After reading the article "Native Leaders Must
Lead", I nodded my head and thought that things in
Canada are not all that different than the
reservation in which I grew up, such as the free
education and free medicine. Houses are inexpensive
compared to houses outside the reservation.
Education is free up to high school which is
probably true for all public high schools in the
U.S. In other reservations, education is almost
free in up to post-graduate work. For those living
on the reservation, most types medicine is covered
by Indian Health Service.
During the satellite-dish-boom era, I was quite
surprised that a few natives owned satellite dishes,
because at that time dishes were not cheap.
Children eating tortilla and potato chips and
drinking soda pop were not uncommon. Sometimes the
children would cash in their welfare cheques for
chips and try to attempt to cash in for gum.
Natives living on their reservation in Arizona do
not have to pay state taxes.
A non-native visitor could tour the reservation,
look at the expressions of a number of natives, and
notice the unhappiness that the they exhibit.
Natives are provided with welfare cheques at the
expense of the American taxpayer. It not surprising
to hear rumors that leaders and Native white-collar
workers are meetings-happy, that is - they go to the
meetings which are intended to improve Native life
but the attendants end up living lavishly at the
expense of the American taxpayer.
Similar to this topic, I dislike tribal newspapers
which suppresses the bad news (such as accidents,
obituaries, tribal corruption, unemployment rates
and the sort) up to the point that it does not fully
represent the status of the tribe. For instance,
there was this tribal newspaper. It contained
nothing but good news. or should I say. it did not
contain any bad news. Comparable to old-time
Pravda. It was bland. I and many others preferred
the out-of-reservation newspaper because it covered
not only the border town news but also the
reservation news. The out-of-reservation newspaper
sold more issues than the tribal newspaper. If a
non-native visited that reservation and relied on
the tribal newspaper as the official source of
information, that person might be deceived into
believing that everything is O.K. But if that
visitor is astute, that person might realize that
the newspaper does not reflect the sociological
structure of the tribe.
I would hear the tragedies through the scanner and
through some doctor friends from the clinic. Then I
would tell my friends about what happened. Most of
my them would look at me in disbelief because they
haven't heard of the news themselves and most of
time end up refusing to believe it. Thinking that
others would act like my friends, many natives
probably believe that their reservation is O.K.
because they are unaware of the number of suicides,
alcoholics, wife beatings, and accidents. The
tribal newspaper does not report them.
I do not know how many tribes carry newspapers like
this, but I think it is sad that this particular
newspaper intentionally masks that bad news,
perpetuates the belief that everything is sort of
OK, and yet claims to be the official newspaper of
the tribe. It does not hint to the people that they
have a serious problem. It would be unfortunate if
the tribe publishes this kind of newspaper in order
to avoid BAD PUBLICITY.
- Dana Numkena