I experience an emotional jolt when I read about our Native American population and the conditions that exist on many of our country's Native American Indian Reservations. The Housing Assistance Council states that "Native Americans living on Native American Lands experience some of the highest poverty rates and worst housing conditions in our nation." Poverty is a persistent problem for Native Americans, but is especially so for those living on Native American Lands.
No matter how we spin it, the "way the West was won," remains a wound in our history that for many, has never properly healed. And it seems we haven't found the methodology for nation-wide healing to occur, either. In today's LA Times, a piece written by David Kelly discusses a trailer park that took shape in 2000 (without permits) on the Torres Martinez Indian Reservation. It has now grown to a shantytown with sub-standard wiring, an inadequate sewage system, a dearth of garbage receptacles, and abundant fire hazards. It's unhealthy living for all involved. And this inadequately supported "town" is apparently one of many that have spontaneously developed on Indian lands, without permits, sufficient infrastructure, or funding to implement such standards.
I don't know how to resolve the dilemma of moving a population that has illegally set up house on lands that don't belong to them. Moving these folks now would apparently constitute the biggest forced eviction in recent history. And clearly, this is an issue that exists in other parts of the world, as well. Answers to this conundrum have eluded some of the greatest diplomats of our time.
But this is happening here - in our beloved United States. And the fact that answers are difficult to obtain, is no excuse for not pursuing them. Our Native American foremothers and fathers deserve better. While the national poverty rate for individuals is 12.4 percent, approximately 32.2 percent of Native Americans of Native American lands live in debilitating poverty.
So, while the shantytown shouldn't have been allowed to develop in the first place, now that it exists, I hope that appropriate federal agencies will work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to ensure an infusion of funds to this Reservation. Not only to meet the most basic of needs for the existing Native American community members, but to ensure that nobody lives in squalor on Native American Lands. Our Native American ancestors had a proud heritage. Unless we change the devastating cycle of poverty for this current generation, the pride they should be feeling now, will be little more than a memory.
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"TM and Diabetes among Native Americans"
Spiritual leaders and a medical researcher from the Ho-Chunk tribe in Nebraska talk about how their Transcendental Meditation practice
is in harmony with their ancient cultural traditions —and the importance of a proposed new medical study on TM and diabetes. http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/videos.html
Reservations are the problem. What Native Americans need to do is move away from the reservation and integrate into mainstream America.~~~~~~~~
1.You are part of the problem .
~~~~~~~The land on the reservation belongs to all who are members of the tribe. ~~~~~~~
2. Indians own the land they live on. I don't know which reservation you are talking about but I know of
no tribe that lives on land that the individuals don't own.
~~~~~~~~Ultimately I hope America's indigenous people can be integrated into the rest of society ..
3. Obviously you have never had a conversation with an American Indian and asked them what they want. They do not want to be integrated into a society that is so foreign to their culture and heritage.
One of my best friends is Navajo. When Daniel was a small child the BIA sent him to live with a mormon family in Utah months. The mormons made fun of the culture of his parents.
The BIA has millions and millions of dollars that belongs to American Indians. I have close friends that live on the Navajo reservation that I cannot call because they do not have a phone. I have friends who shower at the KOA facilities because they have no water at their home.
Living on a reservation is the only way you will understand how bad it is for American Indians.
I am Choctaw.I photograph Indian rodeos.
Reservations are the problem. What Native Americans need to do is move away from the reservation and integrate into mainstream America.
Leadership roles in the Native community happen 2 ways... First there is the "leadership" that is recognized by BIA. Those "leaders", while they speak FOR the people TO the BIA, are typically NOT the same leaders that the people themselves look TO. Wisdom and patience are the "hallmarks" of our leaders that we look to... those are NOT what the BIA is looking for when it comes to our leaders.
Our communities are, generally speaking, smaller population-wise but cover a larger geographic area than non-native communities. People travel over great distances for community events and things like weddings and "funerals" ARE community events.
The sad reality is that what "works" in the non-native community generally speaking does NOT work in the Native community because of the vast cultural differences. Sadly most non-natives do not have any comprehension of just how vast the differences are and are unwilling to acknowledge that "your way" is not "better" than ours... merely different. Forcing us to do things "your way" has been being done for 200 years... and has resulted in the near extermination of the Native people AND culture.
It's long-overdue for some justice. The "reservations" are, in effect, Bantustans, like the ones set up by the former South African apartheid government. The tribal "nations" are fictions, manipulated as we've seen to extract bribes in return for gambling facilities. Just what they need, another addictive vice. If they're nations, can they have their own foreign policy?
Ultimately I hope America's indigenous people can be integrated into the rest of society, citizens like any other, so they can achieve what countless groups of immigrants have achieved. Initially, that's going to require infusing of resources and a plan to desegregate them from the rest of society.
I don't know exactly how that would be achieved, but now that we seem to have a decent government, there's an opportunity. I think a basic concept has to be to work with the people involved to see what they envision, rather than "administering" them.
"I think a basic concept has to be to work with the people involved to see what they envision, rather than "administering" them."
A Crow is NOT a Blackfoot OR a Lakota (or even a Brulee)... even though they are all what whites collectively refer to as Sioux. (As a matter of fact the Crow and the Lakota were sworn enemies even though they are both "Sioux" )
An Algonquin is NOT an Inuit is NOT a Navaho....they are completely different Nations. They have VERY different languages, different traditions, different cultures, different beliefs with regards to Wakan Tanka.
It is as patently ridiculous to say that there are no differences between the various Nations of Native Americans as it would be to say that there is "no difference" between a Mexican and a Russian or a South African and an Arab.
I said these "nations" are fictions, they aren't nations with national powers, they are like apartheid Bantustans. It's clear I meant in a political sense, none of these "nations" is like Canada or Guatemala.
I wasn't denying ethnic differences between indigenous groups, but that's a totally different matter, and not really what I was talking about.
My heart is with you and your people.
For those of you that think that Indian people are to blame for what is going on, you need to educate yourself into the entire history of the fight for self determination of native people in this country. Look into the racist policies that denied citizenship to the people who have been here long before you arrived. Look at the way our ancestors were called savages while whites were heroes. You have been sorely deluded if you do not understand the injustice of the BIA.
I still find myself surprised by people who're surprised by the idea that the government would hold people without trial in perpetual prison camps riddled with evidence of human rights violations and war crimes of all sorts. Why? We've been doing it from the beginnings of this country. And as a mutt, I do see both sides of this issue. And I tell you, what some of my ancestors did to others of my ancestry is utterly shameful and abhorrent. Period.
And as for the casino comments: You think they wouldn't like to be able to lift themselves up another way? Be taken seriously by prejudiced people in other ways? They've taken the avenues available to them, nothing more or less than that. You want to talk racism? Reservations make the ghetto look prosaic by comparison. At least those in the ghetto CAN get government help.
It took until the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in the late 1970s for Native children to come CLOSE to having the same RIGHTS as black and white children with regards to their welfare... And even today, 30 years after it was signed into law, compliance with ICWA is minimal and Native children are routinely stripped of their heritage, their families and their communities simply because they ARE Native children.
No wonder depression and crime is rampant.. there are no jobs or any attempt to put broadband or call centers or anything that would be self-sustaining.
Long overdue
ELECTRICITY is a LUXURY... Running water is a luxury...
The justification for the lack of electricity is that the population isn't high enough to justify running it into the areas in question.
It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to drill a community well... no money = no wells = no running water. And forget flush toilets & showers.