?
Plight of Ndns
I can appreciate a person empathetic towards righting past wrongs. I think all white people should take Native American studies 100 level at the very least. There are seven essential understandings whites should internalize to help guide them down a dark road there ancestors created. Maybe then white people wont act so damn white about race and class in our society. They seem so threatened every time a minority climbs another rung in the ladder of the so called American dream. The race card thrown out in the presidential race already for starters if that gives you a good example. To be honest I like Obama because maybe he will put an end to this good 'ol boys club in American politics. I can't help but not be afraid right now because I have seen what scared white people do and how they act when they are scared. The last election should be as much proof as I need to provide. What native America needs are leaders that are held to a higher standard then what we put up with or settle for what ever the hell it is that our councils suffer from. The only way we can do that is to amend our constitutions, oh yeah we have those. I can think of six rez's in Montana that do not have a First Amendment what kind of biz is that (cant cuss on here to much) Transparency in our Govt can only come if we are allowed to criticize our government and report on Tribal goings on factually and accurately. Then we can begin to improve this adopted system of government that seems like a shoe to small. Practice sovereign acts and self determinate our futures. We dont have great leaders like we did in the past we have waited long enough for a great leader and I do not think there is one amongst us. Greed and individualism has consumed us, the power of money is far to great to resist and corruption runs rampant. Fight for first amendment protection on your reservation to hold these posers accountable for their actions (almost spelled t-h-e-r-e) ollodgeskinz Montana.
Adler
Greetings,
"Champion of Native Rights" wow thats quite a stretch. Aside from visiting a few places and writing an article about Natives I do'nt see your point.
There have been many unsung "Champions of Native Rights" . Activists for Native issues who have sacreficed alot without recognition. If he was'nt from Brooklyn, I doubt he would have recieved your attention.
Glen
A Jay Adler
Last year I took a college course in US history; the instructor was from N Carolina. She liked to teach about southern slavery, but when it came to Native American genocide, she staunchly refused to recognise what happened as genocide, telling me it wasn't like that ... it was this ... it was that ... Natives weren't as innocent in 'that' as some people try to make out. I'd say, the immigrants on the east coast were brought here to provide a labor force for the wealthy ... they had nothing, were living in extreme poverty; there were $40 bounties on the heads of Native men and $20 bounties on the heads of Native women and children of about 12 ... what do you really believe happened here if it was not genocide?
Since I got on the net in 2000, I have looked for Jewish sympathy toward Native Americans ... after all, those photos of buffalo bones along the tracks ... were they all buffalo bones?
My grandparents bones were stirred around with plows near Pembina where it has always been illegal to plow a cemetary; yet no government in America has stopped that from happening. This does not happen to Jewish cemetaries or African cemetaries in America today.
Last night (03/18/08) I watched Obama give his talk on race in the US and heard an intelligent African American commentor say something like "the tension between the two races ... " and I wondered why she didn't also recognise Native Americans in the 'tension' she spoke of?
I hope Mr. Adler continues to raise awareness.
An Unlikely Indian Rights Champion
Kevin,
Those of us who are not Native Americans but sympathetic (in the good sense of the term) to their historic and present plight are in a difficult position, though hardly as difficult as that of the Native American. You seem to touch on this towards the end-- "it seems naive to dare to see these rare acts of empathy for Native causes as sincere attempts to help."
What then do we do? If we are sympathetic we seem either patronizing or insincere; if we immerse ourselves in Indian news, history, and culture, we seem faddist or phony. If we are tolerated at dances and pow-wows, we feel it. If we stay away, we appear indifferent.
I think it is important for Native Americans to know that there is an immense reservoir of goodwill on the part of millions of non-Native Americans who would like to right past wrongs and extend the hand of friendship, but are afraid to do so precisely for fear of seeming naive, or faddist, or phony, or patronizing, to be viewed with suspicion by Native Americans.
Mind you, if I were Native American, I'd, too, be suspicious of every white man who comes along, wondering "What's his game?" Still, we are not all schemers with an agenda.
Any ideas for us? Or does it matter to Native Americans that there are millions of us who care?
Mike in New Mexico
native champion
Kevin,
Great job! This is a fine article and it's good to hear something about the Native plight again. Unfortunately, we do have a long way to go.
There is something about facing your own sins, etc. and the people in this country have much to learn and make peace for. It's so easy to point to finger and join with others to condemn others for their crimes but when it comes to ones own skeletons, well...
I'm sure i'll attempt to locate and read the article.
Keep up the good work.
jp
Jews sympathetic towards Indian issues
I was a tour guide for a busload from Israel. They said they had visited the museum honoring the Jews that were exterminated by the Nazis. They wanted to know why Americans don't know about or care about the Indians exterminated by the white settlers. And where is the museum honoring the tribes and all the Indians exterminated in the United States. I had no answer.
National Museum of the American Indian
There is a museum on the Mall in DC - see http://www.nmai.si.edu/.
It does include much of the history as well as an exhibit on all of the broken treaties. As well as looking at Native American, it also looks at indigenous cultures throughout the Americas - most of whom suffered the same plight from European imperialists. It is worth seeing.
Velma Lashbrook, Eden Prairie, MN
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