Associated Press Apparently Thinks Fargo, Grand Forks Represents “Indian Country”

• December 1, 2008

From an AP article about the faillure of a proposed Indian health bill:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is expected to adjourn in December without sending a wide-ranging Indian health bill to President Bush, leaving Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan and American Indian leaders to look to a new president for support.
Barack Obama campaigned in Indian Country more than any presidential candidate before him – mostly during primary season in an attempt to win states with high Indian populations, including North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana.

I don’t know where Obama visited in South Dakota or Montana, but in North Dakota he the only places he visited were the two most urban centers in the state: Grand Forks and Fargo. Last time I checked, Grand Forks (93.5% white) and Fargo (94.17% white) weren’t exactly “Indian country.”
That aside, the larger issue of an Indian health bill is interesting. I oppose any such thing, not because I oppose health care for Indians (though that’s undoubtedly what I’ll be accused of by some) but because I think it merely treats the symptom and not the disease, to use a medical metaphor.
Indian health care is poor because Indians themselves, on average, are poor. Indians are poor because unemployment on Indian reservations (at least those in North Dakota) routinely averages over 60%. And they’re not healthy because alcohol and substance abuse is rampant on the reservations.
But rather than trying to find ways to just give them health care we should be looking for ways for them to be able to afford their own health care. We should want to empower them, not make them more dependent on the government than they already are. I think that each and every Indian on the reservations is capable of affording his or her own health care just like the majority of the rest of America does. Meaning they don’t need an Indian health bill. What they need is a end to the system of government run reservations that were never created to help them but rather to hold them back.
Dorgan, who along with his fellow Democrats enjoys the support of Indians as a rock-solid Democrat voting bloc, shouldn’t be seen as an advocate for Indians for wanting a bill like this. He should be seen as an exploiter who wants to keep Indians down by keeping them addicted to government programs and welfare so that he can turn around and use those programs and that welfare as leverage for votes.

Tags: Domestic Issues, North Dakota News, Politics

bill-tb

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.
halatbis

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.
http://boyddrivefollies.blogspot.com/ Good Ol Boy

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.
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin

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

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.
http://Array Mickey

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.

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Associated Press Apparently Thinks Fargo, Grand Forks Represents “Indian Country”

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