Addicted to drugs and welfare - surely. Hopeless? I don't know.
In California Indian tribes suddenly have gambling money. Before this most were pretty much hopeless. Now? Well, it would be interesting to know. I suspect they're doing pretty well since white people are attempting to take their action - as usual.
If not totally hopeless, they are as hopeless a people I've ever seen. They now live in a glue-sniffing culture wrought with suicide and lacking in any family structure.
If you haven't seen it, I can see how you wouldn't believe how bad it is.