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.
Cry me a river...really.
I heard, from the lips of a Tribal chief, the following direct quote:
“Biggest mistake the Red Man made was taking a penny of the White Man’s money. That’s what broke our spirit, and why I have more people in drug rehab on this reservation than I do working at Tribal enterprises.
Do not come in here and tell me if I build it here, it will bring jobs. I have jobs in my businesses that nobody will take because it is easier to live in their shitty homes and take a Tribal check.”
We could not believe our ears - and the chief was a big Obama guy, as they all are here in the People’s Soviet of Washington.
I once asked ANOTHER Tribal chief, “With all the money you generated with the casinos at various reservations in the 1990s, why didn’t you just form a Tribal Nations Bank, and fund your own development and tell the US banks to shove it? That way you don’t run into collateral problems that tie Tribal land up as a capital guarantee?”
“Because we don’t trust each other. There would be so much fraud, so fast, that it would fall over inside of five years and we’d be asking for a bailout. Not joking.”
In both of those cases, I was speechless. Both chiefs just looked at me gaping, laughed a little bit, and shook their heads.
Education in business you can’t get at Harvard.
As it has been since before Columbus set foot here..............
I know.
Nobody talks about how the native tribes in NA were enslaving each other prior to us showing up. Nobody talks about how warring tribes in Africa (multiple countries) would kidnap enemies and sell them to the Dutch to be taken to the US.
I would love, LOVE, to see a scholarly economic paper entitled:
“Economic impact of abolition on African Economic Development.”
As someone once wrote, “The white man didn’t do anything that the natives weren’t doing to each other before he got there.”....................
The Indians in AZ are trying to stop the wall here. Probably for a “shakedown” The Indians can KMA !
They are already doing that.
And because of the way things are arranged they are doing it with the blessing and protection of the US government.
At least the land remains intact.
In fact they are now adding to the list of "stuff you may not do". There are now areas you cannot collect firewood, forage, hunt, fish or even walk on.
“Only in the sense that it is not being used for anything.”
That can and should be temporary.
“In fact they are now adding to the list of “stuff you may not do”. There are now areas you cannot collect firewood, forage, hunt, fish or even walk on.”
I wonder if our president is aware of this situation.
Don't let it get you down. You ought to be proud of and hopeful for your daughter.
In my home area the tribal government owns mineral rights and has oil income flowing in, as do many individual tribal members.
That kind of money can bring real trouble but it can lift people out of despair as well.
In my lifetime (largely because of the oil boom) I have seen the town go from virtually NO Indian job-holders along main street, to many, many shopworkers and some shop- and business-owners too.
Indian ranchers in the area often do well, because they know animals, because they own their own operations.
The great threat now is meth and opiates, which has devasted some in my area and even more in nearby Montana (where there aren't the oil jobs).
It can be really tough, nearly impossible sometimes, to get a young Indian man or woman off the Rez to learn about the outside world.
The ticket to success, not surprisingly, is a strong family and also exposure to and work with private businesses.
So many native kids my age are dead now, from booze back then; nowadays it is usually drugs.
But now many are coming out whole too, more all the time. I played sports with Indian students, football, golf, track, wrestling and basketball, with team and individual state honors often coming our way.
Believe me, there is NO DAMNED LOSER GENE.
F them.
I believe 90+ % of the Fed Bureau of Indian Affairs are Indian. The freakin’ Indians need to get a grip.
Amen.
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