Time Essay: Should We Give the US. Back to the Indians?

Of the nation's 216 million people, nearly 1 million are descended from the Indian tribes that were sprinkled about the continent when the Europeans first came settling. The Indians, since the confrontation at Wounded Knee in 1890 that marked the end of their serious resistance to the white newcomers, have lived in relative peace amid the prevalent society. They are among the poorest of all national minorities, the most prone to illness, the least educated, the most resistant to assimilation into the mainstream of American life. They have been, as well, the least...

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