Legislation_Legacy

Legislation Legacy Donna Curry ETH 125 April 29th 2011 Axia College Legislation Legacy The Native Americans have faced a wide variety of issues with the federal government. My research had guided me to some of the issues such as law enforcement, safety, infant mortality, nutrition and poverty but, I wanted to bring into light the issue that is still current today, and has been for decades, so I decided to write about land issues. The fight for land is probably the most important issue since it directly relates to other issues such as fishing and hunting, safety, nutrition and poverty and unemployment just to name a few. Native Americans gave up most of their land with the promise that they could remain on reservations, land that the federal government had promised them. I don’t think they realized that climate changes and natural disasters could have an effect on their land. I thought a good example of this legislative issue would be the effect of the safety and hunting issues of the Quileute Tribe in the state of Washington. The Quileute Tribe was at great risk of environmental issues on their reservation. The Quileute Tribe most famously known for their role in the novel “twilight” written by Stephanie Meyer’s had feared that their schools, official public facilities and many homes could be in the direct path of a tsunami. The Quileute officials are seeking legislature to swap land, moving them to higher ground in the Olympic National Forest. This would also resolve a fifty year boundary dispute with the National Park Service which they are in favor of. The Quileute officials also had pointed out that recent river flooding and high waters on their reservation had eroded fishing and hunting lands, making food resources difficult. Legislation is directly connected to this issue because the inland borders are connected to the federal owned National Park Service land. Quileute officials fought for this legislation for fear of a natural disaster and unpredictable circumstances. This legislature specifies certain federal land within the Olympic National Park as wilderness land owned by the Quileute Indian tribe and held by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.