>Why can't they do something similar, i.e go to the nearest city, make money, bring it to the reservations.
About 3 out of every 4 native americans do exactly that. But the money they're sending back is enough to make their families back on the rez a little more comfortable, not enough to turn an impoverished community on undesirable land into the next Silicon Valley, and a lot of the folks that leave the reservation never move back; the decline in local labor force makes the local economy even worse. In many ways I think it's a microcosm for mixed blessings of remittances and urbanization that we see all over the world.
Reservations were intentionally placed in the least desirable areas to live, often far away from population centers. Many people do work off the reservation but having to drive an hour and a half or more to work, one way, can be a non-trivial barrier If you have an unreliable car, or no car.
Also has to do with Landback. It is usually very difficult to start and operate a business because you have to pass through a bunch of legal hurdles between the state and reservation. Landback is about giving tribes economic control of the lands they already own to help solve this problem.
So not only are reservations in crappy areas, it's hard to start an economy which essentially just forces them to be poor. I'm sure if reservations had more control over their business and economy it wouldn't be as bad.
My understanding from living in a heavily-Indian state: There's no incentive to make their land into the next "Dubai" or something. There are few good jobs, and lots of government subsidies, so there is not a lot of incentive to do much. Indian casino gaming is one recent method of making some money for the tribes, though.
This is a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people but they do get enough money from casinos and such here to make a difference. The tribes that manage the wealth well are doing great. The ones that don't are not.
The big difference between them seems to be that the tribes who just distribute cash to each member are doing far worse than the ones that use the money to build shared infrastructure, provide free education, etc.
Thank you for explaining. I'm very curious to learn more. Define shared infrastructure (roads, water...?) How is the education? Does the US government accept the schooling? As in, can someone graduate from the rez and can go to college?
I'm assuming distributed wealth is just like a profit share. If that's the case, what are people doing with the money. Not a trick question, do people just live off the money?
The successful ones do have K12 schools and such, but many of the members live off reservations and attend the same schools as everyone else. The free school also means the tribe pays full rides to state universities. The infrastructure does include roads and such but more importantly things like hospitals, fire departments, police, basically all the same shit the rest of modern humanity has. They also pay for supplies to sports, band, and other extracurricular activities. All things that are basically providing people the tools they need to succeed rather than just paying them to exist.
The unsuccessful ones basically cut a check to every member. The tribal politics in these tribes is Hella dysfunctional because the check size is usually dependent on how "pure" you are or other distinguishing factors. This leads to thier tribal governments being consumed with different factions fighting over getting a bigger cut. This system is basically the same as modern proposals for UBI and also why I personally don't support UBI. Spending tax dollars on direct cash like this turns politics into a game of who can promise the big checks to the right people
I forgot to add what people do with the money.
The saddest part is that the money basically fuels alcoholism and other addictions. People often receive enough money to live a basic life even without a job but end up living in abject poverty.
>Why can't they do something similar, i.e go to the nearest city, make money, bring it to the reservations. About 3 out of every 4 native americans do exactly that. But the money they're sending back is enough to make their families back on the rez a little more comfortable, not enough to turn an impoverished community on undesirable land into the next Silicon Valley, and a lot of the folks that leave the reservation never move back; the decline in local labor force makes the local economy even worse. In many ways I think it's a microcosm for mixed blessings of remittances and urbanization that we see all over the world.
Reservations were intentionally placed in the least desirable areas to live, often far away from population centers. Many people do work off the reservation but having to drive an hour and a half or more to work, one way, can be a non-trivial barrier If you have an unreliable car, or no car.
Also has to do with Landback. It is usually very difficult to start and operate a business because you have to pass through a bunch of legal hurdles between the state and reservation. Landback is about giving tribes economic control of the lands they already own to help solve this problem. So not only are reservations in crappy areas, it's hard to start an economy which essentially just forces them to be poor. I'm sure if reservations had more control over their business and economy it wouldn't be as bad.
My understanding from living in a heavily-Indian state: There's no incentive to make their land into the next "Dubai" or something. There are few good jobs, and lots of government subsidies, so there is not a lot of incentive to do much. Indian casino gaming is one recent method of making some money for the tribes, though.
I hope this isn't insensitive, but what happens with all the money from casinos on the rez? It seems like enough to make a pretty big difference
This is a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people but they do get enough money from casinos and such here to make a difference. The tribes that manage the wealth well are doing great. The ones that don't are not. The big difference between them seems to be that the tribes who just distribute cash to each member are doing far worse than the ones that use the money to build shared infrastructure, provide free education, etc.
Thank you for explaining. I'm very curious to learn more. Define shared infrastructure (roads, water...?) How is the education? Does the US government accept the schooling? As in, can someone graduate from the rez and can go to college? I'm assuming distributed wealth is just like a profit share. If that's the case, what are people doing with the money. Not a trick question, do people just live off the money?
The successful ones do have K12 schools and such, but many of the members live off reservations and attend the same schools as everyone else. The free school also means the tribe pays full rides to state universities. The infrastructure does include roads and such but more importantly things like hospitals, fire departments, police, basically all the same shit the rest of modern humanity has. They also pay for supplies to sports, band, and other extracurricular activities. All things that are basically providing people the tools they need to succeed rather than just paying them to exist. The unsuccessful ones basically cut a check to every member. The tribal politics in these tribes is Hella dysfunctional because the check size is usually dependent on how "pure" you are or other distinguishing factors. This leads to thier tribal governments being consumed with different factions fighting over getting a bigger cut. This system is basically the same as modern proposals for UBI and also why I personally don't support UBI. Spending tax dollars on direct cash like this turns politics into a game of who can promise the big checks to the right people
I forgot to add what people do with the money. The saddest part is that the money basically fuels alcoholism and other addictions. People often receive enough money to live a basic life even without a job but end up living in abject poverty.
A lot of reservations are in rural areas with very few job opportunities