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The State of Native America: Very Unemployed and Mostly Ignored
As the new year begins, it’s as good a time as any to look at a topic almost completely ignored by mainstream media: how Native American people are faring in the U.S. labor market. The economy and its paucity of jobs dominated U.S. headlines throughout 2010, but news media overlooked the particularly difficult experiences of native peoples.
In late November, the nonpartisan think tank Economic Policy Institute released a report looking at unemployment figures among American Indians. According to Algernon Austin of EPI, unemployment in Indian Country is bleak.
For instance, the national unemployment rate among Native people spiked from 7.7 percent in the first half of 2007 to 15.2 percent in the first half of 2010. Whites experienced a 4.1 percent and 9.1 percent unemployment rate respectively, in the same time period. In his brief “Different Race, Different Recession: American Indian Unemployment in 2010,” Austin writes that:
We find some of the largest disparities in employment between American Indians and whites in Alaska, the Northern Plains, and the Southwest.
These are also the regions of the country where the ratio of the Native to non-Native population is among the highest.
The unemployment numbers are different from those released by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Labor Force Report, whose sample and methodology is different than that used by EPI. The BIA bases its numbers on the American Indian and Alaska Native population that lives on or near the reservation and are eligible for BIA-funded services.
This population, however, according to Austin, is only about one-third of the total American Indian and Alaska Native population.
Austin’s report, based on statistics from Current Population Survey (CPS) data, uses the total American Indian and Alaska Native population, including biracial individuals. Here are his research's key findings:
- By the first half of 2010, the unemployment rate for Alaska Natives jumped 6.3 percentage points to 21.3%—the highest regional unemployment rate for American Indians.
- Since the start of the recession, American Indians in the Midwest experienced the greatest increase in unemployment, growing by 10.3 percentage points to 19.3%.
- By the first half of this year, slightly more than half—51.5%—of American Indians nationally were working, down from 58.3% in the first half of 2007.
- In the first half of this year, only 44% of American Indians in the Northern Plains were working, the worst employment rate for Native Americans regionally.
- The employment situation is the worst for American Indians in some of the same regions where it is best for whites: Alaska and the Northern Plains.
This year, President Obama made efforts to work toward building a better relationship with native people, ordering his administration to seek the advice of native people on the best ways that federal programs and policies could serve them.
In 2010, the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration’s Indian and Native American Program awarded $53 million to 178 grantees to provide employment and training services geared toward unemployed, under-employed and low-income Native American adults.
And it awarded an additional $13.8 million in grants to 78 tribes, tribal consortiums, and tribal nonprofit organizations to offer summer employment and training activities for native youth to offer basic and occupational skills training and job placement assistance.
As outlined in the 2010 White House Tribal Nations Conference Progress Report, Obama requested $55 million in his 2011 fiscal year budget for the Indian and Native American Program, which grants funding to tribes and Native American nonprofits to provide employment and training services to unemployed and low-income Native people.
That’s a 4-percent increase over fiscal year 2010. Whether it will be approved or not is another matter, of course.
261 Comments so far
Show AllWouldn't it be great if those comfortable in close quarters could live together in cities, like Cahokia, surrounded by fertile bottom land and the wandering gatherers could walk freely across the landscape.
Unfortunately wandering around Cahokia would include a recently approved dump less than one mile from the site. The dump will likely be higher and more visible than the largest mound at Cahokia, Monks Mound. It is a serious desecration.
Oh my, a new Mt. Trashmore towering over the grandest monument built by the largest known early peoples culture, The Mississippians. What's next, a scrap yard at Mesa Verde?
So what are you saying?
You have just been "natives" living on the "Great Creator's" land up until 1492, when you suddenly became "Native Americans"!
How Strange!
We can't afford to fund "occupational skills" training for the "American Indian" because we need to send billions of dollars each year to Israel to fund their occupation of the Palestinians' land.
Meanwhile, we know that this winter, as usual, members of the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota will die of hypothermia in their decrepit, uninsulated trailers.
Suffering abounds across this great, stolen land, but it's not news any more, just the new "normal" for most of us, and the same old misery for those on the rez.
...........
The web-site Indian Country Today is very informative should any readers wish more insight.
Thank you for the article. I would like to know where to donate a little money from time to time to a Native American agency that is trustworthy. I've given some to the Southwest Indian Foundation on occasion, but lately I've become suspicious as one is being asked to send money to a certain 'deacon'. The publications, too, look pretty costly. Can anyone (ShadowDancer excluded for smugness) clarify? Thanks again. Amurkan CD Jan 4, 2011
I might suggest donating to NAJA, the Native American Journalists Association. Rationale: There is a black out of American Indian news in the MSM. It does not exist except for an occasional fluff cultural piece showing fancy dancers entertaining the Queen or other such nonsense. The treaties have not been kept and the quiet genocide continues. By supporting NAJA, the number of American Indian journalists will increase and hopefully begin to more forcefully speak for ourselves.
http://www.naja.com/
Also thank you to Common Dreams that stands head and shoulders above other media in the presentation of American Indian issues.
ok, I admit, that was funny
??
The Indian Law Resource Center http://www.indianlaw.org/
As the leading Israeli historian and NY Times op-ed writer, Benny Morris noted:
Even the great American democracy could not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians.
http://www.counterpunch.org/shavit01162004.html
It is better to listen to American Indian voices instead of Israeli historians. We can speak for ourselves. The Iroquois Confederacy influenced the Constitution.
Please don't shoot and I prefer to leave the worms in the garden.
I don't understand the destructive angle or the myth. The Iroquois should look at Paine and Franklin's special trips to consult with them a reflection of the respect held for their culture's accumulated wisdom. The greatest compliment to an artist is imitation. Had the "founders" truly emulated the Iroquois we would not find ourselves in this predicament.
The faux multiculturalism comes from the "all men are created equal" lie.
Please try to explain without drawing blood.
It was you who called Iroquois influence a myth and a destructive one at that. Seems this an ancient grudge prejudice after all. Don't worry, I didn't feel threatened. I'm a good ducker. Caught this lie, didn't I?
Documentation of correspondence between Iroquois and other indigenous leaders and and the founders - particularly Penn and Franklin and associates - in the drafting of the Bill of Rights.
Free online Forgotten Founders by Bruce Johanssen
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/FF.html
Is your comment intended to suggest that Israeli historians are better equipped to present Native History than American Indians? As for the rest, yours is an opinion, not necessarily a fact. Yet, I always remain open to differing ideas and change mine when appropriate. I accept the sincerity of what you believe, but at this time I do not accept your conclusion. I will do further research to widen my knowledge.
American Indians and Indian Country are completely ignored! Our voices speak as the Bear speaks with strength! Our voices resonate with the universe, but not with the MSM. The shame of America's last five hundred years clogs your ears and chokes your weak voices. We speak for ourselves as we always have and always will. The white mans plumbing is clogged with genocide and will not flow. Your guilt is overflowing yet you fear the truth and crush it with indifference. We are grateful to have survived the greatest genocide in the world over the last five hundred years. The genocidal policies remain in an attempt to eradicate our blood and our cultures. We are thankful to have saved our Traditional beliefs, the beliefs of our pre-colombian ancestors. The Traditional American Indian Spirit is NOT the Christian spirit or the Western spirit. We Traditionals stand with honor not shame. We are who our ancestors were, and we are still here. You however, are endangered.
Yes I will comment on words that appear to be juvenile, adolescent, or deeply narrowed by isolated rez life.
You will find my comments addressing your words, not you personally. Although I do read books, I hold the words of my elders in higher regard. I have no credentials or accomplishments to expose because I have been taught otherwise. I live simply as a Traditional Cherokee among our People. I do not seek conflict nor will I be bullied into it. I have seen belligerant efforts before. They often take the tact of direct questions, answers posted by the questioner as authentic, and then demonization based upon the questioners assumed answers. That is a fool's path.
Stone, thanks for speaking up the other day under the Lakota article and happy new year. I wished we could turn back the clock and prevent that genocide but we can't. Schools aren't good at teaching native American cultures except for mine in Brooklyn and that too only so far. I have to meet them as friends, business, or any way possible to get to know them and their culture. I hope I can meet more native descendants who are also benevolent and understanding just like you on this board and others I met personally.
Marco Nanto, thank you for your kind comment. Tribal cultures can be very different and people within the Tribes vary too. If you think with your heart you will find many like me. Even most of those who hold more stern beliefs will state them respectfully. Do not be put off by the more disrespectful for they too are a part of the whole. As an outsider it takes time to be accepted among our Peoples. We have a long history of reasons not to trust. I believe in a matter of a very short time that our minds and hearts will be linked more closely with unity than division. For those who feel it, change is in the air.
Your words not mine. Just as I predicted, attempted demonization via nonsense.
Tell me you didn't say that...
"...attempted demonization via nonsense..."
Oops. Your mask slipped there, I think.
Whoa. What native person would criticize another for living on the rez, and what that supposedly did to them, and then use that to try to invalidate what they are saying and diminish them as a human being?
By your logic, should we then have dismissed what former slaves like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth had to say, because their words were deeply narrowed by isolated slave plantation life? What sort of former slave would have ever said anything like that? Among whites?
I comment on your words. That is different from a personal attack.
Yes, life is good--especially in a place like Arivaca. But I'm glad I'm not going to be around for what you describe. This bureaucratic country is already too much to bear. You can't even exist any more without a cell phone. I finally had to get one last year in order to continue taking care of my mother. Now I can measure my life by the 'minutes' I've purchased. Now I can be put on hold. Is it worth being able to have an I-pod and a flat screen TV? I wish for the simple life I used to have when my hair was long and I was 'off the grid'. But there are still things to enjoy like hikes and clean air and times with good friends. It is the enjoyment of life that matters. But I AM glad I'm getting old and will not be here much longer in this Brave New World. Of course, it might cease at the end of next year and a new cycle could result. Then none of us will be here. Wouldn't that be strange!
You say readbetweenthelines is the least "native" of any you have met. Actually, I think she represents many natives who are obviously extremely angry about the injustice that has been and continues to be perpetrated against them. Not everyone fits the romantic stereotype of the noble Indian passing the peace pipe around. I think it would benefit the discussion to acknowledge this anger and try to understand where it's coming from.
Who are you to judge someone and say that they "invalidate their own authenticity?" what does that even mean?
Claiming to be promoting "peace and love" is no excuse for viciously attacking people and trying to enforce the terms of the discussion on all of us.
Don't be absurd. You don't deny attacking people, you spend a lot of time justifying it. glorying in it, telling all of it that you are doing it for some glorious cause.
Of course you attack me, and others. You have posted dozens of times saying that I _should_ be attacked and explaining to everyone just why that is the case.
I am not "aligning" myself with anyone. This melodramatic feud between the forces of good and evil, between the heroes and villains is a product of your imagination, I fear.
Lecturing me in this post - "BTW, there's this secret that you may never have heard of..." is an attempt to set the terms for the discussion, to tell other people how to think about things. Your arrogant conceit that you, and only you, know who the evil ones are, who is deceiving people, who is lying is an attempt to control the discussion and set the terms.
You have set yourself up in this post as the ultimate judge and jury for deciding what other people are, and who is speaking correctly and who is not. That is not justice, that is not truth, and that is not love. It is the exact opposite. It is bullying and domination, threats and smears, arrogance and hostility. AND it just happens to be the exact mindset of those from the dominant and powerful group in the society, the mindset of the colonial imperialists and exploiters, who are going to tell all of us what peace, justice, and love mean and with which we all must agree - or else - and it just happens to be spewed all over a thread discussing the plight of a group of people victimized by that mindset.
Well spoken.
How exactly are you committed to peace and non-violence? Be specific please. Did you stop paying your taxes, stop working for your corporate taskmaster, anything? Any bets you still pay your taxes, still contribute to this murderous rampaging society. The only violence you abhor is against your precious government that keeps you in oil, flat screen TV's and new computers. Read some Ward Churchill. Little Eichmanns don't like violence unless someone else is the victim. Gandhi is rolling in his grave after every post from some USan half-wit who uses non-violence as an excuse to watch this corporate fascist monster rampage through the village with machete in hand, slaughtering the villagers.
>>People do not commit genocide, but they may kill others, as it is edificial gov'ts and corporations that do this for organized greed and power.
The heck they don't. You and I have as much blood on our hands as Dick Cheney. We're the active participants in a society run amok. We're the contributors and enablers that pay the taxes that fund the death and destruction. You are attempting to absolve yourself of blame and at the same time blame someone else for this dysfunctional society. If you had spent one minute of your life witnessing the unemployment, alcoholism and poverty found on the reservations TODAY, you wouldn't be attacking the people who speak the truth.
Who is ShadowDancer forgiving? How can he forgive people who remain unrepentant? Not only unrepentant, we continue to spread death and destruction the world over. No corner is safe from drone attack or corporate fascist privatization.
Your posts are truly surreal. Snap out of your denial. No kissing and making up today and for good reason.
I truly appreciate your descriptions of modern day Roman Babylon. That said, it doesn't explain how one can forgive those who are unrepentant and continue to do all the things that they have been doing since Snake World began. I watched a special on the reconciliation of the Rwanda genocide. There was a priest and he arranged reconciliations with villagers. In particular, there was a man who participated in the slaughter of a neighbor family and the raping of a woman villager. Her whole family was slaughtered and this man very much wanted to be forgiven. He could offer her no amends, no reparations, no anything. He was unable to voice any remorse or guarantees of reformed behavior. He reminds me much of this Namaste person. They are unable to acknowledge their own guilt but they insist on forgiveness. Fortunately, this woman had enough courage to stop being a victim and enabler and refused to forgive this man. While I appreciate your forgiving nature, I am hopeful that you aren't forgiving us Snake World people who continue rampage about the world. It would truly be misplaced.
I have seen people demand apologies when they don't deserve one but this is the first time I've seen someone demand to be forgiven. And when that wasn't forthcoming, you literally attack them at a personal level. Words can't describe the ugliness of your posts. Perhaps you should pull out your Glock, point it at their heads and demand to be forgiven. That might work.
You should be ashamed of yourself. Seriously.
Thank you for your kind words Justice Arcs. Your words fit well together and have solid meaning. We as American Indian Peoples, at least the Traditionals, have mostly not been corrupted in our beliefs. I and many others wish to move past genocide and colonialism, and seek a better understanding with the White American People. There needs to be mutual respect. I see the elite American leadership as being primarily responsible for the continuing policies of genocide and masked extermination. I have stated my personal beliefs here to hopefully engender that process. I sincerely believe that if the majority of the American People were told the truth about American History that they too would agree to move forward together, not separate. Since my world view is that of Spirit, my statements are often not understood, either by Christianized Indians or non-Indians, but it is a beginning. I respect each persons individual path to the afterlife, including Christianity; that said however, I do express what I see wherever it leads. I am not the carrier of great wisdom and consider myself a Traditional tribal man who tries to live in right relationship. I do worry and pray for your People. I do see a neartime change beyond our capacity to control. I hope all peoples open their minds and widen their spiritual lives to become helpers to all of life and in turn accept the help offered to them by all living things. We do not exist in separation nor can we exist as separate, it is unnatural.
As for the often hostile Indian quarrels evidenced here, they are an extension of American Indian forums, some of which are deeply and perpetually quarrelsome to the point of meaninglessness. It should be expected that the hardships of rez life boil over with regularity. Yes, it is that bad. I only hope that Tribal Traditional lifeways emerge ever stronger and lead our Peoples, if they choose, away from Christianity. Christianity does not fit our People well. Our way's do not mix.
It's obvious to us that we are being watched Justice Arcs, and that disruptions are sometimes caused by infiltrators. We follow our beliefs and perform our rituals and ceremony without fear. We do not live on a linear plane of existence and we know that the aggressive ignorance that is cast at us will instead return to bite the sender; and, the speed of the return is accelerating. I am thankful for each day and do not waste it by worrying about the government.
I found it amusing that Tucson AZ was not going to hold its light show this year, and a local Indian tribe (who runs a very profitable casino) bailed them out and the show was able to go on for at least one more year. This is an upper middle-class neighborhood that has always put on a show of lights, and people from all over Tucson come to see it. I remember as a kid being driven across town to see it. That was back in the 50s. Little did I ever imagine that due to 'hard times' these upper middle class folk would have to be bailed out by the 'poor Indian'. Things do change in over half a century--for the better?--well at least for the whackier!
This is all apropos of nothing. I'm getting old and my mind wanders.
I've been contemplating something for awhile now, and maybe someone with more knowledge of history and sociology could give some feedback....
It seems to me that the American Indians, who had for the most part, thriving and diverse cultures up until the reservations were established were decimated by poverty and cultural breakdown within a couple generations.
Now look at the history of African-Americans and their vibrant (if poor) communities prior to the building of the huge housing projects in the big cities. It almost appears to me that it might have been intentional, as in "Hey- we tossed the Indians into an environment that was unhealthy and we could just forget about 'em and keep 'em out of sight; why not do that with the blacks, too? Give 'em the minimal amount of financial support to make us feel less guilty and- problem solved! (or forgotten).
Wish I was a better writer but hopefully my point is at least a little understandable!?
"Of course it was intentional."
"No one commits verbal genocide accidentally."
What will winning the argument give you? superiority?
What will being right give you? Peace?
What will you gain in your heart by attacking? Safety?
Is the verbal power that you wield, teaching or crushing?
Are you not abusing this gift?
No amount of totally justifiable blame and rage will repair the injustice done to your beautiful kin. the white people have destroyed the earth and its keepers. Nothing of any consequence will ever be forth coming from the white man. when this is the reality there is only one place to reside. In love.
Peace to you in the coming year.
what if there is no justice, ever?
what if peace is not interested in justice, only peace.
we cannot wait for justice from those whose hearts are filled with cruelty. but we can find that peace is not measured by the lessening of evil. peace is waiting for us now and always, even while injustice swims in it's embrace, never disturbing it, never diminishing it. Do not wait for justice from those that destroy their mother, it will never come. Peace is the verdict that will render justice.
all good things to you and the ones you care for.
Then justice must come from people like you.
From people like me? I have no power to administer the illusory justice of the world. my only power, comes from love.
I know nothing of your culture and how others have influenced it and you. I have entered into something that is none of my business and for this i apologies.
duplicate
It is not "love" to attack and slander people.
It is not "peace" to demand that all submit to you.
It is not "justice" for you to be the sole arbiter of who is and who is not allowed to speak.
_In your opinion_ ---- you are the fighter for truth and justice, and those whom challenge you are the deceiver and purposeful liars, and upon that basis you are justifying a double standard here - one for you, and one for those who disgaree with you or whom you have singled out as evil and targeted for attacks.
Of course one who claims to be all about love could also make racist statements. The alternative is an absurdity - that because a person claims to be all about love, then therefore their statements can never be challenged. That is what you are demanding from us. I am saying "no." I won't submit to your terms.
You are not our parent. That was a revealing comment, that you are only doing what a loving parent would do. That is why I call your posts paternalistic and condescending.
We did not elect you, or any other great white father no matter how enlightened they claim to be, to be our parent here. Talking about the injustices that Native people have faced in a syrupy paternalistic way, as though you were the loving parent guiding us all to the truth- or else suffer your mean-spirited wrath - is exactly the problem, and can never be any part of any reconciliation.
I will not be bullied into silence.
That's generally true but personal biases can prevent us from getting those three rules straight. I hate to say this but JA has the upper hand on this one. Don't take too hard man. RBTL is being a troublemaker and giving natives a bad name.