Native Americans in Poverty
Written by: Hannah Braunagel
In a post on the Program of Partnership with Native
Americans, it was said that 28.2 percent of Native Americans are living on or
under the poverty line. It states that this is due to the limitations of jobs
on or near the reservations, with most of these jobs are tribal, local
government or federal jobs. Many of which already have filled positions. These
jobs take special skills and education which many of the people living on reservations
have a hard time acquiring these positions due to the lack of formal education
that is offered out of the reservation. If these jobs are not qualified for,
then the person applying for the job has no hopes of getting one without
furthering their education, which is very expensive.
Another
issue on the reservations is that 4-8 out of 10 Native Americans living on them
are unemployed (Native 2018). These people are having to live off of
unemployment or veterans income. This is not a fair way for us to treat Native
Americans, they owned this land and are now in this horrible situation due to
our own greed. Many Native Americans who can find work are payed below the
poverty line for doing their jobs. So many of the Native American jobs are in
the government and local governments. These jobs are not accessible to many
Native American people and the other jobs that are available are lower level
service jobs.
Yet another
issue that is tied to the Native American poverty crisis is housing. According
to Huffington Post, “ The Pine Ridge Reservation needs about 4000 homes yet,
only 1100 exist at this time.” More houses are set to be built to provide room
for more Native people, but only 10 houses are able to be build a year because
these houses are government provided housing and the money given to the
community to help build it is not adequate enough to build the necessary amount
of houses. This article also quotes, “about 90000 are homeless or under-housed
on a given night” (Ludwig 2013.) This is an issue we can all help to stop being
so prevalent in our Native American’s lives, we can petition our government and
have them allocate more money for the support of Natives lives. Currently many
Native Americans on the reservation are living in very crowded corders,
sometimes up to three generations are living together in one small two bedroom
house. These houses usually have many people living in them, poor water supply,
and underdeveloped heating and cooling systems.
These crises
have been going on for decades, but there is change for the future being done
right now. There are advocate groups who specialize in helping Native American
housing get better without the need for government dollars, because it seems
that our government is not currently interested in assigns the Naive people of
America live in humane standards, The Sustainable Native Communities
Collaborative is working on bringing together architects, community developers
and other advocates to help with the housing crisis on many reservations.
Citations
Native American Living Conditions
on Reservations - Native American Aid. Jan. 6, 2018 Accessed April 20, 2019. http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=naa_livingconditions.
Ludwig, Terri, and Terri Ludwig.
"The Hidden Housing Crisis in Indian Country." HuffPost. July 02,
2013. Accessed April 20, 2019.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/native-american-housing_b_3193289.
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