That is very sad. I can’t help but believe that if government was not doling out cash and trying to control these people all the time, that their societies would be much healthier. Most NA that I have met were successful, sober and not living on the reservation. The poverty that I saw while driving these back country reservation roads was heart breaking as well.
You can lay the poverty at the feet of the welfare system. While they never should have been there in the first place, they’ve been trapped by the welfare system in modern times.
Tribal law works against them in every way. Nobody owns property, it’s all communally held. For a white(ish) person like myself to live there, a native employer has to rent a domicile on your behalf, or you live in housing controlled by such an employer like Indian Health Services. No private property, no wealth.
Most young natives would like to leave, but leaving takes money they don’t have. They don’t have the means to travel to a city off the reservation and secure housing to search for a job. And leaving means giving up what little money they are receiving. Without a relative already living off the reservation, it’s almost impossible.
Most are literally trapped on the reservation.