The United States has a very checkered past. Anyone who has taken U.S. history knows that American opression of the Native American Indian Tribes is one of our darkest hours. Slaughters, relocations, discrimination. It was not a pretty site.
It is also unfortunate that one of the oldest relics of American Racism and Opression is still powerful and strong today. The Indian Reservations, are essentially nations withing the United States which have some level of autonomy. The Native Americans were put in these places simply to get them out fo teh way for white settlement in more fertile areas. Oklahoma was one of the first. But now most western states have atleast some Indian Reservations. Just look at Arizona, the entire Eastern and Northern half of the state is Hopi, Navajo, and Apache Reservations. Montana is dotted with Blackfoot, Flathead, and Crow reservations also.
Some people claim that these reservations are in some twisted way the white mans way of paying back the Indians for the injustices they did to them. What a thick headed statement. The Reservations were never intended as some "Sorry we were jerks" present. They exist to remove the indians from American Cities, to get them out of the way.
The U.S. goverment pays the natives to live on the rez. And look at what has happened as a result. Take a drive through the towns in Eastern Arizona. They are slums. The houses are run down. Dogs run through the streets. And this isn't their fault. The Government has put them there so they will stay out of the way.
The Rez is a burden to all peoples of the United States. It costs tax dollars to keep them going. And no taxes come out of the rez. The Rez is a impedement to Native improvement.
One last land mark in American Segregation exists, and it exists in almost every state west of the Mississippi River. It is time to fade the reservations out. It is time we let go of this injustice, masked as a peace offering. The Reservation System was never fair, to the Indians, and today, it is not fair to anyone.
Is it too late? No, it is never too late to make right the mistakes of today. But we must not allow this 19th Century apartheid to continue.
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Why don't you make a proposal. I never killed any Indians, or stole any of their land so in general I feel no guilt. Any one that wants to move off of the reservation can do it. If they do they can sink or swim just like me. What am I supposed to feel sorry for, and what should our benevolent government do to help?
I' don't claim in any expertise but I think the reservations are held in Trust for the tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
As one studies economics around the world it appears that one of the keys to econmic success is private property and strong laws that protect private property. Countries that respect property get wealthy and those that don't, remain poor. Private property provide the basis for capital formation. People won't invest in that which they don't own and which might be taken away from them at some point in the future.
I live in Wyoming close to two Reservations in Southern Montana: The Crow and the Northern Cheyenne. They are actually extremely nice pieces of real estate but they are also hell holes of alchoholism, drug abuse, ignorance and chronic poverty.
I favor the reservations being privatized. I am not sure if the land should be divided up and deeded in individual plots or if it should be turned into a company with indians being handed shares of stock with the requirement that it be run as a profit making enterprise with all the rights of a company including the right to sell its assets. Indians that chose to live on the reservation would be charged rent. The corporate board might choose to sell land and use the proceeds to invest in other economic endeavors.
It is time to assimulate. Native Americans are from essentially from the same genetic stock as many Mexicans. Mexicans have proven that they can function in our economy and it is time for our natives to find themselves a place side by side in competition with all other Americans without the privledges that turn out to be a ball and chain.
1st Question: You said yourself that the government is paying Indians to stay on the reservations (I'm holding in good faith that thats true), and yet they're still living in squalor. Why don't they leave a place that obviously isn't giving them any opportunities.
Answer: Because the Indians on the reservations (at least in Arizona) are the only people in the entire state who have the right to put up casinos. And where does that money go? It goes straight into the pockets of everyone in the tribe. That means that they don't have to build up industry, they don't even have to hold a steady job in some cases, because they have a guaranteed 25- 40 grand a month coming in for simply being there. What else do the Indians get? Well how about free health care? The Indian hospital is at 16th st and Indian School in Phoenix, if you were at all curious. And yet, even with these obvious benefits to staying on the reservation, I know several Indians that have assimilated into society. They're fine, decent, everyday people. Its not like the have issues finding jobs (Scottsdale employers will generally hire an Indian before they'll hire a Mexican), but they have to face the same problems as the rest of us.
I live in Arizona. I've volunteered on the reservation you mention in Northern Arizona (its called the Navajo Nation). I went there with my church to put on rolled roofing in August (even in Northern Arizona, August is no time to be on a roof). We were discriminated against, people egged our cars at night and broke into the school we were staying at, their school, and basically just broke a bunch of windows. We were there free-of-charge (other than what it cost in electricty for the school), we bought our food there, so we were putting money into their economy, and we were on their roofs, in August, fixing any damage so that they didn't have to worry about leaks during the winter, all for free (we brought all our own roofing supplies and didn't charge the home owners anything). And what did they do? They egged our cars! I don't have a shred of pity for the Indians. They can get out if they want to, they could improve their surrounds if they wanted to, and they don't. Its not that they don't have the funds, its that they lack the ambition, and would much rather sit around and collect money from casinos.
duh! they dont want to do anything cuz they are alcoholics and they're way of life was takin from them. leaving a huge huge huge huge huge bigger then any break up hole in there hearts. yes they egged you. but your fathers made us march empty stomached through thousands of miles with no horses to ride no medicine to stop the diseases(that were foreign to north america) little food and almost no respect from the everyday fuckhead with a rifle from raping our womena dn killing anyone who strayed away from the march. so yeah go ahead. get mad because we threw some eggs at you. i do appriciate that you were there vulenteering. but your fathers vulonteered to settle on this continant and force people from their homes. ~}chatiks si chatiks{~
~}chatiks si chatiks{~
Is that ?:
Evil for evil.
or
An eye for an eye
The 'fathers' you refer to were cast out of their native land as well. You may have resentment for historical evil, but you are just modern evil if you let it drive your actions today. The ony way to defeat evil is to love your enemies and break the chain of revenge.
"A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets."
-Arthur C. Clarke
i am a native american and i can say that i was absolutely disgusted by the comment made by jackbenimble. assimulation? private property? we pawnee's believed the land belonged to no one... and essentialy everyone and everything. the american colonists are the ones who believed in private property and capitalism. native americans could give a fuck less about economics and money. so what. i know i would've shared my land with somebody that just wanted a home, a place out of the rain. not a fucking economic investment tool called a home. we didnt care about the land we just wanted our fucking lives back. our way of life. but your fathers took that from my fathers. and me. so why would we want to contribute to the machine? i would ratehr contribute to people that have REAL problems like not being able to afford FOOD or die because they live on a poor reservation and cant afford a fucking BLANKET let alone a house, car payments, college, a wedding band, food for their children. native americans never had to pay a dime in money for food. they had a place in the village. and they decided what it was. and everyone worked together and ate together and lived together and loved together and felt like they were together. how close to a stranger do you feel? do you walk by a homeless man or walk to him to help him or just talk to him. so you think its time to just assimulate us indians huh? and since you boviously know how "hard" it can be to live and function as an american you have a proposal or at leas the slightest clue as to how you can help us be assimulated. and how to elders who dont know anything about the outside world from there reservations possibly be assimulated and fucntion normaly in an amercain community when they have no moeny, no work experience, or maybe they are just to old to do any kind of manual mental labour? so jackbenimble? why dont you go assmiulate yourself. ~}chatiks si chatiks{~
Why don't you change your name to Walking Eagle because you are so full of shit you couldn't possibly fly.
What a frigging whiner! You think the native Americans were the first people in history to be conquored? Besides what else has gone on all over the world you all had a long history of conquoring each other. And you weren't exactly gentle about it. Tens of thousands of still beating hearts were literally torn out of indians by other indians at the tops of Mayan temples as sacrifices to their Gods. Indians fought and killed each other constantly over territory so you all were not living in this peaceful idealistic society where you shared your homes and lived happily. Genocide was not something that indians learned from the white men. You all had already mastered the art.
Get over it. It all happened long before you were born and nobody alive today had any part in it.