Navajos largely unscathed by recession

AP via Yahoo News ^ | Sun May 17, 2009 | Felicia Fonseca

[posterchild]

TONALEA, Ariz. – Talk at the community center in this small Navajo town isn't as focused on the economy as it is in many places off the reservation.

That's because the people living on the largest American Indian reservation have been largely unscathed by the recession.

Most Navajos own their own homes, tend not to invest in the stock market and have long had difficulties borrowing money, distinguishing them from millions of other Americans who've suffered from rising mortgage payments, sinking 401(k) retirement accounts and stricter terms from lenders.

And with half of the Navajo Nation's work force unemployed long before this latest recession hit, there's not much fear the job situation could get much worse on the reservation.

"They're freaking out out there, but to us, we've always had 50 percent unemployment," said John C. Whiterock, a Navajo youth pastor. "To us, that's just part of life."

That's not to say the 200,000 people who live on the largest American Indian reservation, which extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, have escaped untouched. Tribal officials are wrangling over how to address a $25 million budget shortfall and requests for social services have prompted newspaper ads for more employees to handle them.

The key has been the ability of Navajos who maintain traditional beliefs to cope, and the attitude that allows them to persevere. The culture teaches that wealth isn't measured by dollars and that the language, the land and kinship are the greatest survival tools.

[Vermont Lt]

Thank you for a great answer. The only tribes we have in New England are for casinos. This is a very “western” issue that we hear little about.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Well, something to keep in mind is the fact that there are NO REAL reservations east of the Mississippi, despite what those particular Indians try to argue. Their “reservations” are simply recreations (through private purchases of land) of those bought out in the early 19th century, as opposed to the treaty reservations further west, where tribes were settled following bloody Indian wars.