Domination of American Indian tribes by federal bureaucracies within the U.S. Department of Interior has a long history of creating poverty and despair. While agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education no longer promote a mission to civilize heathens by destroying their pagan culture, the bureaucracies continue to celebrate theft of tribal property and resources, as well as trumpet assimilation as reform.
As noted in an article at Education Week, the fanfare around Obama’s visit to Indian country — like the hoopla over the Cobell settlement — conceals an unmitigated ambition by the White House to privatize the last remaining bastion of authentic socialism in America. After stealing 95% of tribal resource royalties from the Indian Trust Fund, Interior — through Education Secretary Duncan working with Interior Secretary Jewell — now wants to usurp tribal sovereignty by forcing tribal schools to comply with federal control.
Astute observers might notice a pattern emerging under the Obama-Duncan privatization of education plan, particularly those who watched Duncan’s heavy-handed tactics against parents and teachers in the Chicago school district. In Chicago it was poor Blacks that were targeted by the Obama administration for punishment, but the initiative in Indian country is the same: create poverty and failing education through systematic federal theft on behalf of Wall Street, then send the cavalry in to “save” the underclass that just can’t seem to get it together.