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The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Essay

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The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.
One such ethical concern, at the time, was that of proper and just compensation for the Seneca Nation. For many Native American peoples, the loss of land can be a significant cultural and psychological detriment. Following the Kinzua Dam Controversy, the United States government should have more appropriately compensated the Seneca Nation for its loss of land, during the Kinzua Dam Controversy, which held immense cultural, natural, and even recreational value. Moreover, the United States Government’s exploitation of Native Americans, during the Kinzua Dam Controversy and the current Standing Rock Controversy, reflects a lack of respect for Native American sovereignty and cultural connection to nature, which

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