I am a Native American from Arizona. I never heard of the Akaka Bill till I was listening to a Phoenix radio talk show this morning. The host was highly upset about the possibility of the Native Hawaiians becoming a sovereign nation. He said, too, we do not need another Indian Reservation in the United States where indigenous people seek handouts.
I wished people studied American History of Native people and what it is like to have land taken away. And see why generations later the people do not know how to be self-determination. Also some of the Indian treaties were dealt as a foreign nation, depending on what the government wanted from us. My nation had copper. There are so many people who are running our govenment who do not know how many federally recognized Indian Nations there are and what is Indian Law. Each Nation has different laws and none are the same.
Are people overwhelmed with the idea of another sovereign nation? Or are people afraid of what happened in South Africa? The blacks took back the land that was taken over a century ago by white Europeans.
Just a thought.
”’Tom Lees is a Native American who resides in Arizona.”’