While all those things are true, the problem in the Indian community is their inability to see themselves as Americans.
Yes, I know they are part of a tribe but, most do not live on a reservation.
There is a way out and up. Be an American, not a victim.
If you don’t want to be an American then be a problem solver.
Fix your nation.
Wilma Mankiller did and the Cherokee thrive, owning many businesses that employ Indians, lifting them out of poverty and a long exile.
But, please stop saying we decimated the Indians, like they all lived together in peace.
They didn’t.
In fact, there was no collective identity for American Indians until the last century.
Before that you belonged to a clan, a band or were part of a tribe. That’s not to say that clans and tribes weren’t also part of a tribe, they were but, their relationship was more genetic.
They still competed with other Indians and made treaty with others and that’s true only of the Cherokee and Iroquois, to a large extent.
Today’s problems cannot be explained rationally, anymore that blacks can rightly claim they are being held back by society.
So, make your nation stronger, like the Cherokee or get off the reservation, as it were and be somebody.
In America you can be whoever you want.
The Mandan liked to farm. The Lakota Sioux liked to hunt. The Lakota viewed the Mandan and related tribes as collaborators with the whites simply because their lifestyles were closer. The didn't mix very well at all.