Shannon County, South Dakota is over 90% Amerindian. It’s also the poorest county in America (and also apparently the most solid supporter of John Kerry in 2004.) A couple sample statistics from the second link: the county’s median home value is less than one-third that of South Dakota. Male life expectancy in the county is 48 years. This is lower than male life expectancy in Equatorial Guinea or Burma. Men have the same life expectancy if they’re born in the middle of the Sudanese genocide that they do if born in Shannon County.
An isolated slice of reservation life? Not hardly. Native Americans had a rate of alcohol-related deaths five times higher than any other race in 1988 (the most recent year for which I found data). Suicide rates are also higher than the general population — and I think it’s safe to say that the reservation totals are pulling these numbers in the worse direction. Even a well-spun census report can’t hide the fact that Amerindian reservation numbers are significantly behind general numbers in terms of income, poverty, and education (where Bachelor’s degrees are half as prevalent on reservations as in the general population. And that’s a great improvement!) There’s more depressing numbers here.
And I won’t belabor the well-known point that this happens largely through the mismanagement, incompetence, swindling, apathy, and condescension of the federal government from the Dawes Act on. If anyone wants to challenge me on that, you’re welcome to do so.
But…why doesn’t anyone care? I don’t just mean on this page (though more on that in a second). I mean in general. Who is the last politician at any level you heard speak of this? How many debate questions? Presidential campaigns? Ad campaigns? Concerts, movies? How about the population of our reservations get proportionate attention of the American prison population — which is about 1/4 as much? That works out to about one series on MSNBC, a couple shows on MTV, what else? Where’s the concern for these approximately 500,000 people living on government land? Hm?
I don’t mean to pick on BMG, as I truly enjoy being part of this community. This isn’t meant to be a “why don’t you care about my pet issue?” diary. I’m not even sure this is my pet issue. It’s more of a “why do you care about anything?” diary with a soupcon of the good ol’ fashioned “feel the liberal guilt” diary. There are plenty of reasons why Amerindians, particularly on reservations, are not an issue here:
- No Massachusetts reservations. Duh. Massachusetts has no federal reservations. Besides, Native Americans form about 0.2% of our state’s population — not enough to equal the population of Middleboro, which brings me to:
- Casinos. There’s a perception too widely held that being an Indian means that you are stinking rich because you are one of a very small group that rakes in huge profits in the nearest casino. While that may be true of the 785 members of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, it’s not true of the Lakota.
So what of it? Well, first, July 4th just passed. Thanksgiving to me is only reminiscent of the first steps of European conquest of this continent, and until we have a separate Manifest Destiny Day, I think it fair to remember that the first Europeans of modern America struggled to their knees only because Native Americans were pulling them up. Then many of them fought alongside as brothers in the struggle for independence. Then, so quickly begins slaughter at the hands of settlers and federal troops hungering for land.
Consistent numbers are hard to come by, but most skirmishes and massacres would lead to about 100 dead (if they could be bothered to count), and those are replicated throughout our country’s path and history. Even Native Americans who played under unfamiliar American rules and beat us at our game were denied justice on a scale that makes Libby’s commutation seem like tearing up a speeding ticket. (The history of the Cherokee nation is fascinating and is much richer than the Trail of Tears paragraph in most history textbooks.)
Secondly, I think it’s in strong contrast with debates we are currently enjoying on two topics of the moment: immigration and health care. These issues are according to Gallup two of the top three among Americans.
We’ve had illegal immigration in America, as long as we’ve had America. (And before. Heck, the Pilgrims arrived illegally from the points of view of England and Amerindians.) I don’t mean to re-hash debates, but the Tom Tancredos and Duncan Hunters of the country only decided it was a problem recently. In the Gallup Poll poll alone, 9% of Americans called in their top issue in April, and it’s 15% today! Call me cynical, but is there an explanation for those numbers beyond the anti-immigration hype machine?
Of course not. People are just talking about it more. Now, maybe the illegal immigration of last year finally hit the “too much” meter in Americans’ brains, but I doubt that. Methinks it may have more to do with Michelle Malkin and company taking an issue that seemed to poll well, and running with it. 
It isn’t due to security concerns — today’s debate is focused almost entirely on the whopping 40% of illegal immigrants who are Hispanic, even though our accomplished (9/11) and potential (New Year’s Eve) attackers entered through Canada. But because the far-right cares, the right cares, and we have to care.
Then there’s health care. Seen any good Michael Moore movies on reservation life? Nah. Why do that when you can dress up and get photographed putting on a rubber glove on the cover? (Note — I’m getting sick of public figures getting dressed up to make a point…Bush as fighter pilot, Kerry as hunter, Moore as doctor, Kucinich as presidential candidate…) Every Democratic candidate has their health care plans. Amer
ican Indians have not been mentioned once in the debates. Is it simply because almost all of us go to a doctor, and almost none of us go to a reservation?
How can this change? Well, I’m still waiting for Amerindians to take a few lessons from strong-willed Native groups in Canada who’ve been putting forward their concerns with a clear voice since at least the late 80s. I wouldn’t mind seeing something a little broader-based and more pragmatic than AIM.
Or, there’s leadership. I admire John Edwards for trying so hard to inject poverty into middle-class consciousness in 2004 and again in this cycle. (Why, it’s even the third-highest ranked issue on his website! Which means…well, little). I wish Indian reservation living had an equally passionate speaker — one that should come from our party. I want to point the finger at one spectacular failure on this basis: fmr Senator Tom Daschle. Daschle, unlamented former Dem leader in the Senate, knows the importance of Native American votes to the Democratic cause. They’re a crucial part of the electoral successes of Governors Schweitzer and Napolitano. However Daschle never used his (semi-)bully pulpit to take up their cause. He worked hard for their votes in South Dakota, but I never head him speak to us about it. A lost opportunity.
Or maybe there’ll be some grassroots movement. Which leads to the final section:
So what does this all mean?
At the least, I hope you’ll join me in digging up some scratch for the American Indian College Fund, or another cause the works so closely with providing opportunities to America’s forgotten. Anyone who can afford to pay for some July Fourth hoopla can afford to give someone a shot at the American dream that was built upon the tatters of their people’s.
More than that, not every cause gets a global concert, feature film, or talk-radio focus. I focus on Indian reservation life because of the time of the year, but this post could easily have been about urban violence. This is still seen as an urban, not national issue — for mayors, but not presidents. The sexy AIDS issue gets play in the most recent Dem debate, but I didn’t hear anything about the second-leading cause of death for African-American youth. Another possibility is rural poverty or mental illness.
One thing is common to all those, issues however. They’re safely out of the eyesight of middle class America. These issues live in decrepit farmland, urban ghettoes, or Native reservations.
Americans love talk radio. Americans get sick. If more Americans visited reservations, maybe the problem wouldn’t be this bad. How are you going to help?
An easy answer to your question of why no one cares, and this is not an excuse, is that no matter how progressive and altruistic, we always look out for #1 and our own causes. The forces of our day-to-day life impoact the causes and issues we care about most. I mean, it’s hard enough for a Bostonian to care about the homless in his/her own city, let alone poor people in rural SD. And that’s even before we begin a discussion on class, race, culture and stereotypes.
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I would also say that my post on the wide spread ignorance of many Americans on the most basic of facts might shed light on why there is widespread ignorance on society’s most complex issues.
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If 20% of adult Americans believe the Sun revolves around the Earth and only 25% of Americans “understand that evolution is about as well established as the fact that water is H20”, and the government can’t even keep America’s injured Iraq “heroes” that out of the poor house, then what right do we have to expect America to understand that it is the correct thing to do to take care of these abused and brutalized people?
This is a well-written post. It is beautifully laid out and well-illustrated. I just don’t know what the heck to do about it.
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Your appeal for charitable contributions has me telling myself, “That’s the role of government.”
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I’m reminded of Arthur Brooks’ recent book whose thesis was that conservatives contribute a higher percentage of their income to charity than liberals. (Disclaimer: I don’t even know whether to give Brooks’ analysis credence, but it seems like a fun topic to discuss with other liberals far away from the Gotcha Guys.)
This is pretty much the perfect example of what a blog post ought to be. A detailed, richly argued thoughtful post full of links, images, probing questions and insights that won’t get coverage in the MSM. So, thank you for making this post.
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As to what to do about it? I don’t know…I think you’ve got a second post to write up.