Say Anything Blog

What the Indians need is a good coal fired power plant, sell electricity for wampum, employ lots of other Indians at plant. Indian reservations usually have lots of coal up that way.

Bill-tb:  You do not know what happens on the Rez---nor does anyone for that matter--including the Indians.
The few industries there are on the Rez are run, for the most part, by non-Indians.  This a culture that is at odds with the rest of the culture around them.  They want to preserve their way of life of 200 years ago--it is an impossibility.  There is a limit on how much regimentation can be forced upon a people by their own leadership.

In order to change things for the Indians, first you would have to change the Indians’ attitude toward success. Many have adopted the same kind of attitude that Bill Cosby accuses blacks of having-that of “Don’t be acting white” i.e., successful.
None of us can go back and change the past, and I think we have done some well-intentioned things for the Indians, but obviously they are not working. Throwing money at the problem does nothing at all to change the situation. We should have learned this on the reservations and in the ghettoes alike. Long before LBJ’s Great Society, we had the reservations to look to and see that government was not the answer for their poor living conditions.
If Indian “Leaders” (how come white folk don’t have “Leaders”?) would work to change the attitude of their citizens on the res, rather than try to stir resentment continually, something could be achieved.
What they like to point to as “racism” on the part of white people towards Indians would disappear if they were to stop playing the victim card and work to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. America still likes to cheer on an underdog, IF that person is striving and working to better himself. I do not have contempt toward Indians or blacks, I have contempt for lazy, useless assholes who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. If the shoe fits they are welcome to wear it, but I know enough Indians who have made something of themselves to know that it is not their fate unless they choose it to be.

Peace and Love from the People’s Republic of Nord Akota!

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux have done quite well.
http://www.mysticlake.com/

Some of the tribes have been able to navigate the political waters well enough to be successful.  But in general, the reservation system isn’t doing Indians any favors.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Everyone including the local Native Americans like the amenities of modern life, i.e.: plumbing, HVAC, television, internet, soft bed and comfortable shoes. As far as culture goes it is possible to have both especially when you have protected ethnic status such as what the Native Americans have. But like anything else it takes drive and motivation unless you are the type to expect handouts. Then it only takes a guilt ridden bleeding heart and the benevolence of Uncle Sam.

We all have the same opportunities it just depends how you play your hand. The Dakota Natives should lease their land to a large wind farm project. There’s a lot of growth in that area and they could feel good about the “green” politics involved in it. Not to mention the yearly lease fee that they could profit from.