Native American Reservations Essay

In the United States there are many people that suffer without cause and by situations not of their own making. Consider, by way of illustration, the plight and suffering found on Native American reservations. With many reservations located in harsh, dry deserts far from thriving metropolitan areas, tribespeople are essentially surrounded by their unforgiving conditions and are subjected to lives of neglect, drunkenness, and poverty. The natives are suffering without cause and by circumstances not of their own creation.

Native American reservations suffer from a lack of economic stimulation. Most jobs on reservations are low paying federal employment that will not fuel the reservation’s economy. Because of the lack of employment, it is typical

The Natives are alcoholics. This trend of alcoholism began when alcohol was introduced by settlers in trade daily necessities. The Natives immediately took to the strong drink, becoming full-fledged alcoholics, clamoring, always for more. Although the Natives may not have considered it, their actions have condemned their descendants to an endless cycle of alcoholism and other medical conditions. In the present day, the Native people are always trying to lighten their dreary lives in any way possible, typically with alcohol. While taken in limitation alcohol is not dangerous, and would not be a threat to the Native Americans if they could practice portion control. This not the current case. Always clamoring for more alcohol, Natives of all ages are consuming, even pregnant mothers. Although this problem is strictly with the Native Americans, other Americans are not helping to end their problem. Rather it is common for people to take advantage of the Native’s predicament by setting up liquor stores along the reservation’s borders. By this practice, alcohol retailers are able to sell directly to Native Americans without breaking the law and producing a plethora of profit for themselves. In 2010 in the town of Whites clay, just off the border of the Pine Ridge Reservation, it was reported that the town of fourteen people and four liquor stores sold five million cans of beer, most of which was marketed towards the Natives. This is an example of how Native American’s problems are unending and are fueled by