A mural painted in Rapid City, near Pine Ridge, shows the effects plaguing the Native community are felt far beyond the reservations. photo by Yolanda McCarthy
A multitude of issues plaguing the Native American community goes unseen.
Each race faces their own unique challenges that require their community to stand united in order to solve them, but there is a severe lack of public attention towards certain issues. Ever since European settlers came to the Americas, indigenous people were removed from their native lands. It was hardly ever voluntary, and violence was often a factor. The first reservation was established in 1758 for the Lenape nation. Currently, there are 326 reservations across the U.S., housing approximately 700,000 indigenous people. Life on reservations has always been harsh and time did little to heal any of the wounds first created on them. Some are more impacted than others, but reservations deal with problems such as alcoholism, drugs, high suicide rates, and very frequent occurrences of missing women some are calling “a new genocide.” Yet, the chances of finding someone who knows about all of these issues is rare.
When speaking on the state of the Crow reservation, one of the leaders of the Native American Student Support Program (NASSP), Marcus Cyrus, reflected on what he’d been told by a veteran, “When I go back home on my reservation, I feel like I’m overseas at war.” The Lakota Oglala Pine Ridge reservation is in Shannon County, one of the poorest counties in the United States. Many reservations are stricken with poverty, largely due to their isolation and distance from other populated centers and the lack of available jobs. This then spirals out into a multitude of other issues affecting the health of the reservation’s residents. Due to the price of healthier food, those living on reservations are forced to eat much more harmful products, which leads to extremely high rates of obesity and diabetes among the population. The National Library of Medicine reports that the prevalence of obesity among Native Americans is 40 percent while it’s 28 percent among white Americans. The American Addiction Center stated that while Native Americans make up less that one percent of the population, 2.5 percent of people admitted for substance abuse are Native American. The negative environment that all of this brews is extremely damaging to the youth who live on the reservations. The U.S. Department of health and human services reported that “Suicide was the second leading cause of death among Native Americans between the ages of ten and 34 in 2017.”
In today’s age of social movement, society is seeing movements such as Black Lives Matter, MeToo, and the NoBanNoWall bring in members of those communities and allies to unite against certain issues. Those movements, in particular, have gained traction and have been able to make their presence known by bringing in those personally affected by the problems and getting help from allies, creating strength in numbers. Sadly, this is not seen when it comes to the issues plaguing the Native American community. Cyrus commented on the lack of attention to this problem, stating “You’re only going to hear it in our community.” Without a larger group of people coming together to voice their problems, their cries as a whole go unheard. Another factor of this issue is how isolated many reservations are from other communities. One of the worst problems affecting the Native American community is the alarming number of women going missing on reservations. While there is a movement in the form of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW), it’s hardly gained the attention which the other groups received. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that 46 percent of Native women experienced some form of violence against them at one point in their lives. Yet, the last widely recognized Native issue had little to nothing to do with this problem, that being the Dakota Pipeline. Cyrus believes that a major reason these problems aren’t widely known is, “If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If no one witnesses it, who cares? It’s the same situation as missing Indigenous women.”
The distance from a reservation to another populated center creates a barrier of communication, so if someone goes missing, only the people in very close vicinity will ever know. Law enforcement is not a reliable safety measure for the Native community. Due to the reservations being recognized as foreign land, local police departments don’t have jurisdiction on them and the people have to rely on the severely underfunded Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). According to multiple sources, the approximate number of Native women missing is around 5,500. The reason there is no solid number is that many of the women who do go missing aren’t treated as such.
Anneliese Goetz, freshman and member of the Native American Student Support Program stated, “There’s cases where they say they ran away or as soon as the women are found murdered, they play it off as suicide and police don’t put in any effort.” Without help from law enforcement, it’s often up to the average citizen on the reservation to put in the work. Cyrus explained, “It’s a lot more community, Facebook, social media, that’s how justice begins to happen. We can’t rely on the official reports out there.” With little help coming from inside the reservation, one can only hope support could be found outside. However, little to no coverage about this tragedy is reaching the public ear and Goetz has an explanation for why. “When you live in a society where people paint red face and take sacred tribal traditions and mockingly use them at sporting events on a national level, you aren’t going to see many results when those people are in trouble.” Reservations were created to move the indigenous people off the land that colonizers wanted to use for themselves. The challenge for Native Americans to simply live began long ago and will continue far into the future, but as a people, they’re far from gone.
The Native community still finds ways to survive and thrive despite the mountain of hardships placed before them. They are a people who use their past to strengthen themselves, as Cryus pointed out, “When mammoths were still on Earth, designs I wear were being created. They’ll always be passed down from generation to generation.” Goetz added, “I love being around everyone in our Native group, everyone’s open to ears and I love the bright minds and I feel like I can be myself and embrace my culture.” The March Powwow is an event which happens every year at the Denver Coliseum where people of all backgrounds are welcome to partake and witness Native dancing, culture, and food. Cyrus reflected, “That’s what’s beautiful about these celebrations, as much as they try to strip them away from us. Back in the day, all of our Powwows were behind closed doors, and now we’re doing them in Denver, a major city.” Despite the issues they face, Native Americans still find the strength and hope to persevere, but if any of these problems have a chance of being solved, it will take help from the government and fellow citizens. People outside of the reservations need to start recognizing these issues and stand up for those whose voices have been silenced. Organizations working to solve these issues and are in need of donations are: The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, The Native American Heritage Association, and the Association On American Indian Affairs.
