Posted on 08/14/2009 9:01:24 AM PDT by normanpubbie
CHERRY CREEK, South Dakota (CNN) -- The tiny one-room house rests on a hill; no electricity and no running water. A creaky metal cot and a rusting wood-burning stove is all the comfort Herbert Hale says he needs. (SNIP) He is 54 years old, a veteran of two Army combat tours in Vietnam...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Add RESERVATIONS to the list of FAILED GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS....like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Post Office, and on and on and on....
Nice math dude!
You don’t expect a reporter to actually do their home work in this day and age, do you? It is easy to write a story from your desk. LOL I went in at 21 in 1968. I am 62. You are right on. He is about 8 years too young.
It is amazing that these places have existed for as long as they have, but the people who live there have not started any enterprises of their own.
I had a video about government controls on reservations. Unfortunately Youtube removed it. (hmmm I wonder why?) More proof that government fails always.
Strike that. Some tribes have casinos.
The people should move to North Dakota and the Fort Bechtold Indian Reservation where the tribes are sitting on top of the Bakken float and a fortune in oil.
“Herbert Hale shrugs when asked if Washington has a responsibility to help his struggling community.”
The country is drowning in debt, and CNN is still pimping us out for more welfare clients.
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To spend a day crossing the reservation is to see a place stunningly beautiful and seemingly forgotten all at once, small, poor communities tucked into the hollows of western South Dakota's Cheyenne River Reservation. The poverty is all the more striking because of the richness of the setting: green and golden rolling hills, roaming horses and cattle, and tall corn and golden sunflowers sprouting from the fertile soil.
“Ziebach County is the No. 1 county statistically with child poverty,” he said. “Now that alone is generational, with the trauma of poverty and the broken family.”
Breaking that cycle is Bryce In The Woods’ obsession. He highlights a bright spot: A building in the community converted to a makeshift classroom and library where residents can get tutoring help and then take the GED -— the high school equivalency exam.
“It is so difficult,” he says of the challenge facing younger reservation residents. “Some of our young people join the services, the armed services, some of them go to college or apply to college,” Bryce In The Woods told us. “The majority, if they are staying here, end up moving to Rapid City or some of the bigger cities to try to find employment.”
In Eagle Butte, the largest community on the reservation, a bustling construction site is a new source of pride.
A medical center is under construction, thanks to funding from the Obama administration's stimulus plan, and Bryce In The Woods says about 65 construction-related jobs so far have gone to tribal members.
“At this point I am very appreciative of what we have received,” Joseph Brings Plenty, the elected tribal chairman, says when we ask if the stimulus funding is enough. “But as far as expectation, I can say no. There would be a lot more need to be fulfilled by the U.S. government for our tribe before I can say yes ...”
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IT is an outrage how the Department of Indian affairs steals most of the money in bureaucracy, etc. The Indians receive a pittance ... at best.
It is a national shame! ... that they continue year after year, to steal (legally and illegally) the funds meant for the reservations.
Veterans are poorly appreciated by our government. Ask some of them. It is the old ... what have you done for me lately attitude of the government. The worst of it is the money is there for them ,,, it is simply appropriated to themselves and their friends in unethical ways. MOO
David Chappelle on Native Americans
Warning: LANGUAGE
One of the funniest stand-up comedy bits you'll ever see . . .
You know who I feel real bad for? It's Indians. Everybody feels bad for Indians; they get dogged openly -- because everyone thinks they're dead.
These motherf#%&ers are not all dead, all right? With my own eyes I've seen a gathering of fifteen hundred Native Americans. They were all gathered in one place . . . the place is called Wal-Mart in New Mexico.
ROFL.
That said, it is impossible to write an honest article about life on a reservation without addressing the problems of alcoholism and drug addiction...especially the meth problem. This ‘journalist’ is too PC to do that..
I saw the headline and did the calculation too before I saw your post.
I’m 60 1/2, did a tour and a half in Vietnam (69-70) and had just turned 19 when I got there in April of 69.
Math doesn’t add up for this guy.
What was it called? "The soft bigotry of low expectations"?
If somebody had offered me beer money after I got out of the service, I might be living like this guy too.
Could be simply lied to the reporter. He looks pretty rough.
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