Column: Understanding of contemporary Indian issues lagging

People claim indigenous blood when it’s more family lore than biological fact. Native people are seen as spiritual entities, somehow more divine. It’s one reason imagery of the noble Indian is rampant, but understanding of contemporary tribal issues is lagging.

Daniel R. Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation and a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, addresses one such topic in an opinion piece on the Washington Post’s website. He discusses reparations for Native Americans, long a tumultuous topic in regard to African-Americans. He addresses it not only in the context of the past, but with a mindset of how environmental abuses, including climate change, could be viewed.

Wildcat details the depth of damage done to native people by the taking of their land and the relationships involved for them — air, water, plant and animal life, along with identity and religion.