What do u think about native americans? (Polson, Lincoln: house, neighborhood)

[Blitzrunner15]

You state that life on the rez isn't fun and is boring (understatements I'm sure). This is probably because of the lack of employment, education and opportunities in general that reservation life has to offer.

My question back at you is what's keeping you there?


I would like to help the community in any way that i can so i wont leave poplar like this. I will leave soon but i will return, with cash. So then i could help bring businesses and jobs to poplar. i stay because rez life is all i know but it wont be anymore. Im sorry about my understatements.

[A Neighbor]

For anyone wondering about the book I mentioned earlier here is the info. It is called Going to Pieces, the dismantling of the United States of America. It is written by Elaine Willman who is of Cherokee ancestry. The group that she is a part of and chair for is Citizens Equal Rights Alliance and their website is Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA)
This is a group of people from all walks of life that want to see one thing. Equal treatment, not special treatment. They do not want the apartheid that had been witnessed in places like South Africa to happen here in the US.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by A Neighbor

For anyone wondering about the book I mentioned earlier here is the info. It is called Going to Pieces, the dismantling of the United States of America. It is written by Elaine Willman who is of Cherokee ancestry. The group that she is a part of and chair for is Citizens Equal Rights Alliance and their website is Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA)
This is a group of people from all walks of life that want to see one thing. Equal treatment, not special treatment. They do not want the apartheid that had been witnessed in places like South Africa to happen here in the US.

So in that vein shouldn't the reservations end? It seems all that does is seperate both of us.

[JoeJoeMan]

Drover Wrote:

Here's the difference: Those of Norwegian, Scottish, Irish and German heritage have a reference point elsewhere as a continual source of their cultural instruction and information. And for what it's worth, these ethnicities in America are now enough generations away from their origins that they have taken on uniquely American forms that persons from the source countries don't really recognize it as their own. People from Ireland are baffled that we've turned St. Patrick's Day into a celebration and giant drinking party. A Scot would hardly recognize his cultural counterparts in Appalachians as members of his own people. My German colleague pointed out to me that what we consider German culture is actually Bavarian culture, and a stereotyped version of it at that, which ignores the other 3/4ths of German culture. Norwegian culture in America nowadays consists of putting wooden trolls in your front yard.

This is how far these cultures have strayed from their origins even with those origins still intact elsewhere for reference. Imagine how well Indian tribal cultures will fare when their only remaining grounded reference points are eliminated

Looks like you answered your own question.....the diluting of the, can I use the term "white" cultures didn't seem to both those people, they moved on and melted in to 'american' culture.
Personally I think this whole ethnic cultural thing is greatly over rated. For one I can't speak two words of my actual ethnic language and don't see where doing so would do me much good. And in high school I studied a completley different language....yea so what.
I think we all got just a little to hungup and proud of our ethnic background here in america, it's like beating your own chest for nothing you've actually done on a personal level........being proud because you were born this that or the other thing, is pretty shallow, you wanna be proud of something, go out and do something that you can be proud of, but then again I've heard that 'pride' is not a virtue, humility is. When was the last time in american you heard anyone talk about or promoted being humble ? .....not hardly right....that's because we are all just a little to bit full of ourselves.

[jimj]

you bring up a good point JJM, I can't speak a word of Welsh or Romanian! The whole thing I have with this argument is wasn't this country founded on no matter where you came from when you were born here or became a citizen you are AMERICAN first, in fact is not one of the requirements when you take the oath that you give up allegance to your prior country?

[Huckleberry3911948]

Originally Posted by Blitzrunner15

I am proud to a native american.
i wish we could get rid of the native american "reservation/s". Rez life is no fun. Its boring and i wish i could change that. but the time for change may or may not come. Any comments?

hats off to the native americans. they have suffered greatly and seem to have made some brillant recent moves away from poverty and towards prosperity. in the end they may be the ones holding the winning hand.
our consumptive approach to living is not working too well.
i cannt help but feel that keeping separate from it may be a better way of life, in regarding to your post of moving off indian land no? you of course would know more about that topic.
this post was not intended to offend anybody.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by JoeJoeMan

Looks like you answered your own question.....the diluting of the, can I use the term "white" cultures didn't seem to both those people, they moved on and melted in to 'american' culture.

These cultures weren't diluted to the point of nonexistence. They're still alive and well in Europe. The melding of various European cultural roots into one American culture did not result in the death of those cultures' origins. Asking the Indian tribes to simply assimilate into American culture in the same manner as European descendants did is to ask them to let their ancestry, culture and heritage disappear from the Earth entirely. As blithely as you ask them to do this, I suspect you'd be outraged if you were asked to subsume your American culture, history, heritage, etc. to, say, a global society based on values that are alien to you.

Originally Posted by JoeJoeMan

Personally I think this whole ethnic cultural thing is greatly over rated. For one I can't speak two words of my actual ethnic language and don't see where doing so would do me much good. And in high school I studied a completley different language....yea so what.
I think we all got just a little to hungup and proud of our ethnic background here in america, it's like beating your own chest for nothing you've actually done on a personal level........being proud because you were born this that or the other thing, is pretty shallow, you wanna be proud of something, go out and do something that you can be proud of, but then again I've heard that 'pride' is not a virtue, humility is. When was the last time in american you heard anyone talk about or promoted being humble ? .....not hardly right....that's because we are all just a little to bit full of ourselves.

Right right... all this chest-thumping should be subsumed to the broader American culture... with all due humility to that superior culture, of course.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by jimj

you bring up a good point JJM, I can't speak a word of Welsh or Romanian! The whole thing I have with this argument is wasn't this country founded on no matter where you came from when you were born here or became a citizen you are AMERICAN first, in fact is not one of the requirements when you take the oath that you give up allegance to your prior country?

Allow me to point out another difference that I thought would be self-evident: Whatever values this country was founded on, those founders by and large were voluntary participants in the shaping of those values. The Indian tribes by and large were not. It's a little presumptuous to tell them that they are obligated, in the interest of unity, to live according to a value system that actively tried to annihilate their own value systems.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by Drover

Allow me to point out another difference that I thought would be self-evident: Whatever values this country was founded on, those founders by and large were voluntary participants in the shaping of those values. The Indian tribes by and large were not. It's a little presumptuous to tell them that they are obligated, in the interest of unity, to live according to a value system that actively tried to annihilate their own value systems.

True enough, but at what point is the past the past? 100 years, 200? All cultures have done really bad things and killed people who didn't deserve it, Indians included. So at what point do we move past what happened and get to where we are today? And, more to the point how does a seperate country within a country benefit anyone at this point except the heads of the government of course?

[A Neighbor]

So when will we ever truly rectify what we did to the German and Japanese Americans in WWII? We put them in camps and hid them away from the rest of society. This is no different than the reservations that we put "natives" in 100 years previously. These two cultures have done quite well when they were sent back to live with the rest of the Americans. I am sure that both of their cultures are great in their own right and that they both have things that are done differently than the majority of Americans but they seem to be adjusting quite well. Personally, I don't know if I would ever be so proud of my heritage that I would want to willingly admit that I can't change, because it is not in the history of my people to change. If you truly believe that todays tribal members can't adapt to new surroundings, then you don't know much of the history of nomadic tribes. Their environments were constantly changing and they either changed with it or were lost behind. The tribes were also constantly warring in between each other and with the settlers for better areas that could provide more food and better shelter. Yes it is a travesty that history happened, but if we as a nation could go back in time and change things, such as the wars between all people I am sure we would sure try. But as we all know you can't change history to suit your current needs and you either continue to dwell on it and go nowhere or you accept it and figure out how you can change so it doesn't happen to you again.