Originally Posted by
BeardoMSU
Good post, dude. Some good info here.
Glad you also mentioned the WaPo poll, which I always found interesting. It brings up several thoughts. For one, there are a lot of politics of which tribes are actually recognized by all the other tribes, but that's not necessarily apropos to this conversation. 2nd, were these NA's actually ones living on reservations, or separated from their tribes, or just folks who said "yeah, my mammy said we're 1/4th Indian, so I've got an opinion on this matter" (which has been expressed several times on this board, sadly enough)? All that being said, I'm curious to see the actual data of who participated in the poll.
Truthfully, though, I can see this topic not registering with the majority of NA's living on reservations in this country, whether in Oklahoma, S. Dakota, Mississippi, etc.,....because the sad fact is, those Native Americans are too busy dying, more proportionally than any other ethnic/racial group in this country, from suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, heart disease, etc. If you've ever been on a reservation, you'd see it's like a visiting a 3rd world country, but one within our own borders. These communities have the lowest percentages of home heating, phone service, clean water, access to healthcare, etc. than anywhere else in the country. It's truly shameful. The kind of thing that makes you feel ill.
Granted, there will be folks who mention the glitz, glamor, and money of the casinos as if that's representative of life on the res; trust me, it's not.