Native American civil rights

Native American civil rights are the civil rights of Native Americans in the United States. Because Native Americans are citizens of their tribal nations as well as the United States, and those tribal nations are characterized under U.S. law as "domestic dependent nations", a special relationship that creates a particular tension between rights retained via tribal sovereignty and rights that individual Natives obtained as U.S. citizens. This status creates tension today, but was far more extreme before Native people were uniformly granted U.S. citizenship in 1924. Assorted laws and policies of the United States government, some tracing to the pre-Revolutionary colonial period, denied basic human rights—particularly in the areas of cultural expression and travel—to indigenous people.

After years of unequal schooling, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was formed to fight for equal education for Native Americans in 1969. Another right sought was media protection: advocates went all the way to the United Nations to seek laws that protected the rights of Native people to own their own media, and for the prosecution of those who persecuted their journalists.Religious rights was a part of Native American oppression as well. Until 1935, Native American people could be fined and sent to prison for practicing certain traditional religious beliefs. In more recent times, there has been controversy around the use of Native American symbols such as for school or team mascots. Concerns are that the use of the symbols distort Native American history and culture and often stereotype in offensive ways.

With the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) in 1968, also called the Indian Bill of Rights, Native Americans were guaranteed many civil rights they had been fighting for. The ICRA supports the following:

Other civil rights such as sovereignty, hunting and fishing, and voting are still issues facing Native people today.

Indigenous religions in the Americas are diverse and complex. Religious practices range from individual prayers, rituals, and offerings to large intertribal ceremonies. Usually religious expressions were defined by one's tribe; however, religious practices exist that span multiple tribes. Each tribal group has its own oral histories.

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