Saturday, April 17, 2010

Reservation Poverty

It's a sad reality that ghettos still exist in the United States today. In infamous places like Compton, the South side of Chicago, and Harlem, minorities are forced to live cut off from the rest of the population by an invisible wall of poverty. However, there are different and more desolate ghettos that fewer people know about; in Native American reservations.
Starting with the Indians Appropriations Act in 1851, the majority of tribes and natives were forced to live on inferior land and within the confines of the borders given to them. Although some of the restrictions have obviously changed over the years and Native Americans have equal legal rights as individuals, tribes are still kept low on the social ladder by way of poverty. Federal funds are miniscule and have not even matched inflation in recent years.
The following information from a 1997 article in the Washington Post states clearly:
The country’s 2.1 million Indians, about 400,000 of whom live on reservations, have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, and disease of any ethnic group in America

The article went on to state that nearly 2/3 of Native Americans live in poverty, which is more than twice the rate for Americans as a whole. So why is it that we've never heard of all this strife?
This generational poverty has been caused by our country. By forcing relocation to desolate areas with little to no economic opportunities, the Natives of our country have had no choice but to accept what was given to them. Rarely, a tribe will be able to take advantage of tax situations and find funds to build a casino on the reservation. However, this will usually become the focal point of the economy within the reservation, so that when the casino fails or loses money, so does the entire community. This has also fueled a stereotype of casinos on reservations and does not help the case of racism against Native Americans, which is one of the last acceptable forms of public humiliation (as seen by the numerous caricatures of Native American mascots).
What is such an oppressed group of peoples to do? I believe the answer is simple: protest. This is an issue that has been hidden from the public eye for too long, and the system of laws and funding to reservations is outdated. I may be simplifying the problems and the solutions, but I believe that if the largest nations of Native Americans were to group together and make a very public protest of living conditions on reservations, it would spark new interest into the subject and into a younger generation of people who are trying to be more socially active.
I can't pretend I know enough about taxes and funding to propose solutions. I believe one of the major problems is that funding towards reservations is controlled by the federal government, which already has massive money problems. I don't think it would be wrong to assume that Native Americans are low on the list of priorities to the federal government. On the other hand, I don't believe states would want to take on the responsibility of distributing their funds to reservations because certain states and areas of the country have much larger populations of Native Americans than others.
However, if there is any way out of this mess, I believe it might be able to be accomplished with better educational opportunities. Schools in reservations are notoriously underfunded, but I also think there can be improvement in the amount of scholarships given to Native Americans and even the spread of information to reservations about financial aid and how to apply for colleges and scholarships.
Also, I believe it could be beneficial to improve public transportation to and from reservations to the nearest economic center available. This way it would be easier for Natives to get into cities to apply for and keep steady employment.
Clearly, as a middle-class white student attending a university, it may seem hypocritical for me to propose solutions to problems I've never had to live with or experience. But I believe there's a golden coin at the bottom of every pail; and when the nations of the Native Americans unite, we can find solutions as a country to problems that are long overdue for fixing.

Click HERE to open the feedback tool.

No comments:

Post a Comment