Rose Aguilar, a journalist who is visiting states that voted overwhelmingly for President George W. Bush, was warned repeatedly not to go to reservations, she writes in AlterNet.

"You stopped in Browning? I would never go to Browning. It's too dangerous," Aguilar said she was told after visiting the Blackfeet Reservation.

"I was warned against stopping on Indian reservations by many Montanans over the course of my travels," Aguilar continues, "but what I found were people who simply wanted to share their stories."

Aguilar wrote of her talks with people on the Blackfeet and Crow reservations. "The problems are so deep here," said Maxine Brown from the Crow Reservation. "The federal government set up a system that gave us no choice but to rely on them. That led to alcohol and drug problems."

During her month's stay in Montana, Aguilar said she rarely saw Indians interacting with non-Indians. "For the first three months, the locals couldn't believe that an Indian had this job," an Indian woman working for the federal government told Aguilar. "They're used to me by now, but so many of them said they've never met an Indian before. For all I knew, they think we all still live in teepees."

Get the Story:
Rose Aguilar: The Blue Tint of Indian Country (AlterNet 10/24)

Relevant Links:
Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders - http://www.mtwytlc.com