Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxa.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!mhuxm!pyuxww!pyuxa!wetcw 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