by designs 4 Replies latest social current
The Senate stripped out $3.4 billion owed to the Native American Tribes from a Government Trust Fund which was attached to the much larger, $60 Billion, funding bill for the Afghan War build up.
Maybe more young Native Amercian men and women need to join the Armed Forces.
Reservations generally remind me of what most ethnic groups went through when
they first came to the United States--higher unemployment, crime, etc., till
they assimilated better. Reservations are like an institutionalized version of
that. I forget where I read it, but about half find greater success outside
reservations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_poverty
Its an interesting battle again. The Nations were moved to what was thought to be some of the worst land in the Country. Then they found Gold, Silver, Rare Earth, Oil, Uranium, Natural Gas etc. on the Reservations.
Education for the young, good technical traning in schools and colleges is the way out of poverty. Many of the Nations are negotiating for long term contracts on the royalties from their natural resources and many are allowing Renewable energy Wind and Solar farms to be built on their lands. I visited a couple near Ponopah and Shoshone, pretty impressive.
If you are going to allocate $60 billion for a war in Afganistan, could you make do on $57 Billion and honor a Treaty from 150 years ago?
that's why it's called "indian giving".
