Current Event Analytical Piece

The land that was taken away from the Native American tribes years ago is now influencing Native Americans in a great way today. When they lost all of their land they also lost much of their power and money as they were forced onto small reservations that were built on the worst land possible, giving them very few economic opportunities. The United States Government allows them some benefits in order to try and repay the damage that they did to the Native Americans by taking away their land , but they cannot easily fix many of the problems they have caused.

The government allows casinos on Native American reservations, which has been greatly debated recently. These casinos have been a blessing for some tribes and a curse for others. Certain tribes have had huge amounts of success with the gaming industry as "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). These tribes have had great success with casinos as they have provided jobs to many people living on the reservation and they have brought in great amounts of money and outside visitors. This has influenced the Native American culture as they are integrating more with people outside the reservation. For many Native Americans there were no jobs available and they could not live off the land because most reservations are built on land unsuitable for growing crops and have no natural resources; so, for certain tribes the Casinos have provided an economic lift that has allowed them to live comfortably. However, the casinos have had the reverse effect on some tribes. If a tribe is unable to make great profit off of the casinos, as many smaller tribes have had trouble with, they are negatively impacted by succeeding tribes. This is because Americans see successful Indian Tribes and assume that all tribes are rich because they generalize the Native Americans. Americans want the government to raise taxes and cut spendings on Native American programs. Those who are not flourishing really have nothing to do with the prospering tribes, but they still are having their benefits cut. For example, in California 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). Tribes who are not flourishing from the casinos still are having their programs cut and are being negatively impacted by the stereotype of rich Indians. The Native American tribes need these programs to prevent suicide and substance abuse because these issues have become extremely prevalent on reservations as “"Indian youths commit suicide at nearly triple the rate of young people in general" (Katel). This problem needs to be confronted with the programs that are being cut by the U.S. government. The U.S. government is partially at fault for the suicides that are occurring according to Lindquist-Mala as she says that the “suicide epidemic happening in Indian country is just a manifestation of all its history and reflects our community’s historical oppression”. By taking away the Native Americans power, freedom to roam the land, and by changing their culture they have oppressed the Native Americans which has led to a great amount of depression in their community. In order to solve these problems the U.S. government was spending money on programs to curb the upward trend in suicide attempts, but this spending has been cut. Even when there were programs coming from the U.S. government they were not extremely successful, so many Native American reservations chose to self-govern and decide where they would spend money and how to run specific programs. The poorer reservations are unable to afford this system of self-government and must continue to receive single grants from the government for specific programs. This plan has not been shown to successfully curb the suicide rates, but there is nothing Native American tribes can do because they are in a state of poverty.

The United States government took away much land and pride from the Native Americans; this caused many problems that now need to be solved. There has been a great deal of poverty on reservations so the government allowed them to open casinos which has helped some tribes, but hurt others. Some reservations are negatively impacted as casinos do not help them and the stereotype of rich-Indians now has allowed the government to cut spending on Native American programs. These programs are related to suicide prevention and alcoholism. The rates of these issues have increased drastically in Native American reservations because of their difficult history. The Native Americans were once a proud people who had control of millions of acres of land but after much oppression they have been left a people who can barely afford to confront their own problems.