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From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: Native Americans
Message-ID: <559@pyuxa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Feb-84 08:41:49 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxa.559
Posted: Fri Feb 10 08:41:49 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Feb-84 07:51:56 EST
References: <210@hou2d.UUCP>
Organization: Central Services Org., Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 33

I just have to put two cents worth in on this one.  I would invite
any of those who say that the American Indian Population in this
country is well off to visit a reservation.  What you call "free
federal Housing" would not pass for ghetto sub-standard housing
anywhere else in this country.  As for wanting to stay on the
reservation.  Horse-puckey.  Move off the reservation and you
lose everything.

I was raised in an area where there were, and still are, 15 different
reservations.  I was through that area two years ago and was sickened
by what is still happening to the local indians.  Unemployment runs
at a more than 50% rate.  Health care is almost non-existant.  Housing
consists of run down 1950s house trailers.  Some of the children are
bussed over 60 miles daily to go to school.  Is it any wonder that they
have a large dropout rate. 

The monumental mounds of red tape involved in getting just the most
minor improvements out of the government has turned many tribal
councils off.  One of my best friends from my High School days was
elected Tribal Chief several years ago.  His frustrations at having to
fight both the state and federal authorities just to keep the reservation
and fishing rights intact were the subject of an article in Time.

Sure, people can point to this tribe or that tribe and say "See how
well they are doing."  But, what about the other 90% who are forced
to live in squalor and filth while the government decides their fate?
Phooey.  More evil has been done to the indians of this land over the
past 300 years than anyone can imagine.  Just take a drive out to the
Hoh Indian Reservation on the Olympic Peninsula sometime if you want
to see what "progress" has been made.  It is a crime.

T. C. Wheeler