Haven't native Americans suffered enough at the hands of our government ?

This is a tough one, not appropriately answered in a glib blog posting or response. On the one hand I find it sad that native Americans were excluded from the American experience. How much better would it have been had they not been relegated to a special class of persons. On the other hand it's hard to imagine how a stone age people could integrate into a modern society as did all the categories of immigrants who came to America. Yes, it would have been difficult, but wouldn't it have been preferable to the treatment they have received as a "protected class"? Much like blacks in the South and Hawaiians in the islands, they were "cared for" like subhumans. Yes, they were educated (as servants and laborers). Yes, they were wards of a government that felt they could never be fully functioning adults. So, no they haven't suffered "enough"; they've suffered too much. I would offer them the same advice that T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) offered to the Bedouins: "No one can give you freedom".

Gov't Cheat the Indians out of something, Say it ain't so! When I saw this the first thing that ran thru my head is the Primary Chemicals used to separate Gold, Arsenic and Mercury then to hear that this came from and old Abandoned Mine. Arrrggghhh. What Happened to the Superfund that there used to be to address things like this. Like always a day late and a dollar short, Reaction instead of Mitigation.

Taking a lesson from DOD/VA with respect to their despicable actions in regards to Agent Orange and Gulf War Syndrome -- What could go wrong?