Lift our Indian Reservations out of Poverty
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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Some American Indians are looking to the great Vedic tradition of India for a new approach to their problems of poverty, ill health and stress. The Ho-Chunk tribe in Nebraska has introduced Ayur Vedic medicine, Vedic organic farming and the Transcendental Meditation program. These are self empowering methodologies that restore coordination with nature in body, mind and environment. Check out a beautiful documentary called:
"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
Mrs. Saban, this is a situation that is very dear to me, you see I am very aware of the Indians situation. I think it is a crying shame, the way the American Indian was done and then turn right around and leave them in horrible conditions, what a slap in the face and then hollor out that we are a Christian nation. My bible tells me to love your neighbor, I always tell people we live in the greatest country but to be greater you have to rid injustice, we have our demons also, and we have to be truthful even if the truth hurts. I stated this in another one of my bloggs about the great American Indian, I found out they were trying to defend themselves from people who were not trustworthy back to them, I had to take a class about the American Indian and I was floored at what I found out, injustice had been done to these great people and the truth in the history books were not put in it. Like so many other truths were not stated in the American history book, I love the American Indian, I want them to know that I respect them, and care about them, they are the true Americans and they have a great history. I celebrate them and PBS is doing a documentary, about the history of the great American Indian Let me say also the movie is produced by a white man.
Thank you for giving voice to this. For me, a non-native, I fell this is the most important issue in this country. Giving primacy to the lives of the people who lived here first.
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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.
When people live out of the mainstream they aren't going to prosper economically. Reservations are just Native American ghettoes. If you look at the inner city and a reservation you won't see much difference. Not many jobs because there aren't many businesses. Lots of substance abuse. Lots of people relying on govt. subsidies.
Reservations are the problem. What Native Americans need to do is move away from the reservation and integrate into mainstream America.
Your last suggestion has been the demand coming from whites who are unable or unwilling to ACCEPT those who TRY to integrate for 200 years... and it has been entirely unsuccessful.
I was about to offer a similar response, but you did it so much better.
This was meant as a comment on SelenicMagick's response to RightWingMarine, but for some reason it ended up here.
Cheryl Saban is right when she outlines the terrible conditions Native Americans face. While there has always been far too little effectively targetted money from the US Government and private sources, there are small things communities can do for the original inhabitants of this land. Health care, education and economic development for areas most in need should not be unattainable. Groups of one million or so people are routinely helped after mass disasters in many parts of the World. Here in America we can drive to virtually anywhere there are groups of Native Americans who need assistance. Health clinics can be set up by physicians and nurses paying back student loans and serving in them at reasonable cost; and the same applies for schools. I have never understood why manufacturing consumer products could not be done on reservations when the land can be the "buy in" for this purpose by each tribe. If the Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and even Cuban military can use their "military reservations" to attract manufacturing, tourism and other job-creating investment, why not Native Americans?
Haven't McCain and the BIA held billions of dollars "in trust" for NAs for years? Why hasn't that money been dispersed?
The BIA has held money in trust for years... more than 100 years. Democrats are as guilty as Republicans when it comes to the treatment of Native Americans at the National level.
One of the ways our society enables us to aquire wealth is through home ownership. What we have to do is be creative as it relates to the reservations. The land on the reservation belongs to all who are members of the tribe. The result is no one qualifies for a mortgage because the individual does not own the land under the house. Maybe setting up some sort of co-op would be an answer to one of the problems that face Native Americans.
Wish we could hear from the folks who actually live there; maybe we'd have a better idea of what's keeping them from better community organization and leadership. The right tools, some good ideas would help them find their own solutions. A co-op might work, but it's gotta be a grass-roots thing.
We have both community organization and leadership... but the words do not mean the same thing in the Native community that they do in the non-native community and neither function the same way in the Native community.
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.
The west wasn't won. It was stolen.
Hear, hear.
I have always said that LMPE. I never watch those kinds of movies. Lying proganda!
Along with slavery, this situation is part of our national "original sin."
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.
What you "want" with regards to Native Americans isn't what THEY want or need and it would behoove people to ASK them what they need rather than blindly assuming that they "know" what is needed.
That's what I said.
"I think a basic concept has to be to work with the people involved to see what they envision, rather than "administering" them."
Oh and if you do not believe that there are differences between the various Nations of Native Americans I would strongly advise NOT espousing that opinion too loudly... because someone is likely to hand you your head for doing so. There are VAST differences, even between individual tribes that are part of the same Nation.
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.
You totally misunderstood what I wrote.
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.
This blog has been long overdue. It is time Native Americans join HuffPo and share their thoughts and rich experiences.
The average income on the reservation is less than $5000 a year. Things like running water, electricity and modern sanitation are not even available to 60% of Native Americans... Do you REALLY think that a computer is going to be high on the priority list?
No, but those who do have access to computers can make an effort to highlight things. You will be surprise how wide and fast news can spread through the internet. Don't suffer in silence. I am sure more news concerning the plight of your people will be highlighted by bloggers in HuffPo.
My heart is with you and your people.
TV sets are and they are a passive form of learning. Computers would be better.
I am 3/8 Cherokee. That means that I have 3 great grandparents who were Cherokee (and actually one very loving grandmother. I look White and have been reared with all of the advantages that entails. My cousin, who is only 1/4 Cherokee, actually looks Indian and has never gotten the kinds of advantages I have had. I have postgraduate degrees and teach at the university level; she finished high school and just got laid off from her job as a factory worker. Our family came to Oklahoma and western Arkansas in two waves: the old settlers and the forced migration under the orders of the awful President Andrew Jackson known as the Trail of Tears. Many of our family members died in this brutal forced march. Oklahoma was to be Indian Territory -- that is until the Whites decided that they needed more land and oil was more important than treaties once again. So again, Indian people were moved aside for whites.
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.
The BIA has systematically violated the rights of millions... for the exclusive "good" of whites. To me that is criminal and EVERY public official should be held responsible for the genocide occurring on the reservations due to the criminal acts of the BIA and whites who proudly continue to believe the LIE that the US Government has a "plenary relationship" with the Native Peoples.
Hear, hear. Weren't NAs granted citizenship in 1924? They could not own firearms in S. Dak. until 1957. Made hunting a little difficult. Of course, the football team in our NATION'S capitol is STILL called the Redskins, a pejorative equal to the "n" word. And the baseball team in Atlanta uses some weird hand gesture to show team support. Given the black populations in both of those cities, you would think that someone would protest. Guess it's the ox thing.
Are you saying that a group of Non-Native peoples have moved their trailor park onto Band land without permission, or are you saying that the First people dragged some trailors onto their own land in an effort to have housing even though there isn't a supporting infrastructure? Either way "reserves" or "reservations" are deplorable lands designed to keep humans from succeeding. In Canada it is the same, scrub land with very little resourses. We give them $5 a year if they are "registered Indians" - how very big of us white folks. Rightwingmarine asked if it was American to give one group of people different treatment based on ethnicity ,I answer yes America (Canada too) was founded on one ethnic group treating another differently due to ethnicity. I ask him if it only ok if group being treated differently isn't getting a house to live in? I lived on a reserve in Manitoba for years as a teen and graduated there - it was not a posh neighbourhood of free mansions, I tell you. Old delapidated exmilitary houses were dragged in from old bases to the reserves and if they were lucky thy might get wired to the power and phone. Don't count on the water - ever - there's a pump truck for that...oooh they don't tax for groceries - gas - smokes bought on reserve - you can't really buy things on reserves. it's just a place of poverty , though full of hope and optimism and happy
I love how we still call them Reservations. If we were honest about what they are, then it would be acknowledged that these are concentration camps, run by the U.S. Government for about 200 YEARS.
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.
YES they ARE concentration camps.
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.
The US govt took the best land from the Native Americans, treated them like lepers, made them prisoners and consigned them to land that could grow nothing. They were not allowed to own large herds of cattle, large plots of land or keep their culture and language. The gov't did allow them to become dependent on handouts of a sort and did nothing to combat alcoholism or drugs getting onto the 'rez'. The BLM made a concerted effort to keep mineral rights on Indian lands.. If you look at Reservation maps, please note that they own no huge expanse.. rather the land is checkerboarded with BLM and private land so they never forget who 'owns' them.
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
There isn't the infrastructure for broadband, call centers or anything else.
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.
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