The Yakama People In White Swan

Imagine coming home to a house that has no warmth or food. Constantly feeling like you are in a place you can’t get out of. This is how poverty may feel to others. The expeirences from the author Jo Goodwin Parker in the story “What Is Poverty” and the McBride family from the novel “The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute To His White Mother” show that there are various effects of living in poverty that include emotional problems, adolescent rebellion, and

In today’s society, the Native American culture is found only in reservations and is not well known. Portrayed as

The documentary begins with a recounting of issues faced by indigenous people in Northern British Columbia stating that the economic growth is strong, however the division of wealth sharing is still not in place, forcing smaller communities to live below the poverty line, with an unemployment rate as high as 92% in some first nation reserves. The issue of the murdered and missing women and girls is a sad result of systemic and socioeconomic issues that have

The Alaska native, African American, and the women that are on the welfare system have been marginalized and oppressed. The amount of trauma that these people throughout their life span has been very painful. According to the reading of the articles have been impacted by historical trauma; they have experience multigenerational trauma. They are still suffering for being recognized. The system has oppressed and marginalize its victims ().

I am writing you today as a young woman concerning the lack of attention towards the violence against women in retrospect to the Native American population. The fear of being a victim of assault as a young women is prominent within the society in which we live today. However, there is some relief in the fact that there are resources available at my disposal if I was to experience assault. Yet, there is a large portion of women that do not have that reassurance, and the likelihood of them experiencing assault is even greater than my own. This portion of the women population is Native American women. I will admit that the severity of the issue in concerns with the native population is something that I just recently became aware of. et I have

Poverty and inequality cripple America in every state and region of this country. These social problems overlap between social class and different cultures. As we read Evicted by Matthew Desmond, and Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D Vance, these problems were brought to the forefront in their own unique way. Evicted focused on the lower class level of urban poverty in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The people that were highlighted in this book were struggling to make ends meet every month, and keep food on the table. Many of the families that we read about were evicted countless times, and struggled to stay out of local homeless shelters. Hillbilly Elegy focused more on the struggles of the working class, and how the people of

Associated with wearing skins, living in teepees, and riding horses Native Americans are viewed as ‘country’ and lack of knowledge. Shown as dumb and have a lack of formal education, most of them live in poverty invested areas. Because of this, they feel that “one representation is better than no representation.” When a group feels underrepresented their psychological relevance and has a toil on the overall ethnic group and can make a difference in lives. Inaccurate and negative representations of Native Americans can be detrimental to the overall perception to the race in general.

Poverty hits children hardest in the world. When I was younger, the Armenians had faced the hard facts of poverty after they break up with the Soviet Union, war with Azerbaijan, and a devastating earthquake. My family moved into our motherland Armenia while our nation was going through these huge dramatic changes. Furthermore the poor economy and inflation destroyed numerous hopes and futures. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Arnold Spirit, describes his hardships involving poverty living on Spokane reservation. The people on the reservation are stuck in a prison of poverty. They are imprisoned there due to lack of resources and general contempt from the outside world, so they are left with little chance for success. Like Arnold, I also went through hardships regarding poverty and education.

Martha Garcia and Paula Gunn Allen both write in their essays of the challenges that Native American women have historically faced and continue to confront to this day. Major contributors to these challenges are the stereotypes and misconceptions by white male anthropologists and missionaries who studied the Native American tribes and found the women subservient and passive. Both of these authors strongly disagree in this characterization of Native American women and instead portray them as important and honored members of their tribes who will struggle but will continue to have a tremendous impact on the future of their tribes.

As with many races and ethnicities, Native Americans have had the front row seat in social injustices related to gender and race from the social institutions in the United States. Native Americans faced much discrimination along with other groups when it came to educational institutions and businesses. In education, many young children had lower math and writing skills leading to fewer high school diplomas (Sarche & Spicer, 2008). In labor, Native Americans had high unemployment rates and a lower labor force than the rest of the demographic population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). They also have problems with poverty since more than twenty-five percent of this group live below the poverty line (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Additionally, there are high rates of violent victimization and contributing factors such as childhood trauma that lead to overall high deaths. A major contributing factor to these deaths is alcoholism which exceeds the US rates by seven times (Sarche & Spicer, 2008). Many of these statistics indicate great injustice. Furthermore, according to the Indian Health Services, American Indians have lower health and life expectancy when compared to the rest of America (2015). These staggering statistics point out some prevalent inequalities in modern social institutions that exist with Native Americans.

People often go through life without knowing what it’s like to be in another person’s shoes. Many outsiders view the United States today, as an undemanding country- with its citizens being able to have jobs and money whenever they need it and living life to it’s fullest. This is the commonly depicted idea of America, though this is not the lifestyle for many living here. Specifically, the Native American community has it the hardest currently. Native Americans have been consistently struggling with life since the Removal Act of 1830- causing mass groups of Natives to be forced onto reservation, ‘till the modern world of today- the 21 century. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, articles “Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%” by John Koppisch,“The Absence of Native American Power” and “Drinking Behavior and Sources of Alcohol: Differences Between Native American and White Youths” they explain what the average Native American has to go through. Today, being Native American means to constantly struggle with poverty, alcoholism and loss of to try and get by in life.

Similar to Eve Tuck, Ramone McBride, a Pine Ridge author that wrote, “Our Native Children Are Not Poverty Porn: If One Succeeds, a Hundred Are Coming After,” aims to re-educate people on the way indigenous accomplishments are viewed. He states, “no longer should the public solely believe that Native kids are victims and that they don’t have a chance”. Instead, the public needs to reconsider the idea that hardship is the main part of the indigenous story and realize that there is also “beauty, hope and spirituality” in the mix (2). While McBride isn’t trying to force the idea that there is no dysfunction on tribal lands, he is trying to get the point across that the Native are powerful people who are able to retain hope and resilience even in the toughest of times. Instead of focusing on feeling sorry for the Native youth, the public instead needs to take time and use it to help cultivate the indigenous people’s talents and prepare them for the world and their future. The rest of this paper is going to address various questions through the strength-based lens of Eve Tuck and Ramone McBride in order to analyze and hopefully bring about change in regards to the way

Not until now did I realized that Native American Reservations have been suffering the side effects of poverty and unemployment. It is impossible to describe the many factors that have contributed to the challenges that American Indians face today, but many of the statistics and fact show how life is for many in reservations. The poverty in Native American Reservation can be described in no other form than third world. It is common to find people living under horrible living conditions and many vagabonds. Tribes have reported as high as 85% of Native Americans in reservations are unemployed.

I learned how troubled many reservations are and how much they suffer. I found this to be extremely sad and disheartening as I heard one of the riders make this statement, “There is something that we suffer from”. Reservations suffer from poor income, drug issues, alcohol issues, and many broken families. One of the riders explained their situation like this, “A deep imbedded genetic depression. See, our people at one time, the Dakota people, or all Native Americans, had a very strong connection with the Creator.

Interviewing a Native American elder helped me to better understand her physical and emotional needs. I learned that the elders are vulnerable people who need support. After my interview, I recognized that there are many conditions that the Native American elders face such as lack of support from the government; discrimination from fellow Americans; lack of support from their families; limited respect from their community; lastly, they feel neglected because of their disabilities. Why are vulnerable groups suffering, especially elderly Native Americans? They are suffering because they have no advocates, and they don 't know the resources and programs that are available to them. We can avoid the difficulties they are facing by making sure that the communities, the U.S. government, relatives, and fellow Americans work together to support this vulnerable group of people.