Three young Native women dream of making positive changes in Indian County in the future. Courtesy of Lisa Long
On December 10, 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted and announced the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global decree of human rights. As a result, International Human Rights Day is observed and celebrated annually across the world on December 10th every year. This year’s theme is equality and it specifically calls on society to address the rights of Indigenous peoples, among other vulnerable populations.
Native people historically have faced epic oppression and violations of their human rights. When the first Europeans came to the Americas, it was inhabited by millions of sovereign Indigenous peoples. As more settlers arrived, Native people were relentlessly pushed out of their homelands. After the founding of the United States, laws were made to legally support expansion into Native lands at the expense of Native people. From 1778 to 1868, approximately 368 treaties were made between the United States and Indian nations. By 1900, all of those treaties had been broken.
Delaware leaders prepare to unveil the 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt, for view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. From left to right: Denise Stonefish, chief of the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown; former museum director Kevin Gover; Chester “Chet” Brooks, chief of the Delaware Tribe of Indians; and Deborah Dotson, president of the Delaware Nation. May 10, 2018, Washington, D.C. Paul Morigi/AP Images for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian
Each time a treaty was made, Native people lost more land. Removal forced…