Abstract Native American poverty is a social problem in the United States. For historic, political, sociocultural, and economic reasons, this issue affects not only those impoverished but American society as a whole. The most impoverished Native American communities are frequently within the boundaries of reservations. The rates of unemployment, low wages, and infant mortality are among the highest in the country on several reservations. Disease, mental illness, alcoholism, and fetal alcohol syndrome are also prevalent within the Native American population. To improve these conditions, strategies should be put into place to build stable economies in the otherwise isolated reservations. Native American Poverty in the Current Socioeconomic Climate Poverty Definition To many Americans, poverty is merely a synonym for ‘not rich’. Even those who understand the definition may struggle with the concept that poverty is not a distant, foreign, concern; poverty can occur in any country, region, neighborhood, and household. In a study performed by Carroll et al, 60% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “poor people are poor because of laziness and lack of will power (2011, p. 116). In the same questionnaire, 77% of respondents felt most poor people have the ability to escape poverty without government assistance (Carroll et al, 2011, p. 117). As above facts show, despite the widespread nature of this issue those not living in poverty often have
In the article “Rethinking the American poverty”, Mark Rank suggests the three major shifts that are required for a practical understanding of American poverty. First, it’s important to recognize that poverty affects us all because of two reasons. The first reason is that each year, the government has to spend a lot of money to solve the social problems associated with poverty. Poor people suffer from lack of health access, not having enough money to support their basic needs,…which create a huge burden on the government’s budget. The second explanation for us to care about poverty is that there is a strong chance at some point during life time, Americans would face poverty. The second shift is to realize that American poverty is largely the
A history of struggle and isolation from the rest of society has led to the deterioration of Native American cultures and customs and to their rising levels of unemployment, poverty, and crime on reservations. The United States government has had a major role in the coming about of the struggles that persist for Native Americans to this day. As crime and poverty grip the Sioux tribe, they will continue to lose their traditional culture and move farther from who they once were as a people. I will first review how European explorers introduced alcohol to Native American tribes and how this lead to a strong prevalence of alcoholism in the Sioux tribe. Next I will discuss the U.S. government’s use of forced assimilation and boarding schools led to the loss of Native American culture and customs. This led to more anger of the Sioux tribe towards the U.S. government and to outer society as a whole. Third I will analyze the living conditions and complacency felt by the Sioux tribe as seen through the photographs and interviews conducted by journalist Aaron Huey. Lastly, I will assess the efforts taken by the elders and leaders of the Sioux tribe to combat the prevalence of crime on their reservation. The people of the United States and their government have caused many struggles for the Sioux tribe since their existence in America. For these problems to be resolved, the United States needs to take an active role in acknknwoldeging the problem and allocating the necessary resources
As Peter Edelman writes in “The State of Poverty in America,” in the United States, 20.5 million individuals of the population are in poverty, including 6 million with no income (1). Numerous poor individuals are in desperate need of essential opportunities. In contrast, the rich in the United States are moving up and becoming successful in their livelihood. The differences in the opportunities given to the rich and taken from the poor are ongoing. Opportunities include difficulties in achieving proper education, medicine, and/or jobs.
The area I will be living and working in is severely crippled by poverty, despite the fact that it exists in a relatively well-off county in the US, a country with the common perception of having a high standard of living. I hope to learn a lot about how this happened, and what this group of people, who is extremely unrepresented and often feels invisible, thinks should be done about it. The Native American people I will be living and working with will have a completely different perspective than I do, and I am hoping to absorb as much of their stories and viewpoints as possible while I am there. I also plan to learn on a deeper level about the conditions in which they are forced to survive in and, in that, learn more about possible poverty
Another way to complete this solution is to increase the number and support of tribal programs either ran by the tribes themselves or Congress. These programs should focus on development of education and training to help create a solid economic situation on the reservation. The health of the tribal members is also vital to being employed. The mortality rate of Native Americans is double that of of whites. The overall health of many tribes need to be improved if Native Americans want a better educational performance.
All groups do not have the same rate of poverty. In terms of age, race, and geography, minorities are the most likely to be affected by poverty. Of those minorities, poverty is most affecting to Native Americans. Geographically, it seems that the southern states are the most poverty stricken, but there are some northern states that have high rates of poverty like Michigan. When it comes to age, children under the age of 18 are more likely to be affected by poverty compared to those who are 65 years and older. At about 1975 the poverty rates by age completely flipped. Before 1975, the elderly had a much higher poverty rate than those under the age of 18, but at 1975 the poverty levels for children began to increase dramatically, and those of
Poverty in the United States today has many faces. There’s the pleading face of a middle-aged man on a city street holding up a sign that says “Hungry, Need Help.” There’s the anxious face of a young child in a schoolroom somewhere, whose only real meal today will be a free school lunch. There’s the sad face of a single mother who doesn’t have enough money to buy clothes for her children. And there’s the frustrated face of a young man working at a minimum-wage job who can't afford to pay his rent.
The topic of poverty is America has been both a huge focus and a sore subject for many. There are differing opinions on how to handle our growing population of people below the poverty line, with some saying the solution is the good old “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” rhetoric to others saying impoverished people have children and refuse to work just to get bigger checks from their states.
American’s oldest minority race is the American Indian, also known as “First People”, “People of the Fourth World”, indigenous people or Native Americans (Avitabile, Kleiner, (2001, pg. 1). They were here when Columbus landed on the continent (and many centuries before then) and have been intertwined in the history of America ever since. This is clearly indicated, as the American Indians were the only minority group mentioned in the United States Constitution (Huyser, Sakamoto, Takei, 2007, pg. 542). After such a long and connected history, it is sad to note that the American Indians and their reservations are home to some of the highest known poverty and unemployment rates. According to the Economic Policy
W.E.B Du Bois once stated “to be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships” (qtd. in Rodgers 1). The Native American culture is often overlooked by many people in the United States today. What many people do not realize is that about twenty-five percent of Native Americans are living in poverty (Rodgers 1). A majority of the poverty among Native Americans is due to the United States breaking treaties that promised funds for their tribes. When non-Native Americans first began migrating to North America, the Indians were slowly having their land stripped away from them, and being pushed to live on small, poorly kept reservations. As well as taking
Hello President Van Buren, in current day there are many reasons to why slaves, women and Native Americans face problems in America. Main reason to all three of them is discrimination and not giving each of these people equal rights. Considering most of America is concluded by these three majorities, it is unfair to not reflect to them in most of the events going on in America. Even though they all face similar difficulties, they also have very different issues they deal with on a daily basis.
While it has proven to be difficult to end poverty in America, Peter Edelman is optimistic. In his book So Rich, So Poor Edelman makes a call to action. There are four prominent ideas that underpin Edelman’s reasoning throughout the book: (1) More people must understand why poverty is still so prevalent in America; (2) extreme poverty must be taken into consideration as a shocking 6 million Americans’ sole income was food stamps in 2011. This fact alone creates a sense of urgency that drives Edelman; (3) increasing income inequality should be treated as a moral issue; and (4) bold political action will be required if substantive progress will be made in alleviating poverty.
American Indians were a proud people and they didn't care about what anyone else said or did when the white people first came and the Indians helped the whites through the first winter and they shared dinner in the first thanksgiving and shortly after that we the white people took away their heritage just because we wanted to have more land so to gain more land we forced native Americans into reservations making it so that they cannot follow traditions of following animals to have food and since we have came most of them were wiped out by disease . to say native Americans are living the dream is a huge understatement most of the native of today is miserable and they have lost touch with their culture . some of them have alcohol problems and others have drugs problems the percentage of native Americans that are living comfortably or are making at least $30 , 000 (US ) is very low compared to the number that are struggling to make $5 , 000 (US ) .
When the colonists “sailed the ocean blue” to the New World, their trip inevitably had encounters with the Native Americans. The history of encounters between American Indians and White Americans has formed a culture where their race is euphemized through Halloween costumes or sports names such as the Washington Redskins. The public’s view of diversity is skewed so that different races, including Native Americans, are given less opportunities than their White American counterparts. This is notably exhibited in their health as Native Americans are have a lower quality and less access to health care. In fact, American Indian and Alaskan Natives (AIAN) have reported more adverse health outcomes than any other racial and ethnic groups in the United States (Ross, Garfield, Brown, & Raghavan, 2015, p. 1081). This essay will examine how geography, health insurance, behavioral health, and interpersonal relations affects how Native Americans get health care or how the care is hindered and how the Affordable Care Act helps mitigate the problem of inequality.
The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, but yet poverty remains prevalent. Childhood poverty affects every aspect of their life. “Poverty is not having income for basic needs, food, medical care or basic needs and housing” (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 59). Poverty is affecting thousands of Americans every day, and it isn 't sparing anyone of a particular race, age or gender, leaving people on welfare, and without homes, or transportation. Poverty is a crisis that deserves attention from everyone, and it has many faces that are often not recognized