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I agree with you to an extent. I the difference between the generations really shows. Most of the older generation just wants their land back. It's a bit of a mix with the younger generations. Some were raised in modern society, and others were raised traditionally. I'd say a vast majority were raised in modern society.
I think most Indians are practical actually -- and they aren't really trying to get their land back.
I think a lot of the older Indians are extremely concerned with what drugs are doing to their younger generation -- I was recently in northern NM and read a very disturbing and sad article about the number of deaths from drug overdoses in that county and that nothing was being done about that.
Drug traffickers are allowed to do whatever they please and destroy any life they please. They target the kids, intoxicate them with the most addictive substances because the only thing the drug traffickers care about is money.
Alcohol was bad enough -- but the very powerful drugs are doing a lot more damage. To me it seems that the older generation is watching the destruction of their youth as never before and feels very helpless.
You don't hear about meth abuse too much in SD, but suicide is a huge problem on the reservations here. It's really sad
It is just a sad situation all around. The alcoholism has been such a huge problem for years and now, with the help of 'casino checks' many of the youth have $$$ available for other recreational drugs.
I have worked with many at-risk students from the local reservations and have long contended that any portion of the money due to an underage child from the casinos should be put into a continuing education fund and not paid directly to the minor. (That does vary from tribe to tribe, so maybe it is done that way in some locations.)
Addiction is a result of hopelessness in many instances, and, unfortunately, it is disproportionately high among Native Americans and results in the increased suicide rates.
One look at the beer and liquor sales in Whiteclay, NE gives a pretty stark indication of just how overwhelming the alcoholism rate is on the Pine Ridge reservation. Just so unbelievably sad that our federal government has done nothing to make this situation better than what it is.
Quote:
The town of about a dozen residents on the reservation’s border sold the equivalent of 4.3 million 12-ounce cans of beer last year.
It's the socialist nature of tribal living and the reservations. People lose motivation, competition is discouraged. People don't live as individuals, the decisions are made for them by the tribal leaders. When you live that way, you have little to look forward to, little to strive for.
But that is how their culture has ALWAYS been, since day 1. Why NOW is it the wrong choice for them? Maybe because they are being judged by non-NA standards. I don't believe they are so unhappy with their lives, but they are unhappy because they cannot fit into the "expectations" that the rest of the world has for them. Let's face it, their culture has all but been destroyed. They must fight daily to retain their identity. The pressure is phenomenal. For the most, part these people are not materialistic so "stuff" is not as important to them as family.
I have never lived in SD, so I do not know about the native people there. But the ones that I have known do not consider themselves poor or underprivileged.
i think it's cause deep down inside, native americans still haven't really adapted to or embraced the whole 'consumerism' way of life or cult...
Look at how they were living before forced onto reservations...
Their life, their structure, none of it had to do with 'walmart'...or buying...
It was a spiritual based existance...there was no 'capitolism'...just survival, family, territory, ceremonies and villiage...
Some may laugh at that and call it 'primitave'...but i'm willing to bet on average, many folks back then, got way more out of life, than your typical inner city dweller does today...who sits in a stuffy apartment watching jerry springer...
Not all cultures were meant for this modern day 'debt class' society...
Where all that you are or can be, is reduced to an hourly wage...
I think they yearn for their past...not our past, but their past...where they can once again be free to roam and chase the spirits...
thank you......great answer to a question that i felt was not meant to insult but drew some negatives reactions anyway.
Why do so many non-natives assume Indians are poor?
I have dealt with this for so many annoying years.
Just because you don't see the material junk that is the sign of going along with a consumer society? Tough. Too bad. Not everyone wants what you want. So what.
I'll tell you one thing we don't need. Another bunch of brainwashed college kids doing video of our worst neighborhoods making the more stupid of the whites feel sorry for us. I could likely do the same in their towns and make my relatives feel sorry for them!
And then they tell us about the internet. Oh wow. Wish I'd known. (sarc)
Idjits. Keep them home. Make them mow the yard. Something. Please!
I am planning a trip to Pine Ridge and then to Rosebud next April. Are there any hotels/motels on the reservation? I don't know, that is why I am asking?
I am planning a trip to Pine Ridge and then to Rosebud next April. Are there any hotels/motels on the reservation? I don't know, that is why I am asking?
There are, but not close to either Pine Ridge or Rosebud, exactly.
There's a BnB in Batesland. I know nothing else besides it exists. Also a motel at Prairie Wind Casino, which would be pretty far west of where you'll be.
It's only 23 miles south to Rushville, NE when you're at Pine Ridge. And from Rosebud it isn't 'far' to Valentine. Martin, SD has motels and is about halfway between the two places. And that is a relatively big town.
I suspect that it comes from over a century of dependence upon our federal government. All they knew before was hunting. Once they had their lands stolen and were forced to move to reservations, the government promised to feed and cloth them. Once subsidies were thrown in, like drug addicts to a drug dealer - many NA's were hooked. I don't believe this would have happened if they kept their lands and their lifestyles (until such time as they changed their lifestyles on their own). Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he feeds himself for a lifetime. NA's knew how to fish (hunt), but were forced to accept free fish from Uncle Sam.
I visited Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota a few weeks ago and I was shocked. Later, I came to find out that Shannon County, SD- the county where Pine Ridge, SD is in is one of the poorest in the USA.
Some of the homes I saw on the reservation were in almost unlivable conditions- with so much land and resources, it is really hard to understand why Indian reservations are some of the poorest places in the USA. Any explanations?
Govt thinks they are incapable and the Indians play the part. Beware when govt come to Help.
Are there gas stations and restaurants from Pine Ridge to Rose Bud?
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