About Native Americans
Approximately 1.5 million Native Americans and Alaskan Natives live on designated reservations in the United States today. All but a few of these reservations are plagued with poverty, unemployment, homelessness, lack of medical care, and insufficient educational resources.
The per capita earning averages $4,500, with unemployment approaching 70 percent. 50% of Native American reservation homes have no phones and 1/5 of the homes lack complete kitchen facilities.
In 1907, Susan La Fleshe Picotte, the first Native American woman doctor, wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Her letter described the health conditions and needs of her tribe, the Omahas. She began her letter with,
"If you knew the conditions..."
Imagine how it would sadden Dr. Picotte to know that, in over 100 years, things have not changed.
Statistics relating to
Native Americans
- The Native
population live in third world country conditions
- Average life
expectancy is 45 years of age
- Most experience
70-80% unemployment
- 50% live below
poverty level
- 80% have
diabetes, heart disease or tuberculosis
- Highest infant
mortality rate of any group
- Highest teen
suicide rate of any group
- Highest
participation rate in Armed Service of any group
- 20-40% lack
indoor plumbing, sewage or phone service
- Hunger pervasive
(some children’s only meals are those served while in school)
- 60% don’t
graduate from high school
- 70% have no
transportation
- Many experience
historical trauma, discrimination and feeling of hopelessness
- Shortage of
housing (4,500 alone on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota)
- Some
tribes/communities have water trucked in
- Some homes lack
even out houses
- 70% of tribal
crop land and 20% of range land is leased to non-Indians by the
government, thereby reducing Native control of food systems at their
source
- 22% of Native
households are food-lacking meaning they lack access to nutritious,
safe, affordable and culturally appropriate food
- On some
reservations, 60% of the population are food stamp eligible
- Remotely located
reservations/communities experience grossly substandard health care;
Federal prisoners receive better health care
- 95% of casino
profits go to 5% of Native population
