We have let it go because we don't have the tools or power to fight it. Let's be honest about this, especially the power part. We have no ability to enforce anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't tell me about the 2nd Amendment and all the guns you have. Having guns did not stop farmers from being foreclosed upon and evicted during the Great Depression. At best it might have bought them a little time but it did not change anything in the end.

I would suggest, if you are not familiar with it, learning about what happened to the Cherokee Nation in north Georgia and east Tennessee. In the 1830's the Cherokees were a prosperous, settled nation of farmers and businessmen; they controlled many of the ferry routes across the rivers; they had their own seat of government at New Echota, Georgia; they had their own written language; in short, they lived lives that were not too different from the white settlers that were pouring into the region. Then gold was discovered in north Georgia, and that sealed the fate of the Cherokees. Pressure was put upon them to sell their land; the tribe held a vote on it. Most of the people who opposed selling and moving to Oklahoma stayed away from the polls, believing that their absence counted as a no vote. Well, it might have in Cherokee culture but by that time New Echota was no longer really calling the shots. Both the state of Georgia and the federal government interpreted the results as a Yes, we will sell our land and move vote, and they acted accordingly. The Cherokees then went to the US Supreme Court which ruled in their favor. President Andrew Jackson, no friend of the Cherokees, reportedly said that the court had made their decision, now let them enforce it. Which the Supreme Court decidedly did not. The Cherokees were then told they had two years to pack up and move. They did not. Two years later United States troops came to every household in the Cherokee Nation and told the inhabitants they had ONE HOUR to get their things together. Thus began the Trail of Tears.

I mention the Cherokee because unlike other tribes, they did not go to war to save their lands. They tried to use the system. In the end, as we all know, it didn't matter what they did. The tribes that fought back also lost. Outside of the reservation system, Native Americans really don't have much power and even inside the reservations they don't have much either. Oh, they can protest against pipelines and mining and other things, but if those in power decide that they want those things, the pipeline will be built, the mine will be built, and the wishes of the people who live there be damned. So please don't talk to me about resistance; it's been tried before. And it failed. The people who resisted are not the ones running things. They are not in Congress, the White House, or the Supreme Court. Instead, many are poor, broken, with very little hope that things will get better.