Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren today released a suite of policy ideas for honoring and empowering Tribal Nations and indigenous peoples.
Warren and Rep. Deb Haaland also announced a far-reaching legislative proposal to directly address critical unmet needs in Indian Country identified by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. There will be a public input and comment period for this legislative proposal to allow Tribal governments, citizens, experts, and other stakeholders to offer input and suggestions in advance of designing the bill and introducing it in Congress.
In 2003, the United States Commission on Civil Rights released a report on the state of federal support for Indian Country. The report detailed the chronic failure of the federal government to provide the resources necessary to fulfill its promises to Native Americans, and noted that, as a result, “Native Americans continue to rank at or near the bottom of nearly every social, health, and economic indicator.”
In December of last year, the Civil Rights Commission released a follow-up report to examine what progress had been made in the 15 years since the initial report. The new report, titled Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans, concluded that subsequent federal efforts had resulted in “only minor improvements, at best, for the Native population as a whole,” and that “in some respects, the U.S. Government has backslid in its treatment of Native Americans.”
Read more about Warren’s proposals here.
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