I have a good friend of mine who goes off on how Native American's aren't the kindest, they were blood thirsty, started wars for no reason, scalped, etc. so I started to read up on my own Native American heritage, the Blackfoot Nation.
One book I am reading is the translated stories and trials of every day life, many of the elders tell of what the white man did to them, and when they did go to war with them, it wasn't for nothing, at least to them. A broken treaty, breaking their word, which to the Native American's, meant a lot, hunting on sacred ground, stealing of hides or traps, raping their woman if they caught them alone. For me, it gave a much different picture than what we are taught in school, and I can certainly see the slanted history in our books that we teach children in school as well.
Yes, even today we still get discriminated against. When I ran fire/rescue, I was often called "Navaho", stressing the ho part, if we were at a parade that was my call sign, "Navaho 9" as we were station 9. I never said much but I did tell the boys once that the reason Custer got his 4th point of contact handed to him was because he was a narcissistic white man who thought we savages were stupid. Shut them up for a while. Been called "squaw" too a few times.
One time stands out for me as for me, feeling proud. My best friend and I were at the Crazy Horse Monument and memorial looking around, reading the history behind it, when a very beautifully dressed Lakota Sioux in full war regalia came up to me and asked, "What Nation do you belong to?" I had my hair in a braid, I tan very well and he said you could just see it by the way I walked, my cheek bones, my manners, that I was Native. We talked for some time and I have a great photo of us together.
Going through the Navajo reservation in North Dakota, the many houses boarded up, the way those who are there still live. I often ask, why are we so worried about 3rd world countries, their children, always going over seas to build houses and better them when our own people, the Native people, could use that help too? Why don't we help them?! The Peace Corp can't go build better houses for the elderly Native Americans? They can't send counselors and all that to them?
Okay, let me shove my soap box back under my chair.....