For hundreds of years, Native Americans have dealt with countless instances of racial discrimination. Natives were forced to leave their homes behind, ousted by an insensitive and intolerant government. America claims to have learned from its past mistakes. Indeed, reparations have been paid, casinos opened, and drug laws “enforced,” but even as we right past wrongs, we still have not learned from our mistakes.
Just last week, a group of whites successfully claimed a Native American reservation as their own. Last Tuesday, Frank Ironcloud decided to go out to dinner with his family. “We wanted to go to a nice Italian restaurant, so I decided it would be a good idea to call the restaurant and make sure we’d have a spot. When we got there, I found out my reservation had been taken,” said Ironcloud.
Lucie Ferro explained what happened next: “I didn’t know what to say. Just five minutes earlier a group came in and acted like they had reservations. Ironcloud definitely sounds like an Indian name, but we aren’t allowed to use racial profiling here, so I couldn’t do anything. Then, when the real Ironcloud came in, it was too late. There weren’t any reservations left.”
Another sad tale in restaurant management and mistreatment of Native Americans.
