Editorial: United States can afford to help tribes

Tuesday, May 15, 2007  

"Non-Indians frequently have strange ideas about American Indian reservations. They tend to find it hard to conceptualize a group of people having been assigned a location in which to be.

The first thing to be noted is that a reservation is a place where people live.

People do have homes on reservations, and for the most part have a strong sense of identification with the place, whether they live there full time or not.

Therefore it is a wound to community, to identity, to place, to home when something such as methamphetamine moves onto a reservation. It's a frightening presence for many native communities. Also receiving attention recently has been the problem on reservations of wildfires set by people.

In trying to solve reservation troubles, tribal chairmen and tribal council have a large share of responsibility. But they need tools to fight such problems as meth.

America can afford many things. At least, our spending would seem to say so. We shouldn't be parsimonious when it comes to cooperating with tribal authorities to secure the tools they need."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Give tribal authorities needed tools (The BIsmarck Tribune 5/15)

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