by Tom Rodgers
spotlightonpoverty.org 12/10/08
A Challenge Too Often Ignored
“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a
land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.”
– W.E.B. Du Bois
No discussion of poverty, and of the need to renew
opportunity in America, can be complete without a
frank consideration of the situation faced by Native
Americans. With a worsening economy, the inevitable
churn of holiday stories about the least fortunate, and a
new Administration, now is the right time for meaningful
action to address poverty in Native American
communities.
The modern history of Native Americans has been
marred by tragedy and injustice, and too often
deprivation and suffering within Native American
communities has been met with sentiment that shocks
the conscience.
In 1862, the American government refused to honor
treaty obligations to the Dakota Sioux Indians during
a time of widespread starvation. When tribal leaders,
desperate for relief, asked for food on credit because
the U.S. government had failed to provide moneys
owed, an associate of the local Indian agent replied, “If
they are hungry, let them eat grass or their own dung.”
His comment, and the crass disregard it represented,
helped to spark the infamous and bloody confronta-
tion between the tribe and the federal government
now known as the Dakota War.
Although we have moved beyond wanton neglect
and violence, our national response to the problem of
poverty in Native American communities remains woe-
fully inadequate.
The extent of the problem may not be well known.
American Indians and Native Alaskans number 4.5
million. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these
Americans earn a median annual income of $33,627.
million. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these
million. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these
One in every four (25.3 percent) lives in poverty
and nearly a third (29.9 percent) are without health
insurance coverage.
To put this in stark terms, counties on Native American
reservations are among the poorest in the country and,
according to the Economic Research Service at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 60 percent of
all Native Americans who live outside of metropolitan
areas inhabit persistently poor counties.
Contrary to popular belief, the overwhelming majority
of tribes are not wealthy by virtue of gaming. This is
mostly attributable to a fact which all sovereign nations
have come to understand, that geography is all too
often destiny.
For most tribes, their remotely placed homes and
communities frequently stifle viable economic
activity. This disturbing result is particularly harsh when
we recognize that Native Americans witnessed their
geography chosen for them by those who sought to
terminate them as a people.
A major cause of poverty in Native American
communities is the persistent lack of opportunity.
The Economic Research Service reports that Native
American communities have fewer full-time employed
individuals than any other high-poverty commu-
nity. Only 36 percent of males in high-poverty Native
American communities have full-time, year-round
employment.
On the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana, for
example, the annual unemployment rate is 69 percent.
The national unemployment rate at the very peak of the
Great Depression was around 25 percent. That means
that each year the Blackfeet people, whose aboriginal
lands once comprised Glacier National Park, suffers an
employment crisis nearly three times as severe as the
Great Depression.
One does not need to travel to a developing nation to
find extreme poverty. It is here, in America. In our own
backyard.
Yet beyond these bleak statistics, there is very little
discussion of the causes of Native American poverty
and what to do about it. The sad truth is only a handful
of policymakers give Native Americans priority on the
national agenda. Few even know that November was
Native American Indian Heritage Month and that, by
Congressional resolution, the Friday after Thanksgiving
is Native American Indian Heritage Day.
In a time for giving thanks, we too readily forget that
one of the first stories behind Thanksgiving dates to
1621, when it is said to have been celebrated by the
pilgrims at Plymouth and the Wampanoag tribe of
Massachusetts.
In addition to their symbolic exclusion from the table,
America’s indigenous populations have struggled for
recognition. Most of the world’s nations have been
reluctant to take positive steps to support the rights
of indigenous peoples. The United Nations Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Peoples set a goal early this
century for adoption of the Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples. In 2007, 143 countries finally
adopted the declaration. The United States – the
wealthiest country in the world – was not one of
them.
Expanding formal rights is important, but we also
need better federal performance on these issues. The
Government Accountability Office (GAO) has leveled
a number of criticisms at the agencies responsible for
federal Native American policy, including “long-stand-
ing financial and programmatic deficiencies” in the
Interior Department’s American Indian programs.
A 2006 GAO report also found that the Office of the
Special Trustee for American Indians has failed to
implement several key initiatives specified by the
American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act
of 1994, including establishing an actual timetable for
completing its mission.
The government should also take more aggressive
action on providing essential services and the
necessary tools for effective self-governance to
Native American communities. Congress has failed to
reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
since 1992. Initially passed in 1976, the Indian Health
Care Improvement Act was designed to bring the
waning health of Native American communities up to
the standard enjoyed by all Americans.
Unfortunately, current inaction on this issue
constitutes a grave travesty. Health systems in many
Native American communities are in serious need
of updating and improvement. Reauthorizing this
legislation will improve disease screening in Native
American communities, encourage health enrollment
in existing federal programs, provide better investment
in Native American health professionals, and ensure
funding in order to modernize facilities in Native Amer-
ican communities.
If providing better health care to Native Americans
during a time of Wall Street bailouts seems too
costly, we should recognize that we currently spend
30 percent more per capita on health care in American
prisons than on Native Americans, whose ancestors
aided the Pilgrims, fed the soldiers freezing in Valley
Forge, helped Lewis and Clark explore our nation, and
proudly hoisted the flag on Iwo Jima. In fact, Native
Americans most recently served their country by play-
ing the first and leading role in exposing one of the
largest congressional corruption scandals in history:
the Jack Abramoff scandal.
The truth is that health care is merely one example
of the way we consistently deprive Native American
communities of the services they desperately need.
A 2003 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
found that, per capita, Native Americans receive
disproportionately lower funding than the general
population for federally administered services and
programs. This means that for every essential service
our government agrees to provide for its citizens –
including basic law enforcement, education, and
infrastructure – Native Americans get less than any
other segment of society.
The time for action is long past due. Native
Americans were the very last to be granted the right to
vote, and were therefore too long treated as second-
class citizens. Now there are those who seek to treat
Native American governments as second-class sov-
ereigns. They seek to accomplish this by not availing
them of the same tools for self-reliance and recognition
afforded to state and local governments.
The issue of poverty is an integral first step. Poverty
is both the cause and the consequence of all the ills
visited upon Native Americans. Failure to address
poverty causes deprivation and hardship in these
communities today, and robs the next generation of
any opportunity to succeed and thrive tomorrow.
The invisibility, silence, and neglect must end. As
President-elect Barack Obama ascends to the White
House, now is the significant moment to address the
many problems Native Americans endure, including
systemic poverty.
Barack Obama’s election symbolizes America’s
progress in healing the racial wounds that scar our
history. A new commitment to Native Americans
will continue that process. His pledge to reduce
poverty in America should extend to the Native American
communities that feel poverty most acutely, and that
have been relegated to the shadows of our society for
far too long.
Advocates, legislators and the new president must put
Native Americans on the national agenda. Including
Native Americans in our vision of a better America is an
indispensable part of the “change we need.”
Tom Rodgers is the president of Carlyle Consulting of
Alexandria, Virginia. A Blackfoot tribal member, he advocates
on behalf of Native American tribal governments and their
people. He was previously a congressional staffer for Senator
Max Baucus.
