Things Learned

One of the things that I have learned is about the disparities that tribes face today. Growing up near Cherokee I had a sewed vision of the fiscal success of reservations, as Cherokee is a incredibly successful model. The poverty rates are astounding when considering how Indigenous peoples are compared to the rest of the U.S., and Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven gave me a brief glimpse into the hopelessness faced by Indigenous peoples on these impoverished reservations. The readings on Prezi about historical culture and context gave me the initial numbers to consider the disparity of Indigenous peoples which was later exacerbated when reading about the experiences in Alexie's book. Compounding the problem, Leslie Silko's book Yellow Woman and the Beauty of the Spirit depicts many of the short comings of the U.S. Government in regards to their promises to Indigenous peoples, and how that translates into the increasing levels of poverty.

Cherokee Casino

                   Pine Ridge Reservation South Dakota

Having interacted with the people of Cherokee many times, and having made some close acquaintances, I have had some voice their concerns to me about problems on the reservation. Never was poverty mentioned as an issue. Having first hand experience with Indigenous peoples, and never experience with impoverished reservations, I was missing the picture entirely and focusing on one microcosm. I first watched the film Smoke Signals when I was about thirteen years old and I remember wondering about the financial situation on the reservation in the film. At the time I assumed that it was a unique situation, when quite to the contrary my first hand accounts were skewed.