The American Guilt Complex

I typically refuse to use the phrase "American" when talking about United States citizens. That phrase represents so much of what is wrong with the U.S. Somehow "we" developed the idea the events on this continent revolve around us.
A casual...it does not even need to be careful...look at a map of the Americas might bring a person to the stunning conclusion that North America alone has more than one country. I foolishly believe Canada and Mexico manage to border the United States, be on the North American continent, and thus have every bit as much claim to the title of American as citizens of the United States.
Of course, that would require people to look outside their borders. And frankly, I doubt many Americans want the connotations that go along with the phrase "American". "Ugly American" is an international buzzword. It is no more and no less accurate than any other stereotype but is used as a marker for some of the rudeness that many U.S. people possess.
It is a valid point to say the shortsightedness of U.S. citizens extends past calling themselves Americans as if they were the only occupants of the land. The guilt complex possessed by many of these people extends to the past but not the present.
Things such as the 1868 Lakota Treaty are in legal limbo to this day. Native Americans exist in the land in a world not of their choosing and in a status that nobody seems to be clear on what that status is. Some Native Americans are considered and consider themselves U.S. citizens while other neither are considered to be, nor want to be.
One treaty still in effect promises the Cherokee a representative in the U.S. Senate. Check the rolls...do the Cherokee as a people have a representative? That brings up another interesting point.
If we as a country feel so much guilt about the wrongs done to the Native Americans...why is there no outcry over this injustice? Do they not deserve a representative? Do they not need one? Is that treaty invalid?
I guess this is just another example of where the rubber meets the road. It is easy to "feel bad" about an accomplished fact that happened 1-2 hundred years ago. We don't have to actually DO anything other than talk about how bad Jackson treated his Creek allies or how horrendous Wounded Knee or the "whitening Indians" schools were.
I would be interested to know how many people driving around with Dream Catchers on their rearview mirrors on their way to the sweatlodge ritual while planning a trip to the Grande Ronde casino next weekend would be willing to write their Senator and demand a seat for the Cherokee?
Maybe it is time to stop feeling guilty and start feeling active.