Cold, Hungry and Sick: Winter in Indian Country

by: betsyny

Sun Oct 30, 2011 at 17:04:57 PM PDT

But I'm only SAD....add unemployment, terrible housing, hunger pangs and a chronic health condition or two to this cold and darkness, and you have winter misery on many an Indian Reservation in this the richest country in the world.

On the reservations in the Great Plains and many other places in this country, the unemployment rate hits 80 or 90 percent in the winter.  Saying that the housing is God awful is an understatement; homes leak like a sieve and the only thing people have only to try to keep out the cold are sheets of plastic. The unemployed and the elderly in particular don't have enough money to heat their homes in the winter. That's why navajo began the propane drive last year.

So, people are freezing cold in the winter, but they're also hungry, and tend to have  health problems that aren't helped any by the hunger and cold.

More below the orange squiggle...and action you can take if this travesty infuriates you as much as it does me.  At the end of the day, this is an action diary.

While I was writing this I started to think about the Occupy Wall Street movement, and whether it's really aware of the plight of the people at the bottom 1% of the 99%. So then a post came through on my Facebook friend's page written by Deborah White Plume about this very issue. She's giving permission to use it, and someone is promising to read it the Occupy Cincinatti General Assembly meeting.

We have a long way to go to reclaim justice for everyone in this country:

I will believe the occupiers everywhere in their statements that they want their American Constitution upheld when they begin to speak the message that their Constitution, Article 6, includes Treaties are the Supreme Law and start to press their American Government and American People to honor the Ft Laramie Treaty with our Lakota Nation, Cheyenne Nation and other Nations that signed it.

The occupiers everywhere when they start to do this, then they are walking their talk. Until then, it is empty words as far as I am concerned and by their silence on this situation they are participating in the oppression of our people and their silence contributes to the genocide of my nation.

We are the poorest of the poor, our death rate is the highest, our suicide rate is the highest, our unemployment has been at 85% for the past five decades, we die young from curable illnesses, our water is contaminated, and American people send their $$ to other countries.

We are the Third World right here in the USA, created by the American Government and the continued Silence of the American People. We do not want your old used clothes. We want your ACTIVE, LOUD support for the enforcement of our Ft Laramie Treaty. -Debra White Plume

Pine Ridge Suicides on NY Times front page? Why Not?

by: Buffalo50

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 08:15:47 AM PDT

Suicide State Of Emergency On Pine Ridge Reservation

by: winter rabbit

Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 18:07:15 PM PST

Tribal president declares state of emergency over increase in youth suicide attempts Posted: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

PINE RIDGE -- Oglala Sioux Tribe President Theresa Two Bulls will declare a suicide state of emergency for Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during a news conference at 1 p.m. today.

Native American Suicide

by: AbsurdEyes

Wed Oct 17, 2007 at 23:37:17 PM PDT

A lot of people are aware of the many abject problems Native American's face- rampant poverty, diabetes, environmental degradation to name a few. The current social  problems are not isolated from the past several hundred years of colonalism & imperialism, or the United States Government legacy of broken treaties and exploiting sacred land. One of the dark marks of the spiritual scar on Native America, is suicide amongst Native American youth.