Hot Topics: Native American Rights: Home

We acknowledge that we are on the traditional, ancestral, unceded land of the Báxoǰe (Bah Kho-je) or Ioway, Sauk (Sac), and Meskwaki (Fox) peoples. We offer our respect to the elders of these peoples, both past and present, as well as future generations.

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Definitions:

Native Americans  In the United States, Native Americans (also known as American Indians or simply Indians) are people descended from the pre-Columbianindigenous population of the land within the country's modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of numerous distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups, and many of these groups survive intact today as partially sovereign nations.

Legal Definition of voting rights: rights of participation in especially public elections

Dakota Access Pipeline:The Dakota Access Pipeline or Bakken pipeline is a 1,172-mile-long (1,886 km) underground oil pipeline project in the United States. The pipeline is being planned by Dakota Access, LLC, a subsidiary of the Dallas, Texas corporation Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. It will begin in the Bakken oil fields in Northwest North Dakota and will travel in a more or less straight line south-east, through South Dakota and Iowa, and end at the oil tank farm near Patoka, Illinois. The pipeline is due for delivery on January 1, 2017.
The pipeline has been controversial regarding its necessity, and potential harm to the environment. A number of Native Americans in Iowa and the Dakotas have opposed the pipeline, including the Meskwaki and several Sioux tribal nations.

Police brutality is a civil rights violation that occurs when a police officer acts with excessive force by using an amount of force with regards to a civilian that is more than necessary. Excessive force by a law enforcement officers is a violation of a person's rights. Excessive force is not subject to a precise definition, but it is generally beyond the force a reasonable and prudent law enforcement officer would use under the circumstances.
Force should be used in only the minimum amount needed to achieve a legitimate purpose. Police brutality is a direct violation of the laws within the police force. The use of excessive force is also a direct violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S Constitution regarding cruelty and protection of the laws.