Diversity makes for difficulty

Tu Tangata, Issue 22, 1 February 1985, Page 17

Diversity makes for difficulty

American Indians and Maori people share a common affinity with the land, but the sheer diversity and size of the Indian nation makes for some management headaches.

The five hundred tribal governments that make up the Indian nation have many differing customs and languages between them.

It’s this area that Nancy Tuthill, the deputy director of the American Indian Law Centre works in.

She was in New Zealand recently and spoke to Tu Tangata.

Because of the number of tribal governments living on their own land, special relationships have had to be worked out with neighbouring nonIndians, and the Government agencies that service the tribal governments. Nancy says this has resulted in the need for a legal service to the tribes, such as negotiating service contracts.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs controls the amount of government money going

to look after the tribes’ welfare. Now individual tribal Governments are able to negotiate for the right to provide their own policing or health services. If they are successful they then receive the money allocated for these purposes.

Nancy says this is a much better way of doing things, as Indians are encouraged to stand up for themselves.

She says an example of this is success for the law centre she works for. In 1967 there were less than a dozen Indian lawyers but through a self-help programme, five hundred American Indian lawyers are practising.

And she says one of the big pluses of the programme is that other newly graduated non-Indian lawyers who come across legal areas requiring knowledge of Indian custom can contact their fellow graduates for help.

Battling ‘big brother' bureaucracy is a major task, with the goal to build a partnership between tribes and local government says Nancy. “We work at negotiating contracts rather than litigation.”

The legal side also comes into health and education areas for the American Indian. A Headstart Programme rather like kohanga reo has been operating in the pre-school area aiming at improving life for children. Self-determination is a word used a lot, says Nancy.

The tribal governments have two official voices, the National Congress of American Indians and the Tribal Chairmans Association.

The needs of the tribes vary but they all need to develop their economy, cut down on unemployment and improve their health and education expectancy.