The Noble Lie

I try to devote a little bit of time every day to either reading or researching on the web. My latest topic has been the forced sterilization of Native American women in this country.

These sterilizations were done under the auspices of the Indian Health Service, in the name of public health. Jane Lawrence documented the stories of many Natives in her American Indian Quarterly article, "The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American women." This happened in the latter part of the 20th century, not hundreds of years ago.

A University of Omaha masters student also tackled the topic, examining it in light of other sterilization and eugenics programs in the public health system at the time.

Cecil of the Straight Dope doesn't buy this figure. He's a debunker, and he's ready to debunk this question from a reader. He makes a reasonable argument, but knowing a bit about Native American issues, I have to make a few points here.

• His first argument, and the one that concerns me the most, is that he thinks the number is inflated due to the utter shock and horror of such a revelation. Any student of 20th century history (or anybody that lived through it) knows that shocking, horrible, inhuman, monstrous things happened quite frequently in human events. Native Americans have borne the brunt of more than their share of atrocities in this country.
• His second argument is that Native American population figures have been going up, not down. Clearly his best argument, but people should realize that the definition of Native American (or Indian as the government refers to them) has changed time and time again over the years. Many Natives were not "in the system" until recently, less likely to be born in hospitals, less likely to have birth certificates, and less likely to have accurate population counts. Also, many Natives are fighting to get their Indian status back from the government as a result of a number of Termination acts which stripped them of their tribal status, especially in California. Establishing your tribal identity takes many, many years and a ridiculous amount of documentation, much of which doesn't exist for reasons I mentioned above. However, more and more tribes have been taking on this task and restoring their tribal status.
• He writes, "The GAO didn't find that the women had been coerced but did find the IHS guilty of sloppy paperwork--consent forms didn't comply with Health, Education and Welfare regulations, and management and record keeping were inadequate." I haven't seen these Health, Education and Welfare regulations, but I would hope these regulations exist to establish and clarify what constitutes "consent," and the lack of such documentation means there was no consent. Also, one must take into account that this is the tone the GAO uses when reporting all findings. They go into specific violations of specific rules. They're not going to come out and say "liar, liar, pants on fire" or "murderers!!"
• His next argument is to cite the Indian Health Service's own statistics. Oy vey. Did they compile those statistics from their "sloppy paperwork?" Even if they are honest about their own atrocities, it doesn't matter how small the number is. Even if it's just one person, forcible sterilization is an atrocity.