Posted on 04/24/2017 8:58:20 AM PDT by servo1969
We've all heard about how many bad things the U.S. government did to American Indians in the past. But what about today?
Like most people, the only time I hear about today's American Indians is when people are outraged about sports mascots or team names, like the Washington Redskins. But sports teams' names are the least of Indians' problems.
Did you know that Indians have the highest rate of poverty of any racial group in America? Did you know that alcoholism is more common among Indian youths than among youths in any other ethnic group? Did you know that the rate of child abuse among Indians is twice as high as the national average?
Until I visited Indian reservations for my book, The New Trail of Tears, I didn't know any of this. What was at the root of these terrible problems? I wondered. And the deeper I dug, the more I realized that, between the 19th century and today, nothing has changed: it's still the government.
The two main agencies that oversee the activities of Indians who live on reservations are the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, and the Bureau of Indian Education, or BIE. Education, economic development, tribal courts, road maintenance, agriculture and social services - the federal government basically funds and controls all of it. It's no wonder Indians say BIA stands for "Bossing Indians Around."
Together, these two agencies have combined budgets of $3 billion per year, and have 9,000 employees. That's one employee for every 111 Indians on a reservation. Of that $3 billion per year, the BIE uses $850 million of it to educate 42,000 students. That's more than $20,000 per student, compared to a national average of $12,400 per student.
Plenty of other federal agencies also have programs for Indians. For instance, the Indian Health Service had a 2015 budget of over $4.6 billion. And yet, there are widespread and documented reports of nurses being unable to administer basic drugs, of broken resuscitation equipment, and of unsanitary medical facilities.
Obviously, inadequate funding isn't the problem.
The billions of dollars that the federal government spends on Indians every year hasn't made their lives better. In fact, by most measures of economic and social health, the lives of American Indians are only getting worse.
Aside from issues of culture, the only way out of this morass is economic growth, but the reservation system makes this almost impossible. Following a series of treaties and laws over many decades - some well intentioned, some not - the federal government decided to hold Indian land "in trust" in order to prevent non-Indians from ever buying that land. But other than Indians, the only people who have things held in trust for them are children and the mentally incompetent.
Can anything better illustrate the low regard the government has for American Indians?
The awful consequence of this land trust is that Indians can't sell their land, which means they can't use it the same way other Americans do - for example, as collateral to get a loan to start a business. What bank would lend to landowners who don't own their land?
The other effect of this absurdity is that Indians can't develop this land that they don't own. Indian reservations contain almost 30 percent of the nation's coal reserves west of the Mississippi, 50 percent of potential uranium reserves, and 20 percent of known oil and gas reserves. Those resources are estimated to be worth nearly $1.5 trillion. But the vast majority of Indian lands with natural resources remain undeveloped because of federal regulations.
For instance, for Indians to get permission to mine for coal on Indian land requires 49 steps spanning four federal agencies. Each of these 49 steps can take months or years to be approved. There are so many government regulations that just to apply for a permit to dig a hole costs $6,500.
Is it really any wonder that this community is mired in poverty?
So, what can be done?
For starters, end the trust system. Let Indians do what they want with the land they own. Get the massive federal bureaucracy out of the way. Give American Indians the opportunity to embrace the same thing that has lifted millions of other people out of poverty and into the middle class: free enterprise.
It won't happen overnight, and it won't be easy, but it will do a lot more for American Indians than changing the name of the Washington Redskins.
I'm Naomi Schaefer Riley for Prager University.
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Around these parts the odds at the local casinos are always in favor of the house.
If to that was added “an even wiser God who will lead your way” that would have been the signpost to true success. As it is, I can well tell how figuring it all out myself only led me down a rabbit hole.
American Indians are doing what American Indians have always been customarily doing, except that they can’t even be nomads anymore. If they kept on moving around, they would have to forever accommodate themselves to new surroundings. Sitting around on a reservation doubtless makes them b-o-r-e-d. The one grace of God that they had which kept their interest up, was taken from them, and none has replaced it. Why do you think they dream of happy hunting grounds in heaven? Because they were hunters by nature.
Not trying to be silly, but all too many people with American Indian blood REALLY embrace that heritage and at its core is a heritage of defeat....sad but true.
Why do you think they dream of happy hunting grounds in heaven? Because they were hunters by nature.
Brother had to remind him it was the white man that brought the horse.
Their romantic view of the past aint realistic and neither is ours I guess.
In the meantime, we also "get a job".
A good start would be eliminating the bureau ofindian affairs.
How much of your money has this crappola wasted.
“Around these parts the odds at the local casinos are always in favor of the house.”
Same in Las Vegas, or anywhere. They don’t build those huge expensive places for the purpose of giving money away to the public.
Nothing is stopping them from being successful except themselves.
My wife and I took in a green card carrying mexican woman with six kids back in the late 80’s. She was part of the Clinton Amnesty program. We looked for work for her for six weeks and finally found it. She worked two days and quit because she “wanted to be with her kids.
Of course, the job only paid $100 a month more than her welfare benefits, so she was, in effect, working 40 hours a week for $100 a month. She had become a ward of the state, and all of the rungs on the ladder to success that were at the starting point were too low, compared to her welfare benefits, to motivate her to ever take one step on that ladder.
As long as we give people enough money to live on, most will take it and call it good. As Rush used to say, they give them just enough to keep them miserable - and voting democrat.
Your friend was a rare breakaway.
I have spent most of my life around Plains Indians.
They are “Users” and not “Producers”. That is their history. They would use up all the resources in one area and then they would move on. They would also take resources from others if they could. This was possible when you had groups of a couple hundred roaming across a mostly deserted continent.
Won’t work now. The User way of life is as outmoded as the lance and travois.
Now, they use up their resources and then start begging the white man for more resources. The Democrat Party takes advantage of them because they can get the Indians to vote five times in each election for the Democrats.
The reservations, and the Democrats, have turned them into beggars.
I get it. The tax system sucks, and yeah, Accountants could do much more productive stuff, only we would no longer need so many. Not even close.
We both think it sucks, the only difference is that I think it is here to stay for as long as the government that requires it exists. You think there can be some change to something that we both agree is better - without the country being, in effect, forced into it.
That is the only place we differ. So I’m with you! Let’s fight for that fair tax - once there is a smidgen of chance we could win that fight.
” ... Start treating them just like all other Americans protected by the U.S. constitution - no better and no worse - and theyll start improving.”
Yes, if only there wasn’t a law requiring that Indians stay on the reservation ...oh, wait.
The problem is that they are like a child starting out on a bike with training wheels and nobody ever bothers to tell them all the benefits of taking them off, so they spend their entire life just riding a bike with training wheels, never knowing the joy of riding without them.
In a patriarchal (rather than matriarchal) form of government, dad takes the training wheels off and, after a couple of skinned knees, maybe, you are on your own. But there are too many afraid of skinned knees, and here we are...
This whole subject makes me sad. I am proud of my daughter’s 20% native population and I don’t like to hear from FReepers that her genes are loser genes.
Rather, I believe it is the system, the environment, and not the genes that allowed such a passive culture.
Yes get rid of the BIA. Let the Native Americans run things. Nothing wrong with having their own identity either. No one is asking the Welsh and Scots to give up their identity and become English. I have met Native Americans that are the hardest workers I have ever seen and yes there are some who suffer from alcohol and drug abuse. It is a complex problem but things could improve if the government let them run things as they see fit.
Siberian Americans.
How and why?
“Let Indians do what they want with the land they own.”
Corrupt tribal officials would, sooner or later, loot the tribes six ways from Sunday.
Native Americans needs some help - the first is to get the rights for minerals and oil and gas from their lands. Next is to use the money to start small business - not casinos. The tribal leaders needs to help the members and that would be building health centers...
Yeah, take my aunt, her dad was Ho Chunk, they got casinos, so as 1/2 she gets annually more money for doing nothing than you get for working your butt off. And her kids being 1/4 each get half of what she gets. It absolutely sucks for them, they call me every week crying about how terrible it is to get free money because they belong to an ethnic group that is allowed to open casinos in states that otherwise don’t allow gambling. Won’t somebody please help them? Won’t somebody please stop this oppression? :(
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