Perhaps We should Free the 567 Nations We Subject to our Rule

   Perhaps we should set the Native Americans free, give them their own sovereignty -- I mean, entirely so, not even requiring them to remain part of the U.S.
   America being America, should it go in and conquer another nation? Are we a nation of conquest, one that takes over other nations and subjects them to our rule?
   Hmm, yes, indeed we are, at least when it comes to the Native Americans, From the time Europeans set foot on this land, we have been conquering, taming and ruling the people this land rightly belongs to.
   Perhaps, it's time to give their independence back.
   To this day, we are ruling over them. We have an agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, that presides over them, regulating their every move. The Native Americans on some of the reservations are not even allowed to own that land. Rather, the U.S. owns it.
   Perhaps, it's time to give their lands back.
   A year ago this month, it was announced that after all these years of oppressing them, we were going to give them $1 billion to make better, $1 billion to assuage how we have treated them. I would ask, is that enough? They once owned the whole of the land, It was theirs.
   Perhaps, it's time to give them their nations back.
   Pause on that one, because if we did give them full independence, that would be 567 nations, for there are 567 recognized tribes in America. Be that as it may, one could argue, we owe them their freedom. This land is their land -- or was -- from sea to shining sea. If we cannot give them the whole of it back, don't we at least owe them the freedom of being their own nations?
   If we have unjustly conquered a nation, we must do the just thing and give them back freedom back. And, if we have done this to as many as 567 nations, maybe we should allow 567 nations to go free.
  I guess we could leave it up to them. Ask each tribe whether they want their own nationhood, or whether they want statehood, or whether they simply want us to deed over the land they live on to them, taking it out of the hands of U.S. government ownership and giving it to them as individuals.
   I'm just saying. And, if this all sounds a little bizarre, maybe do it anyway. Sometimes, doing the right thing differs a little from making sure to not do anything too radical.
  (Article corrected and changed Sept. 6, 2016)