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In my home county, ther are 3 reservations, I will not place a blanket of blame on the Indians. I have friends who are basically Iroquois..primarily Seneca., and they are not living on the res.
They do have an edge on the rest of us, in that they can choose, whether they want to live on the res, or just go ahead and meld into the general population, off the res.
Yes, on the res..they get freebies..and they do play the citizen/non-citizen game. US citizens when they want bennies...soveriegn nation, when that works in their interest.
Here abouts, we drive to and through the reservation, and most don't even notice the difference. Althjough in some areas the res looks a bit shabby and run down. I don't blame that on the character of the people, but rather so much as their style of government.
From what I understand (and I could be corrected), they have a form of socialism, and property is tribal, rather than personal. So if a man can have a home today and lose it over to the tribe next year...that wouldn't encourage the best upkeeping habits.
Reservations in the western states seem to have more problems, but much of that comes back to the federal government, which apparently for political reasons, have treated the Indians as unwelcome step children, offering bennies, just to hush them up.
When treaties were made ..and many broken, things were far different. Here,the treaties called for so many yards of printed cloth and certain food stuffs annjally, in perpetuity...but the politicians are bomd to make them wards of the state, by handing out "goodies".
We have seen it with many groups.. If you pay them not to work, many will take advbantage of that bennie, and it doesn't matter their ethnicity ! ...And.... "Idle hands are the devil's workshop!".
Personally, I would rather see them absorbed into the general culture, but they do have treaties (promises) which we are duty bound to uphold..and haven't been the best at doing.
After retirement, I worked 3-4 years for a local hardware and I often had poeople from the res stop by. They could stock up on goods and pay no sales tax. That bothered me not inthe least..a promise made is a promise to be kept ! ..Besides, I'm not a big sales tax fan, since many more ethical states don't have such a thing.
Whether north, south, west, just keep in mind, nobody is bound to the reservation! So if they start complaining just remember, they have the luxury of choosing