Raise the Hammer

Undustrial, for someone who doesn't like to write policy, that effort was pretty good. To some degree though, i think we're all pussyfooting around issues a little timidly. So lets try to zero in on perhaps the biggest irritant, poverty.

you may still need a loan, especially if you're dirt poor.

If you're poor, you can't get a loan. No matter who you are. Well, we heard of NINJA loans in the US but that didn't work out. And there's micro lending but thats generally only for business activity. Most poor folks have to rent. Is there a rental market on rez? If not, why not? Depending on land claims to solve this problem seems fraught with risk that a one time cash infusion will be gone soon enough and then its back to square one with nothing solved. With so much forested land in six nations, why isn't there more farming or nuts or fruit trees or something? I'd guess welfare is to blame for robbing people of the incentive to work, though you're right about the damage to their psyche too. But honest work is a salve.

Perhaps this is why I hear some natives say that the feds should cut off support cold turkey. Hunger sharpens the mind and gets people out of a rut. In today's job market, such a move would hopefully/= necessarily result in a spate of entrepreneurial initiatives in and out of the rez. Some reservations though are not so well situated so I agree with you on shutting them down if there is no hope of any economic activity. I wonder if the internet can open doors for natives seeing as how location can be irrelevant. Are natives into technology?

I see in some comments that there is a perception among all parties that native culture was based on hunting and gathering in a sustainable manner. This view is being challenged on several fronts that might lead to some hope. First, I now understand that hunting and gathering was only sustained by moving when areas were depleted. This means that hunting was not really sustainable, or was only sustainable with a moving fudge factor. Secondly, our knowledge of natives was based on what we found but that was hundreds of years after Columbus' men had introduced diseases that wiped out 95% of native populations according to some estimates, even in North America. This means that prior to being wiped out, most natives were farmers or perhaps mixed farmers/ hunters. An article in National Geographic a few years back described such situations. In fact, around here, they were famous for developing the triple crop concept that I would dearly love to master. They only reverted to hunting gathering after their stable way of life collapsed. Therefore I propose that natives try to get their minds wrapped around this different history in order to feel more comfortable with a profitable farming lifestyle as opposed to trying to fit a non sustainable gathering mentality into modernity because of a false view of history. Farming is also compatible with communal setups as we discussed before.

If natives were willing to become farmers, i'd be more inclined to give land than money. Which is what they say they want but done in a way that implies healthy work rather than unhealthy rent seeking.