What is the Real Source of Native American Poverty? – IOTW Report

What is the Real Source of Native American Poverty?

Frontpage: The dire conditions under which Native Americans live in the United States are pitiful. Statistics grow dated by the month. According to the American Community Survey, one in three Native Americans live in poverty with a median income of around $23,000 per year.

Self-proclaimed experts on Native American poverty such as sociologist Beth Redbird point out that despite heavy investments in education, up to 80% of Native Americans move back to their rural communities. Given that poverty tends to be higher in rural areas, the poverty gap between Native Americans who live in rural areas and urban areas is larger than the white rural and urban gap. The conclusion is that poverty is not driven by the propensity of Native Americans to live in rural areas. more

26 Comments on What is the Real Source of Native American Poverty?

  1. Native Americans have access to much more than this ‘white boy’ ever did, regardless of the ill-gotten term of ‘white privilege’.

    MOST everyone in America has the opportunity to improve themselves and their livelihood.

    It starts with self-control.

    25
  2. “Redbird concludes that amazing things would happen if Native Americans had the same employment rates, occupations, levels of education, lived in the same geographic locations and were in the same types of white households as white Americans.”

    The situation is that the average IQ of Native Americans is around 87-90 and the average IQ of whites is around 97-100 (depending on the source of the stats).

    A 10 point difference in IQ is significant and add in the cultural differences (parents usually raise children to be culturally the same as they are)and you see why all those occupational and educational differences are there. Then there is the less talked about alcohol abuse problem among the Native Americans that no one really wants to factor into the equation, and that is as -or more- significant as any other of the other factors by itself.

    That’s an obstacle for those “amazing things” that wishful thinking will not cure.

    12
  3. This article didn’t do much homework on tribes. The Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin has an extremely successful record of development and tribal success all due to their casino. All the things recommended in this article the Oneida did, and more. I don’t have personal experience with any other tribe but the Oneida’s have their shit together. This article is a little racist in their assumptions. All native tribes are not equally motivated anymore than all white people are.

    14
  4. As a Seminole I find this theory interesting, thanks for posting. I wonder if under current political conditions if the same philological driven poverty cycle might fall on other human groups in the future if exposed to similar events that overtook the American Indians life styles and cultures.

    5
  5. Gee don’t we see the same poverty and problems on the streets in democrat run cities in the US?? Free government handouts and no dignity required, come on down and we’ll sign you up forever.

    13
  6. First I am not Indian.
    The things I have learned.
    The Indians never revered wealth, but revered nature and family. The ideals that were forced on them where white ideals.
    Which is the exact opposite of their core beliefs. Nature provided everything they needed for 100’s of years. Along came white people whose first principal, was land ownership. The Indians never considered the idea that land could be owned, by anybody.

    @Answerman Cooper

    Thanks for the John Stossel vid, this is the way the democrats view America.
    They will own everything and we are granted the privilege of living here, so long as we pay.

    3
  7. The chains that held the slaves on the plantations were not nearly as strong as the chains of welfare that democrats use to hold the modern Black man.
    If anything, those welfare programs have been even more detrimental to the plight of the Native American Indian.

    6
  8. Our Navajos got shipped off to Texas where they underwent some sort of “Pet Cemetery” deal cuz what Texas shipped back turned out all lazy and evil.

    The Hopi are pretty cool though. So it all sort of balances out.

    6
  9. I grew up in Wyoming and was very familiar with the local Indians. I remember on Indian guy that worked in my uncles auto body repair shop. He was a very talented bump and paint guy, but lived in poverty in a small trailer with his wife. He just couldn’t stop drinking, between drinking and the DUI’s he had no money. Nice guy, but a total drunk.

    8
  10. Their band leaders in many cases up in Canuckistan keep a lot-O-$$$$$ for themselves while they keep their people poor.

    Sounds like the Democraps…

    Steven Harper, our last Conservative Prime minister, tried to force bands to publish openly where their money goes every year and have real accountants assist them. That was deemed racist and generally abandoned once Turdeau McSparkle Socks got elected by the ASSHOLES of Toronto.

    Most likely, the same shit happens in the USA.

    9
  11. On the land ownership thing: I’m no expert, but it seems to me the American indians were ALL about land ownership. They fought each other over this ALL the time. Even in the French and indian war both the French and British were joined by American indians on both sides. Maybe they didn’t have the Geneva Convention rules or put their treaties in writing with each other, but they fought over land ownership.

    If you ask three people you’ll get four opinions on American indians and alcohol. One study found that indians consume less than the general population but that when they drink, they drink a lot more. There’s so many stories about indians and alcohol over millenia, it seems there must be *something* to it all. According to people who study these things, the American indians are descendants of Asians who made their way here via land bridge. If that’s true, then they are genetically tied to Asians, who do have a known (and greater) sensitivity to alcohol.

    Anyone who’s ever lived near reservations knows that indians aren’t overly particular about their living conditions. Derelict major appliances and automobiles occupy a major portion of many front yards.

    4
  12. Noting that the very first comment referenced and has been repeated…

    Believe someone said that it wasn’t the Winchester rifle that won the west, but that it was ALCOHOL.

    7
  13. mickey moussaoui – That’s true about ‘not all the same’, but the ones that squeak get the grease. Nobody’s interested in the self-sufficient because you can’t control them. But the slackers? The ‘victims’? Shit, chiefs and feds come running.

    4
  14. “Gee don’t we see the same poverty and problems on the streets in democrat run cities in the US?? Free government handouts and no dignity required, come on down and we’ll sign you up forever.

    Ex Fucking Xactly

    5
  15. On a similar note, The Cleveland Indians have subordinated themselves to the mob and will change their name, a name they have had for over a hundred years.

    Now, the Atlanta Braves are the only holdout.

    4
  16. I’ll try and comment on this later tonight. As most of you know, I spend a LOT of time with Tribal members and on “The Rez” have made a lot of observations over the years. The Rez, means maybe a dozen different reservations in the Pacific NW. my cousins run cattle on the Blackfoot Rez and there are whites who are accepted and those who are accepted on one Rez will find that Indians on other reservations and from other tribes warm up to them too, but there aren’t many of us. I can’t tell you what it is, it is just something that is.

    I have had a busy weekend and need to run to the grocery store right now, the kids are out of Umpqua Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream and that is a crisis in this house. I will try and post something later tonight.

    2
  17. Oh, it’s just a little thing the Neanderthals invented in Europe called THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION. The rest of the world went from hunter/gatherers to farmer/ranchers, but not in North America. Hell, they didn’t even domesticate yeast

Comments are closed.