Freedom for all! Except Native Americans, why?

Why are Native Americans still stuck on reservations? Why doesn't the government set them free?

Originally posted by ProphetOfYahweh
Why are Native Americans still stuck on reservations? Why doesn't the government set them free?

Nobodies "stuck" on a reservation they can come and go (or move off) as they please it is just tribal lands unless I am mistaken.

I believe that some of the goverment's/media's tactics have been tired out on the NAs because simply the public never give two squirts of milk about them. Have you read "Custer Died For Your Sins" by Vine Deloria Jr.? He explains alot of whites and other races treated them up until the late 60's.

Originally posted by Amuk

Originally posted by ProphetOfYahweh
Why are Native Americans still stuck on reservations? Why doesn't the government set them free?

Nobodies "stuck" on a reservation they can come and go (or move off) as they please it is just tribal lands unless I am mistaken.

Amuk you are right, they can come and go as they plesae.

Sigh...

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
Amuk you are right, they can come and go as they plesae.

I knew they could come and go its just I am unsure of the legal standing of the land I think its just land that was giving to the tribe and is under a different set of laws in SOME cases (Taxes, Casinos, etc)

It is not even close to a prision camp although it was set up to be one in the begining

If they can leave why don't they? I read that alcoholism and suicide is the hightest among Native Americans, if things are that bad on reservations and they can leave, why don't they?

Originally posted by ProphetOfYahweh
If they can leave why don't they?

Why doesn't anyone leave where they are at? Most of the ones I know of are no better or worse off then we are although as I mentioned it wasn't always that way.

But to say they aren't allowed to leave is ridiculous

Originally posted by ProphetOfYahweh
If they can leave why don't they? I read that alcoholism and suicide is the hightest among Native Americans, if things are that bad on reservations and they can leave, why don't they?

Because they dont want to, and some do. Alcohlism is the highest in them as a race because there are not very many pure natives left.

Lets say there was only 100 left, if 10 killed themselves or where alcohlic that would be 10 percent of the population.

[edit on 18-1-2005 by SpittinCobra]

Yes....we can leave the reservations...but that's not as easy as it sounds. Many reservations are near 3rd world conditions, with under education and unemployment problems...there is also homelessness with limed resources and the remoteness of the areas themselves, not to mention large % of health problems When there is no hope.....there's only down...Native who live on reservations have federal programs that provide housing, health care, education, and funds for economic development, but as stated above, these programs are very inadequate causing problems

I live in Cleveland, OH... Why don't I just leave!? Well, my family and my wife's family for starters. Our home. Our friends. Our job. Our comfort level.

How come people don't leave crappy situations? The Eskimos live where it's fridgid, why not leave? The Ethiopians live in the desert, why not leave? It's a Hell of a lot more complicated than that.

And YES, the NAtive Americans are NOT imprisoned on reservations. They are free to leave whenever they wish.

Originally posted by ProphetOfYahweh
If they can leave why don't they? I read that alcoholism and suicide is the hightest among Native Americans, if things are that bad on reservations and they can leave, why don't they?

Because over the years the whole concept of the reservation has breed an envrionment of high alcoholism, that living on welfare is acceptable and that Native Americans are victims. Not all belive that and I have met some who buck the trend and have done incredible things -- all by getting out of the environment. And the best are now going back to try to change the attitude that exists today.

Also, hopefully the casinos will help, but in my opionion that will only be a short term fix. At first a lot of money comes in which fixes some of the problems but long term that money (which is spread to the different members of the tribe) is wasted and lost by a large percentage (not all) of the members. The casinos in effect attack a symptom and not the cause of the problems.

Over half of the total U.S. Indian and Alaska Native population now lives away from reservations

There is a reserve very close to where I live(so close the city is growing around it). Seems to me the people there are quite content living there. Those who leave usually want to get a better education so they can come back and make a difference on the reserve. I have two good friends that have been moving from the reserve all the way to Toronto and back again over and over.

Arizona doesn't have the most Indians (Oklahoma does) but we are second, and we have the largest reservations, including the Navajo Rez, the largest in the country.

My wife spent a year as a flight nurse for a company called LifeFlight, a contractor to the Indian Health Service. Her job was to pick up patients on the various reservations and take them to major hospitals at places like Albuquerque or Phoenix. There were accident victims, but the were usually stabilized (or dead) by the time the plane got there. Most of her patients were sickness-, not trauma-, related.

Since my sister-in-law was also a Peds at Keams Canyon on the Hopi Reservation, we spent lots of time on the various reservations, and I learned a lot from talking to ER docs, public health nurses, etc.

The health conditions of the Indians on the Reservation are horrid. More than sixty percent of adults on the Navajo, White Mountain Apache, San Carlos Apache, Tohono O'odham, Pima, and Havasupai reservations are alcholic, morbidly obese, diabetic, or some combination of the three.

The morbid obesity and diabetes,according to some researchers, stems from the fact that, over the millennia, southwest Indians went from hunter-gathers alternating between famine and gorging (as in killing a large animal). When their diet changed from the old way to hunting HoHos, DingDongs, and Hostess Twinkies at the local Circle K or 7-11, their bodies simply couldn't handle it.

Perhaps theer is the same genetic story for alcoholism; I don't know of any real studies that have looked at it, though.

The bottom line, though, is that -- whether from genetics, environment, or a combination of the two -- reservation Indians tend to be a sick people.

Yet for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that the Reservation distributes Federal largesse and doesn't require that the inhabitants pay taxes, most Indians who grow up there feel more comfortable there.

As far as I'm concerned, it's slow-motion suicide, but nobody asked me.

Originally posted by ProphetOfYahweh
If they can leave why don't they? I read that alcoholism and suicide is the hightest among Native Americans, if things are that bad on reservations and they can leave, why don't they?

Not bad on the Res. Bad off. Why would a bear leave the valley she lives in, or an eagle abandon her river? Americans call the Res 'the Reservation', we call them Nations as in 'Navajo Indian Nation' and we hold treaties as sovereign and independent Nations within the United States (that's why we can build a casino if we want- its our land, our religion, our law). When we leave, its to earn a living (there's only so much money on the Res, it doesn't really matter to us until we need something or want something from 'outside', sometimes there's feuds so you leave, and so on). The Res was granted as part of a treaty-making process; some of us (tribes and individuals) never surrendered, so there are entire Nations without Res.

We are different than most of you guys. We like to be out in nature, often alone or with a few friends/family, doing fun, quiet stuff. Fishing. Hunting. We want to expand the Res until it covers the whole country again and we can hang out, anywhere we want. Its instinct. When people go against their instincts, try to be modern, hit social barriers- bam. You make a choice then. You get mad and fight, die or go to prison. But you see, we are different than you guys. Sure some of us got mohawk hairdos. But we are not ferocious in the way movies show. We love nature, we love you. We get sad easy when we see pollution, greed, competition, and control- then out comes the beer, maybe. We self-destruct, instead of attacking other people. That's why we lost the war with the moderns. That, and germs. We work with our people in traditional ways, sweatlodge and art and so on to try and get us all through this depression caused by the ugliness of the moderns around us. We try to stop suicides by helping each other and seeing the beauty around us.

If you are Native, and you read this, and the ugliness of the newcomers is making you want to die, don't. Survival is the best revenge. Survival and living well. Everyone should live well.

So you see, we can go and come now. In the old days, we got shot if we left. That was then, this is now. Hope that helps you understand us better, PoY.

We keep hoping all you guys will join us, and we can have a big party together someday. Seriously.

BTW SpittinCobra, there's millions of us. And count in the breeds (mixed race) and Mexicans, we're the majority in the US now. You'd never recognize me as Indian on the street. Man those new casinos are nice. Gotta love this world, man.

[edit on 18-1-2005 by Chakotay]

and the ugliness of the newcomers

Sorry if I came off that way, I just wanted to know why Native Americans were getting screwed over while Blacks get all the freedom.

Originally posted by ProphetOfYahweh
Why are Native Americans still stuck on reservations? Why doesn't the government set them free?

Your question is hilarious. I believe you need to research the basis of your question because you obviously don't understand the benefits Native Americans are given for compensation of taking their land a century ago.

I agree Natives got screwed over. Past tense though. Now at least in Canada Native Americans get it pretty sweet, its just they are too pridefull to take most of the assistance that is available to them as it seems too much like begging to them(them as in the Canadian Natives I have met personally) Natives in Canada get pretty much Tax-Free everything. Lots of 0% interest loans. Land Grants(allthough the land is in the Middle of Nowhere..) etc. I believe the major problem with Natives right now is that thier Culture is dying out. It's sad really but everytime I see a homeless Native smelling like Glue, I feel...well not guilty as my ancestors didn't persecute them(Polish Ancestry) I feel sad that a culture is slowly dying off little by little and its not guns thats doing it, its modern society like Fast Food, Alchohol and Drugs. I really hope they pull thier society together before its too late, I even hear Modern culture is starting to take a toll on the Inuit and the Okinawans in Japan(ok not exactly Natives but thier culture is very interesting especially the "Okinawa Diet" ....

PS I know there are reservations that are relatively good when compared to the vast majority, I just wish thier living conditions were better...

Reservations are Sovereign Nations. By being on the reservations they are at least to some 'more free' than non reservation americans. The US gov can't 'set them free' because it does not rule them.

Originally posted by Chakotay

We keep hoping all you guys will join us, and we can have a big party together someday. Seriously.

[edit on 18-1-2005 by Chakotay]

I would really like to join you for a big party with all of us together in peace. Only caring for the good of each other and the natural beauty of our country.