However,, it seems to me the quickest way to make money other than casinos is tourism, and I mean the big bucks kind. A resort capitalizing on Navajo culture would attract a lot of people who are interested, and especially Europeans.
I wish I had more ideas, because I truly think your heart is in the right place.
Amen!! The Indians have a rez on the Pacific coast of Washington calle Le Push....it COULD be beautiful...the scenery is magnificent...it's a dump.
"However,, it seems to me the quickest way to make money other than casinos is tourism, and I mean the big bucks kind. A resort capitalizing on Navajo culture would attract a lot of people who are interested, and especially Europeans. "
There seems to be a confusing logic with Native Americans. I've noticed this in Cherokee NC. "I am unique and you cannot take my heritage from me. I am Cherokee and I have culture all of my own." and then "Hey, quit staring at me".
Miss Marple:
Each year our church does a mission trip to the Rosebud Rez in S.D. to rehabilitate housing. I was overwhelmed at what I saw there my first time out. Indians throw away nothing. Consequently all one sees is junk--junk cars, rusted pipes, old metal, junk, junk and more junk. The landfills there are completely empty!
You'll also find a lot of drunks and white X's painted on the roads where alcoholics have died in car crashes. Also, Type II and I incidences of diabetes is staggering.
The reason for the alcohol and diabetes I was told is that until 100 years ago the Indians enjoyed a strict diet of buffalo meat and other game; their livers never knew alcohol or sugar until the white man came along. The reason for the junk is that Indians figure they will have a use for whatever is kept someday.
The Episcopal Bishop Hare Center in Mission, S.C., where we stayed was a former boarding school where Indian children were once taken from there families and beaten 'til they squealed if they uttered one word of Lakota.
A lot about what I've read in other postings about the reservation system is true with regard to the councils...but my heart still goes out for the children of the places.
Incidentally, at every Indian Pow-Wow the first people honored are veterans and it doesn't matter if you're white or red, you are honored as fellow warriors. Indians have the highest percentage of enlisted members per capita in the American armed forces since 1921--when they first became citizens of a country they once owned.