Native Americans in Washington (Everett, Toppenish: fit in, hotel, Home Depot)

[Dobelover]

I have been reading on some of the southwest forums about the poverty and racial tension among Native americans and other groups. also the hopelessnes of reservation life in those states, seems horrible. I was just wondering about how Native Americans in Washington are perceived and the issues they face?( poverty, racism, conditions on reservations, etc.)

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by Dobelover

I have been reading on some of the southwest forums about the poverty and racial tension among Native americans and other groups. also the hopelessnes of reservation life in those states, seems horrible. I was just wondering about how Native Americans in Washington are perceived and the issues they face?( poverty, racism, conditions on reservations, etc.)

Indians in Washington probably have it better than those in many states. Not because we're somehow more enlightened than anyone else; rather, because the major Euro-American influx here came late in the game. That doesn't mean that they live high on the hog (except for a few tribal higher-ups), and our reservations still are mostly nothing to write home about. But some of them actually live on their ancestral lands, which is rather less common east of the Rockies.

As for racial tension, there's always racial tension on some level. That doesn't mean that all whites hate Indians or that all Indians hate whites. Some of the Indians I went to school with didn't start out hating whites, but many learned to because they never fit in no matter how hard they tried. Others found ways to fit in. I wasn't on a reservation, however, meaning that I was part of the racial group (whites) that held most of the economic and social cards. My mother taught high school on a reservation for two years and change, and there the situation was reversed: if you were white and stayed there to teach for any length of time, you had to be some sort of saint given what you had to put up with. (My mother considered it a good day when she wasn't called the b-word more than twice by students--and my mother is one of the most non-threatening and child-loving persons I know.) Either that or you couldn't possibly hold a teaching job at any school that wasn't desperate for teachers, so you stayed because the alternative was asking people if they wanted fries with that. And they were indeed desperate, because they even tried to recruit me to teach, and I didn't have any sort of degree in education--just a liberal arts BA.

Especially in eastern Washington, the racial situation is often increasingly triangular: whites, Hispanics, Indians. Some of my friends from high school had moved from Toppenish, and they told me that it was typical at the time for whites and Indians to unite against Hispanics. My own high school football coach, a Texan, used to say as we drove into a vast-majority Hispanic town for an away game: "Now, boys, Ah don't want to hear any ethnic or racial comments or slurs of any kind while we are in this town. However....remember the Alamo." We all knew what he meant. The referees called a very loose game when it came to our fouls. There wasn't much we couldn't get by with against that school; I vividly remember one of our guys spearing an opposing player at the base of the spine out of bounds. No flag. (Ironically, the victim was white.)

Development has affected Indians quite a bit. I'll give two examples. The backfill from the Columbia dams not only submerged an incredible waterfall, it greatly affect traditional Indian life and living-places along the river, as did the dams' impact on fish runs. Indians still have special fishing rights in the Columbia, which some whites resent. Indians point to the treaty and say, with justification: "What, are you planning on breaking this one too? Same ol' same ol'." Whites rejoin that traditional fishing methods didn't much involve modern technology. You can easily see the cycle of mutual blame that ensues there. In another example, I used to work in a mill that was tooled mainly for old growth logs. Eventually it came down to having to log on Yakama land. The Yakamas said: "Well, if you're going to log on our land, we think it would be a really good idea if you hired some Indians, more than the one or two you currently employ." With no other option, the company did so. But even so, that resource was not renewable within the near term, because once the old growth was gone the company would either have to completely retool the mill or shut the mill down and take whatever tax writeoffs it could get thereby. It chose the latter, of course. I'm not blaming either side for the situation or the result, just pointing out an example of how white and Indian economic interests have interacted directly within my vision cone. (One of the Indians was a really good lumber carrier driver. Another once came within a few inches of tearing my leg off at the hip through carelessness. I worked with them, talked to them and sometimes argued with them--but we generally got along.)

These days, the main voice I hear from nearby reservations is commercials for casinos. They're of zero interest to me because I don't gamble, but they've definitely provided a way for Indians to get whites to come to the reservation and leave behind some money.

[yukiko11]

I live next to the Tulalip reservation. They have a spectacular piece of land just north of Everett and bordered on the West by the Puget sound and on the East by the I-5 Corridor. The North South limits are about 12 miles.
In recent years they have built the largest Wal Mart in the state, a Home Depot, a huge Hotel, Ampitheater, and Casino complex and the largest discount designer mall in the USA with 110 stores. They have also suffered from greedy tribal leaders who funded themselves personally before the tribe, but that went public and now the tribal members are more aware.
The original plan was to provide jobs for all the tribal members. One of the problems has been that many cannot pass a drug test as drugs and alcohol are a big problem on the reservation. So, even though tribal members have first choice of jobs, many go to others because they cannot be filled. This tribe is very active in their efforts to end this problem and I am sure it will pay off in the end.