Current Event News item #2 Self-Government

While gambling is one of the major debates going on right now involving Native Americans, there are some other issues that are also central to Native Americans right now. All of the issues in some way are related to having self-government or not. This is because when deciding whether or not to have self-government tribes have to choose if they are economically able to. This ties into the income they get from casinos. Also, "death rates from alcoholism and tuberculosis among Native Americans are at least 650 percent higher than overall U.S. rates" and "Indian youths commit suicide at nearly triple the rate of young people in general" (Katel). Confronting these issues as at the forefront of many tribes agendas and in order to do this they need to have the proper assets, including money to confront these issues. So, some tribes simply are unable to have self-governmnet. According to Michael LaPointe, chief of staff to President Rodney Bordeaux of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe “when you have a lot of poverty and not a lot of economic activity to generate tribal resources to supplement the unfunded mandates, it becomes impossible" (Katel). He believes that tribes struggling with poverty cannot afford to choose self-government. This forces them to rely on the American government to delegate money and organize programs to these tribes, which sometimes is not very effective. It becomes somewhat of catch-22 in my mind as tribes who are struggling with issues such as suicide and alcoholism clearly need to change the form of their programs. However, to do this they need to be able to have self-government which allows them to "receive a single grant for a variety of services" from the U.S. Government (Katel). The issue is that tribes who are struggling with suicide and alcoholism may not be able to afford to self-govern themselves, so they are forced to continue receiving grants on a program by program basis from the U.S. Government which has not seemed to curb the problem. I think that overall self-government is a more succesful approach as tribal leaders can clearly see which programs work and which ones don't. So if the government could give struggling tribes larger single grants and then allow them to self-govern with this money it could be a succesful process. It would also allow tribes to feel more independent rather than having to rely on the U.S. government and have to continue asking for grants. This idea may be more expensive at the beginning for the U.S. government as they would have to give out a lot of money to a lot of tribes, but it would be a more succesful way of solving problems and then in the future the government would not have to give as much money to the Native American tribes. This may be impossible in the current economic climate, and people would be upset that we are giving all this money to the Native Americans, but in reality we have clearly taken more money from them than we have given back. For example, "the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which granted a total of $962 million to Alaska natives born on or before Dec. 18, 1971, in exchange for giving up their claims to millions of acres of land" (Katel). While $962 million seems like a huge amount of money, millions of acres of land filled with oil would be worth multiple billions of dollars, so America still profited from this act. We also stole huge amounts of land from the Native Americans during American expansion and we put them onto the worst and most unusable land that nobody wanted. After all the American Government has stolen from the Native Americans it seems only fair that they repay the Native American tribes in any way that they can.

Katel, P. (2006, April 28). American Indians. CQ Researcher, 16, 361-384. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2006042800.

Gambling is the modern Buffalo

With many problems created by gambling of Native Americans, in the right setting there may be just as many problems solved. It is without question that gambling has been beneficial to some Native Americans. The keyword here is some, as many Native American tribes do not experience any benefits from gambling, and some that do experience benefits have many more hardships due to gambling. Walking Antelope, the writer of the article "Gaming Provides Many Benefits to Native American Communities" argues that gambling is today's equivalent of the buffalo for the Native Americans. He argues that the buffalo "gave the plains Indians everything they needed to survive and prosper, so now in the 21st century Native Americans turn to the gaming industry as their means of survival, their way to prosperity (Antelope). The buffalo gave Indians food and a means for survival and today he argues that the gambling industry is the main way that Indians make money, which in turn feeds them and gives them survival. It is an interesting comparison to make, one that I agree with, but in turn disagree with. By that I mean I agree that the gambling industry has helped many Native Americans by giving them economic autonomy, but it has also caused many problems. It is linked to gambling addictions that has caused suicide on reservations and it has caused many Native Americans to be stereotyped as wealthy. I don't believe that the buffalo ever caused Native Americans to be suicidal. The analogy makes sense but to me it is a bit of a stretch to argue that gambling and the buffalo have had equal benefits to the Native Americans. The article points out that "Indian gaming in America has become a multi-billion dollar industry, which many Tribes have embraced as a tool to pull their people out of poverty and unemployment" (Antelope). The gaming industry is a very powerful industry that has brought much profit to the Native Americans. The question isn't if gaming has helped some tribes economy, because it clearly has, the question is does it help overall? I believe the gaming industry has been an overall help, but it still requires many tweaks. I think for people to lump all Native Americans together as rich because some have prospered from gaming is ridiculous, and is one of the problems associated with the gaming industry. Some tribes do not benefit as much from the gaming industry, and others question the moral implications. These tribes should then be given more funding for programs and welfare because they need the money. Yes some tribes are getting rich from the gambling industry, but for all their positive impact they have had, there have been negatives that need to be addressed. Suicide and gambling addiction is one of the main problems, and the casinos seem to be trying to help. Not only do Indian casinos require strict background checks on employees, but they also "scored higher than Las Vegas or Atlantic City when it came to recognizing and treating compulsive gamblers" (Antelope). The tribal casinos seem to be trying to make a difference and help solve the problems they have caused. This is a step in the right direction as they are taking their problems into their own hands. However, some tribes are not able to take their problems into their own hands and they should not be punished for this. The struggling tribes still need much economic help. Is it their fault that when the reservation locations were chosen they were chosen on the worst land which makes it very difficult for them to succeed? No, it is the fault of the American government. So I believe the American government should be responsible for helping these tribes. While gambling has had negative impacts it has become a huge part of the Native American economy and cannot be halted now, it is simply an industry that must be tweaked. Is it the same to Native Americans as the buffalo once was? Not in my opinion, but the similarities are striking.


Antelope, Walking. "Gaming Provides Many Benefits to Native American Communities." At Issue: Indian Gaming. Ed. Stuart A. Kallen. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 8 Feb. 2010 .

The Negative Side of Gaming for Native Americans

While some Native Americans benefit greatly from gaming casinos that they are allowed to have on their reservation this group of Native Americans represents the minority, not the majority. Most Native Americans "live below the federal poverty level" (Coin). While the recent boom of gaming has boosted the income of some, this is not the case with most Native Americans. In fact, for those Native Americans living below the poverty line, gambling has had a negative impact on them. The success of recent gambling has led to the creation of the term "rich Indian" (Coin) and has created a stereotype that like most stereotypes, it is simply not true. One may ask, why would it be bad if people thought you were rich? Isn't being rich a good thing? In terms of government aid, it is a very bad thing. The government of many states, including California, sees that gambling has benefited some tribes, and based on that they cut spending that went to helping Native Americans. Just one example of these spending cuts is that the "state and local funding for substance abuse and alcohol prevention at Indian health clinics has been slashed from $2.8 million to $100,000, virtually wiping out the program" (Coin). Those helping the Native Americans believe they no longer need to be helped, so they are limiting their help. In terms of this cut, Native Americans need these prevention clinics and they need funding for them because suicide rates in Native Americans have spiked drastically. I wrote about this in an earlier blog post entitled "current event" and I learned that Native Americans need programs like the ones that are being cut in order to talk about problems and help find solutions to them. Many tribes simply cannot afford to fund these programs, like the Yurok tribe as "much of the Yurok reservation is without essential services such as water and electricity" (Coin). They lack basic life necessities in terms of water, so they clearly cannot afford to pay for programs to help cut substance abuse and suicide rates. The Yurok tribe is really being harmed by the success of other tribes as they are lumped in with all Native Americans, and overall there has been success of bigger tribes related to gambling. Due to the success of some tribes, the government of California wants to re-write the agreements to the"tribal-state gaming compacts agreed to in 1999" (Coin) in order to have the casinos benefit the state. To me this seems like deja vu for the Native Americans as any time in American history that they have had a chance for success the American government always wants to re-write treaties to help themselves. I simply don't see why the Native Americans should or would want to re-write this treaty when in reality many tribes still need more state funding, the last thing they need is to have their taxes raised. Coin has argued that the gambling policy has hurt many Native Americans, but I do not think this means he wants it to go away. He simply believes it has created a false stereotype of a rich Indian which in turn has harmed Native Americans who are living below the poverty line. I agree that this stereotype has been harmful, but overall the gaming business brings in a lot of money for many Native Americans, so it is helpful overall. This does not mean I believe that taxes on it should be raised or that state funding for Native Americans should be cut. I believe quite the opposite of that. They need to keep taxes low and allow the business to flourish so that the profit can trickle down to those who are experience hard times. I have seen the connection to many poor Native Americans in some of the articles I have read so far. In my short story, the main character was unable to muster enough money to travel to Phoenix Arizona to get the ashes of his father; he asked the tribe for money and all they could give him was $100. The stereotype of the rich-Indian surely did not apply here as the main character hardly had any money and the tribe was also very poor. While this was a fictional story it still represents the tough economic journey that Native Americans are experiencing. Even worse, they are thought to be rich so the government wants to limit the help they are giving to the Native Americans.


Coin, Jacob. "Most Native Americans Have Not Profited from Gaming." At Issue: Indian Gaming. Ed. Stuart A. Kallen. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 7 Feb. 2010 .

Suicide Rates extremely high among Native Americans

Suicide rates amongst Native Americans are abnormally high, so the North Dakota government has tried to curb this pattern. The senator of North Dakota, Senator Dorgan, is trying to take the lead to help lower suicide rates. In order to help try and do this, Senator Dorgan, as well as the rest of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs listened to Cynthia Lindquist-Mala give a speech on how to help reduce Native American suicide. One of the most important parts of reducing the suicide rates is understanding the cause of the large depression in the Indian Reservations. It is rooted deep in the history of the Native Americans and the actions of Americans hundreds of years ago is still impacting the youth of the Native Americans today. The policies that ended up with putting Indians on reservations ended up with “the dismantling of our families and the breakup of the structure of how our families lived and the way we lived” (Lindquist-Mala”). Lindquist-Mala further goes on to say that the “suicide epidemic happening in Indian country is just a manifestation of all its history and reflects our community’s historical oppression… our people are wounded” (Lindquist-Mala). The policies of yesterday are causing the Native Americans of today to commit suicide because they have had all of their culture stripped from them and are unhappy with the way the policies left them to live. What Americans did to the Native Americans, oppressing them, stealing their land, and ruining their cultural traditions is still causing Native Americans today to be depressed. They must hear tales of the glory time for Native Americans and of their once proud culture which is salt in the wounds for them because they live on small reservations and they have not assimilated well to the American society, nor have they been able to keep up with the traditions of the Native American culture. I am now realizing that the whites took away more than just land from the Native Americans. When they physically took away the land, they were metaphorically taking away the connection that Native Americans had with Mother Nature. They took away the culture and traditions of Native Americans. They stripped the Native Americans of everything they wanted in life and caged them in. This has had a deep impact on the individuals of the Native American society and has had a drastic impact on their increasing suicide rates. While this problem has been discovered, it now must be addressed. The speaker requests "that the Federal Government, that Congress appropriate adequate resources for our health, our education of our people" (Lindquist-Mala). The American government is the same government that kicked these people off of the reservations causing all of their problems, so it should be their responsibility to try and fix the issue. While they cannot give back the land, they can try to fix the problem that they created by giving more educational heath programs as well as offer health care to try and lower the suicide rates. Suicide is an issue that must be talked about, but people need to be educated to know how to talk about it. Community support programs would be one way to help people talk about suicide in a productive manner. There are currently models for programs like this, but according to Lindquist-Mala "there needs to be a sustained infusion of resources". Models are nice, but there needs to be action taken. The American government owes at least these efforts to the Native Americans for what they did wrong, and immediate action needs to take place.

Lindquist-Mala, Cynthia. "Youth Suicide Among Native Americans Can Be Reduced with More Federal Help." Current Controversies: Suicide. Ed. Paul Connors. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 7 Feb. 2010 .

Short Story Response

The short story “This is what it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” by Sherman Alexie often made various points about more modern Native Americans without explicitly saying anything. It overviewed the idea of the changes that Native Americans felt after being put in reservations as well as the traditional family feeling of a tribe or the lack of such feeling in modern day Native American reservations. When the main character Victor, need money to get to Phoenix in order to retrieve his father’s ashes he went to the Tribal Council in order to get the money that was necessary to travel to Phoenix. The council did not have a lot of money but they were able to give him one hundred dollars, which was not a lot but they said it was “the best we can do” (60). The Tribal Council was willing to help in any way possible in order to help out a member of the community. This shows the sense of family that Native Americans have within a community as they can rely on each other for help. I feel that in Deerfield we have this as well, which one thing I really respect about our town is. While it is not as much of a family feeling, it still seems that people are willing to step up when someone is hurt and needs help, such as with past School Chests that have helped Deerfield citizens and their charities.
One member of Victor’s community who really stepped up to help him was Thomas Builds-the-Fire. He did not have a lot of friends in the community and he was known as the storyteller of the community. He offered to lend Victor the money he needs to go to Phoenix as long as Victor agreed to bring him with. Victor was astounded by the offer and initially rejected saying “I haven’t hardly talked to you in years. We’re not really friends anymore” (62). Thomas countered saying that he wanted to be taken with so it wasn’t really an act of charity, but he was still doing a very nice deed for a seemingly random member of the community. Thomas represents that in the Native American community there are still some people that feel a bond to members of their community, one that is strong enough to make him help another member of the community in a time of need. It portrays the Native American reservation again as a family setting. I think that this is a crucial part of the Native American lifestyle and beliefs as they believe in having a strong community and they are very helpful to one another. This idea of family is shown in their everyday lifestyle as when Victor was a child he referred to Thomas as “cousin” (63). Something as simple as this really illustrates the sense of family within the community. Outside of this community the Native Americans do not get the same treatment and they are really outsiders in a land that they once roamed. When a lady on the airplane that Thomas and Victor were riding was nice Thomas commented on this fact. Victor responded by saying “everybody talks to everybody on airplanes”, “it’s too bad we can’t always be that way” (67). The Native Americans are not included outside of the reservation in the whites lifestyle as they are truly segregated in America today. Even inside of the reservation they still don’t talk to everyone as Thomas is rarely talked to. This could be a comment on the idea that the American culture has seeped into the Native American reservations. I believe this has occurred as the Native Americans in this short story do not seem to act anywhere near the same way as they did before the whites came onto their land. They did not fully integrate with the whites, but the whites still rubbed off on them. The lack of integration into society by the Native Americans is shown by Victor’s father as he left the reservation and lived in Phoenix. When he died “the only reason anyone found him was because of the smell” (68). Victor’s father was not found by friends who were looking for him when he died, but rather by other people who smelled his rotting body. His father had no friends and no sense of community when he left the reservation as he did not properly integrate with the people outside of the reservation. I believe most Native Americans probably had this issue as they had been used to having a strong sense of family their entire life and outside of the Native American reservations there is not as strong a sense of family in each community. The Native Americans were strangers outside of their reservation; they had been crushed into these small areas and did not know many people outside of the walls of the reservation. However the ideas of the outside world had become all too prevalent for Victor. When he and Thomas returned Thomas commented that he knew they would not be friends because of this experience. Due to this “Victor was ashamed of himself” and questioned “Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community?” (74). Victor was upset that there was not still such a strong family feeling in the community and that everyone was a family member and no one was to be excluded. This occurred because the ways of the Americans had probably soaked into the heart of the reservation. The Native Americans did not maintain their identity of a community feeling as much as they would have liked to. Community was still strong in the reservation, but not as much as Victor would have liked. The American way had obviously impacted the Native Americans as they celebrated the 4th of July. When this occurred, Thomas said it was strange that Indians celebrate Independence Day as “it ain’t like it was our independence everybody was fighting for” (63). In reality, Independence Day represented the exact opposite to the Native Americans as what it did for the Americans. It was the beginning of them losing their Independence and land, so they should not have celebrated it, but they did because white culture became a part of their culture. This is sad to me as whites not only took away their land but also their identity.

Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York : HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.

How far am I?

So far I feel that I have been getting a good amount of background knowledge on my topic. I understand most of the basic issues of the Native Americans and I have looked into a few specific ideas. One thing that I have found interesting is the Native Americans role in the American Revolution as well as how this impacted the relationship between Native Americans and the whites. I saw one article about it and wrote a response, and I felt that this was a very interesting topic. It is one that is not often discussed, at least not in the classes I have taken, and yet it seems to have played a significant role in the deterioration of the relationship between the Native Americans and the whites. So far I have not found this project to be too difficult as there is an abundance of information on the topic, but I am not sure if the idea of Native Americans in the Revolutionary War is too specific of a topic. In the next few days I hope to look into the topic and see if I could focus on this idea.

"Treaty" with the Indians

When many Americans were moving West there were many areas in which they ran into Native Americans. One such instance occurred when Rufus Putnam was in the Ohio Valley and wrote a letter to Congress stressing the need for a treaty with the Indians in order to purchase this land from them. Congress had already "purchased" the land from the Indians with a treaty, however this treaty was not completely fair and the Indians did not agree to it, so they wanted a better treaty. Putnam assured Congress that "unless these wrongs are redressed and the lands fairly purchased, the Indians will certainly go to war" ("On a Treaty with Indians"). The wrongs was the wrongs of the land being basically stolen from them and being taken from them by force rather than a fair treaty and if this was not changed by means of giving the Indians a new treaty then they were ready for war. There was much tension in the relationship as it seems that the Indians were tired of having their land taken from them so unless they got a fair trade they were surely going to fight back to keep their land. The government was trying to give the Indians much less than fair market value for the land and basically they were just taking over the land by power and intimidation. However, Putnam stressed that their needed to be a treaty in order to avoid war. It also seemed like Putnam respected the Indians as he described many of them to be friendly, and claimed that those who acted as bandits were only a few and were a part of the minority. This goes against common racist ideas of the time in which people assumed that the majority of Indians were lawless bandits and that the nice Native Americans were a part of the minority. Putnam had either sympathy or respect for the Native Americans as he wanted them to be given a fair treaty and stressed the importance of avoiding a war with the Indians. Whether this was because he wanted to avoid a war because America was a new country or because he respects the Indians is unknown, but it is clear he did not want to simply overpower the Native Americans. While Putnam was much more fair to the Indians than most he still recognized the power that America possessed over them. In the rest of his letter he addresses the new land that America is about to purchase and what can be done with it. By doing this he assumes that America has enough money and/or force to take away this land from the Indians. It is sad that the Native Americans were so helpless that it was simply assumed that if America wanted some of their land they could just take it. I find it a little confusing and hypocritical that the Native Americans would agree to sell their land by way of a treaty because they felt that land was one of the most sacred things in the world and that it could not be owned. If something cannot be owned, how can it be sold? Perhaps the Native Americans realized that they were going to lose their land one way or another. They chose to sell it and make money rather than fight for it and in all likelihood lose it. These were basically their two options, and it would be truly silly to have men die in order to lose land when you could make money by losing the land. What confuses me is if they fought for their land would that be considered trying to own the land or simply standing their own ground? I believe that this would be standing their own ground and not be considered owning the land as they respected the land and did not try to make a profit from it in this scenario.

Putnam, Rufus " On a Treaty with Indians," Annals of American History. <http://america.eb.com/america/article?articleId=385355&query=On+a+Treaty+with+Indians>[Accessed February 5, 2010].