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The premise of this thread is to discuss why the AmerIndians seem to get so much help from the US government.
The history of what happened to them is pretty damned well documented.
The payback they're getting for what Euros took from them is, I'd say, not exactly excessive.
Those who complaint about how unfair this is need to set the date for when FAIRNESS ought to have played a part in this issue.
I'll fucking say this, if 95 percent of my people were wiped out through the war and disease brought to my land by others, you're goddamn fucking right I wouldn't forget about what had been done to my people
, and how they had been screwed over, and who did it. It's so easy to understand why these programs exist if you first understand why the indigenous population doesn't.
Who among us would give up the whole of the Western hemisphere for the benefits that you so correctly point out are perqs given only to native Americans?
Are those programs racists?
Most assurely, they are.
But put those on the balance of value compared with what the native Americans lost and see how the balance tips.
The indians didn't give up anything. It was taken from them, fair and square. Just like we took Texas and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma.... away from Mexico.
Who among us would give up the whole of the Western hemisphere for the benefits that you so correctly point out are perqs given only to native Americans?
Are those programs racists?
Most assurely, they are.
But put those on the balance of value compared with what the native Americans lost and see how the balance tips.
The indians didn't give up anything. It was taken from them, fair and square. Just like we took Texas and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma.... away from Mexico.
Who among us would give up the whole of the Western hemisphere for the benefits that you so correctly point out are perqs given only to native Americans?
Are those programs racists?
Most assurely, they are.
But put those on the balance of value compared with what the native Americans lost and see how the balance tips.
The indians didn't give up anything. It was taken from them, fair and square. Just like we took Texas and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma.... away from Mexico.
Fair and square.......at the end of a gun barrel.
EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION
§ Recent reports vary but many point out that the median income on the Pine Ridge Reservation is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
§
§ The unemployment rate on Pine Ridge is said to be approximately 83-85% and can be higher during the winter months when travel is difficult or often impossible.
§ According to 2006 resources, about 97% of the population lives below Federal poverty levels.
§ There is little industry, technology, or commercial infrastructure on the Reservation to provide employment.
§ Rapid City, South Dakota is the nearest town of size (population approximately 57,700) for those who can travel to find work. It is located 120 miles from the Reservation. The nearest large city to Pine Ridge is Denver, Colorado located some 350 miles away.
LIFE EXPECTANCY AND HEALTH CONDITIONS
§ Some figures state that the life expectancy on the Reservation is 48 years old for men and 52 for women. Other reports state that the average life expectancy on the Reservation is 45 years old. These statistics are far from the 77.5 years of age life expectancy average found in the United States as a whole. According to current USDA Rural Development documents, the Lakota have the lowest life expectancy of any group in America.
§ Teenage suicide rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is 150% higher than the U.S. national average for this age group.
§ The infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent and is about 300% higher than the U.S. national average.
§ More than half the Reservation's adults battle addiction and disease. Alcoholism, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and malnutrition are pervasive.
§ The rate of diabetes on the Reservation is reported to be 800% higher than the U.S. national average.
§ Recent reports indicate that almost 50% of the adults on the Reservation over the age of 40 have diabetes.
§ As a result of the high rate of diabetes on the Reservation, diabetic-related blindness, amputations, and kidney failure are common.
§ The tuberculosis rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is approximately 800% higher than the U.S. national average.
§ Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S. national average.
§ It is reported that at least 60% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation are infested with Black Mold, Stachybotrys. This infestation causes an often-fatal condition with infants, children, elderly, those with damaged immune systems, and those with lung and pulmonary conditions at the highest risk. Exposure to this mold can cause hemorrhaging of the lungs and brain as well as cancer.
§ A Federal Commodity Food Program is active but supplies mostly inappropriate foods (high in carbohydrate and/or sugar) for the largely diabetic population of the Reservation.
§ A small non-profit Food Co-op is in operation on the Reservation but is available only for those with funds to participate.
HEALTH CARE
§ Many Reservation residents live without health care due to vast travel distances involved in accessing that care. Additional factors include under-funded, under-staffed medical facilities and outdated or non-existent medical equipment.
§ Preventive healthcare programs are rare.
§ In most of the treaties between the U.S. Government and Indian Nations, the U.S. government agreed to provide adequate medical care for Indians in return for vast quantities of land. The Indian Health Services (IHS) was set up to administer the health care for Indians under these treaties and receives an appropriation each year to fund Indian health care. Unfortunately, the appropriation is very small compared to the need and there is little hope for increased funding from Congress. The IHS is understaffed and ill-equipped and can’t possibly address the needs of Indian communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
EDUCATION ISSUES
§ School drop-out rate is over 70%.
§ According to a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) report, the Pine Ridge Reservation schools are in the bottom 10% of school funding by U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
§ Teacher turnover is 800% that of the U.S. national average
HOUSING CONDITIONS AND HOMELESSNESS
§ The small BIA/Tribal Housing Authority homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation are overcrowded and scarce, resulting in many homeless families who often use tents or cars for shelter. Many families live in old cabins or dilapidated mobile homes and trailers.
§ According to a 2003 report from South Dakota State University, the majority of the current Tribal Housing Authority homes were built from 1970-1979. The report brings to light that a great percentage of that original construction by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) was “shoddy and substandard.” The report also states that 26% of the housing units on the Reservation are mobile homes, often purchased or obtained (through donations) as used, low-value units with negative-value equity.
§ Even though there is a large homeless population on the Reservation, most families never turn away a relative no matter how distant the blood relation. Consequently, many homes often have large numbers of people living in them.
§ In a recent case study, the Tribal Council estimated a need for at least 4,000 new homes in order to combat the homeless situation.
§ There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (a home which may only have two to three rooms). Some larger homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.
§ Over-all, 59% of the Reservation homes are substandard.
§ Over 33% of the Reservation homes lack basic water and sewage systems as well as electricity.
§ Many residents must carry (often contaminated) water from the local rivers daily for their personal needs.
§ Some Reservation families are forced to sleep on dirt floors.
§ Without basic insulation or central heating in their homes, many residents on the Pine Ridge Reservation use their ovens to heat their homes.
§ Many Reservation homes lack adequate insulation. Even more homes lack central heating.
§ Periodically, Reservation residents are found dead from hypothermia (freezing).
§ It is reported that at least 60% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation need to be burned to the ground and replaced with new housing due to infestation of the potentially-fatal Black Mold, Stachybotrys. There is no insurance or government program to assist families in replacing their homes.
§ 39% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation have no electricity.
§ The most common form of heating fuel is propane. Wood-burning is the second most common form of heating a home although wood supplies are often expensive or difficult to obtain.
§ Many Reservation homes lack basic furniture and appliances such as beds, refrigerators, and stoves.
§ 60% of Reservation families have no land-line telephone. The Tribe has recently issued basic cell phones to the residents. However, these cell phones (commonly called commodity phones) do not operate off the Reservation at all and are often inoperable in the rural areas on the Reservation or during storms or wind.
§ Computers and internet connections are very rare.
§ Federal and tribal heat assistance programs (such as LLEAP) are limited by their funding. In the winter of 2005-2006, the average one-time only payment to a family was said to be approximately $250-$300 to cover the entire winter. For many, that amount did not even fill their propane heating tanks one time.
When do you boys (who think this is unfair) think FAIRNESS ought to have dicated our interactions with the AmerIndians, exactly?
1492? 1592? 1692? 1792? 1892? 1992?
When in that 500 year period did FAIRNESS finally come into play??
And if the answer is NEVER, then why do you complain about it now?
Because people want to conveniently sweep under the rug all the nasty state-sanctioned shit this country has done. Yeah, we did it, but lets just move on and people need to stop whining about it... right? I'll fucking say this, if 95 percent of my people were wiped out through the war and disease brought to my land by others, you're goddamn fucking right I wouldn't forget about what had been done to my people, and how they had been screwed over, and who did it. It's so easy to understand why these programs exist if you first understand why the indigenous population doesn't.
And then pointing this out and calling it what it is--genocide, war crimes that would be categorically denounced had they taken place in any other country today--this then leads to pointing out all the other fucked up things this country has done. And people will couch it in the terms of, you have to look at the context of the time. Which is true to an extent for some of what the state has done; it's just funny to then see those same people talk about stoopid liberals and their goddamn moral relativism.
I'll fucking say this, if 95 percent of my people were wiped out through the war and disease brought to my land by others, you're goddamn fucking right I wouldn't forget about what had been done to my people
We don't expect every White German to continue to pay for special programs for the Jews, and that was a lot more recent., and how they had been screwed over, and who did it. It's so easy to understand why these programs exist if you first understand why the indigenous population doesn't.
Oh, boo hoo. It's been over 100 years. Stop crying about history and improve your own condition. Have you not noticed that the reservations are almost all shit? Stop clinging to your idiotic tribalism (for most of you, it's not your home anyway; it's where the White man shoved you because he didn't want that land anyway) and do like the Chinaman: go to school, integrate, and improve yourself and your community
Payback is a bitch.When Whites go the way of Indians, we won't be treated as well.
And yours was a non sequitor. Thanks for stopping by.Payback is a bitch.When Whites go the way of Indians, we won't be treated as well.
No living white American participated in the colonization or conquest of this continent. The present colonization and conquest of the continent is equally wrong. You cannot payback people who are innocent. Your comment was offensive and racist.
