Race does not matter much in our society anymore, which is overall a good thing.

That's lost on me,..Native Pride is brought forth front and center in most discussion and representations of differing viewpoints on indigenous peoples.
Most media outlays display non-natives as bigots without reasoning.

Friend of mine has a trucking business. I trap on his place and haul for him sometimes. his daughter is studying nursing at Haskell. I don't believe it is substandard education.

Well. I tried. I swallowed my pride and talked nice after my initial outburst. Didn’t work. Think what you want, do what you will, in the end it’s all just hot air. Happy trapping. Democrats, Republicans, libertarians, Christians Muslims Jews, whites natives blacks. If you trap your ok to me and I wish you all nothing but the best.

For what it's worth I appreciated the little bit of insight on what it's like for the native people on the reservations Native trapper.

Coyote trapping is here is top notch though. Silver lining.

What did you pay for your house? Who paid your medical bills? My kids were not even born in a hospital. They didn't go to a government provided school. We had a pitcher pump and used an out house. Lived in a 12X16 log cabin. Wife used to wash cloths in a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet plunger. You are barking up the wrong tree here.

Yet, I seem not to have all these poverty related issues.

BTW i worked my way up to a higher level of poverty since them early years.

But we didn't resolve anything!,...I guess I will forego my enthusiasm to right in favor of,..common ground? :/,.providing I didn't relinquish my

"White guilt".

Nativetrapper, thanks for sharing your life experiences.

I agree with you that poverty is a major part of the problem whether it's on the "rez", in "the hood", or trailer parks. Where we may be in disagreement is on the solution to that poverty. It doesn't seem that the welfare state is accomplishing much and in fact there is evidence to support it's making it worse.

Is there a rez in Minnesota that does not have a casino?

Most of natives here don't live on reservations. They don't live in poverty.

Which brings up another question,..living off Rez,can you capitalize off Casino take?

I appreciate your thoughts and views .

I paid 160,000 dollars for my house. Money that I earned. My insurance pays my medical bills, blue cross. Comes with my full time Job. You can shove your insinuations dirt.

Around here if you live on a reserve, you get free housing, a government check every month, free University, and you pay no tax. You can hunt, fish and spear fish all year long and have no limits on what you can take. The government literally is throwing money at reserves to invest, give grants, wind farms, etc..native ceremony and teachings are entertwined with our education system. We have public school powows twice a year with drum circles, and classes on native spirituality and teachings. Awareness on native issues is huge. We are proud of our native people here in Canada, and we don't have widespread racism issues by and large. Reserves self govern and have their own police forces which also police off reserve if needed.

And yet most reserves are still very impoverished.

We killed no natives during colonization. We have a dark bit of history called residential schools, but our government didn't kill any native people like in the us.

We took a much different approach than the us did and still, poverty, drugs, and all the crap that goes along with it...

I live near a reserve, and would love to see it flourish more than it does. The reserve by me is much better off than most. I have many employees from the reserve. Awesome people...but like I said, most places are still impoverished and the youth are in trouble. And we are not even mentioning the skyrocketi suicide rates in Canadas more northern reserves and inuit communities. Many inuit communities have declared a state of emergency as youth suicides are a monthly or weekly occurrence.

What is the answer?

Government dependence = problems.

Most folks don't understand South Dakota so they surely won't understand how the Rez works.

About 15 years ago my wife and I got sort of disgusted with all the welfare recipients, entitlement mentality and drugs in our little corner of Ky. I had the opportunity to take a job in Montana and went out there a couple weeks to look it over. My job required going on a couple of reservations and I was greatly surprised at how much they reminded me of eastern Ky. I concluded the only difference was that there was just a hundred years difference between the two reservations. One for the natives and the second of the “ Great Society” of the sixties that have become dependent on the govt. for their livelihoods. I know with achievable opportunity here it doesn’t have to be that way. They just prefer to stay in it in a large part and are rewarded for staying on the reservation. I’d say it’s tougher out there for sure but good to see above poster that found a way to change his life. Welfare and entitlements are one of if not the greatest pride and initiative killers in this country.

Then you are not poor or dependent. If your house started on fire, you would probably try to put it out.

You don't like it I won't join you at your pity party? Because I don't.

You are an example of the solution.

Tribes in America have been wiping out other Tribes before we showed up for better fishing, hunting or whatever. The east coast had many small Tribes that were exterminated by other Natives , not saying it's right but it is what it is.

The Cherokee of Western NC get a dividend from the Casino. A DNA is required to show a distant heritage.