Sure You Can Trust The Government

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Text on Button Sure You Can Trust The Government. Just Ask A Whale Or An Indian
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Dark green text over a light green background. The border is lined with a dark green spike pattern design. 

Curl Text © 1990 EPHEMERA INC
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This is a sarcastic play off of the fact that the United States government has historically and violently mistreated whales and Native Americans. Whaling entered its “Golden Age” after the War of 1812 to support the production of oil. When whaling hit its peak during the 1960s, the industry in the United States hunted 80,000 whales a year and nearly drove the species to extinction. Native Americans were met with discrimination and manipulation of their history in an attempt to justify the U.S. government’s actions. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was the legalized, forced relocation of Native Americans to make way for westward expansion. The Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975 gave Native Americans more independence and authority on tribal land. However, their lack of authority over non-tribal members continues to be an ongoing issue, especially regarding hate crimes committed against members of indigenous communities.  

Sources

Kaplan, G. (2022, April 20). A legacy of negligence: The historical mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in the United States. Berkeley Public Policy Journal (Spring 2022). https://bppj.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2022/04/20/a-legacy-of-negligence-the-historical-mistreatment-of-indigenous-peoples-in-the-united-states/ 

National Geographic. (2024, October 1). The United States government’s relationship with Native Americans. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/united-states-governments-relationship-native-americans/ 

PBS. (n.d.). The history of whaling in America. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/whaling-history-whaling-america/ 

Ritchie, H. (2022, November 30). Global whaling peaked in the 1960s. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/whaling 

Catalog ID IB0797