Christian News: The forgotten Native Americans

Wednesday, March 12, 2008  

"In a nation known for its wealth, there are pockets of intense poverty and despair that many Americans know nothing about.

These pockets do not exist in the inner city, but on remote reservations where Native Americans struggle to survive.

CBN News traveled to South Dakota for a closer look at what some call America's forgotten people.

A fence of rusted barbed wire cutting across the open landscape is a symbol of a people continually dealing with invaders. It is the boundary of the Crow Creek Sioux reservation.

In centuries past, American Indians faced the invasion of other cultures that forced their removal from the fertile lands of their ancestors. Promises were made by the invaders, which resulted in broken treaties. As a result, many Native American tribes were moved to reservations to isolate them, control them and to make them more "civilized" in the eyes of the conquerors.

The isolation still exists today. Tribes continue to battle against destructive forces. Forces like poverty, substance abuse and suicide to name a few, continually strike this segment of the population to a greater degree than most other Americans."

Get the Story:
Native Americans: A Forgotten People? (Christian Broadcasting Network News 3/12)