The Ignored Struggle in the United States
With the upcoming presidential election, which may be considered one of the most important elections in the history of the United States, Native Americans are facing even more underrepresentation in politics, as mail-in voting poses a huge problem for many families. So many don’t even have a permanent address and are either homeless or staying with friends and family, but does that mean they shouldn’t have the opportunity to vote? In other cases, such as in the Navajo Nation, they would have to travel possibly forty miles to mail their ballots, which introduces the issue that the majority of them don't own cars. If many Natives don’t have the capability to vote and that problem is ignored, the government is quite literally repressing their rights as citizens of the United States. This stems from the centuries of abuse and prejudice that Indigenous People have suffered, and the discrimination and inequality that continue to permeate our society today.
From the moment European colonists set foot on American soil, the lives of the Natives here in the U.S. were devastated. Not only were they exploited, mistreated, and set up for decades upon decades of segregation and discrimination, but their vast scope of cultures and traditions has since been ignored and forgotten. How can schools teach us to memorize “in fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” yet fail to educate us on Native American history? How could we as a country have let it get this bad? The very people who have lived here for over 15,000 years are suffering from inhumane poverty rates while our government continues to turn a blind eye.
Today, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. But today should not be the only day where their voices are heard and amplified, and today should not be the kind of day where we acknowledge their struggles only to forget about them the next morning. For centuries, Native Americans have been abused, oppressed, reduced to false stereotypes, treated with no respect or dignity, relocated, and subjected to terrible living conditions, so I ask you this: why has hardly anything been done to help them?
It all goes back to when Natives were suddenly forced to change from “13,000 years of subsistence lifestyle [to] a complete dependence on money,” which has left its footprint in our country: tragically high levels of poverty among Native Americans.
Natives experience huge disparities in employment, housing, and health, and have for too long been neglected and ignored. Their poverty rate exceeds that of any other minority at 25%, but that percentage even increases further among the Native Americans living on reservations, with 20% of those households earning less than $5,000 every year. In case you were wondering, the federal poverty level for one single person is already twice that number. If the government can so clearly see that so many Natives are living far below the US poverty threshold, what is preventing them from making changes?
The answer: they don’t care. And not just them––the majority of Americans don’t care. With no one advocating for Native Americans, the government has no incentive to do anything. And why does no one care? Lack of education. Lack of acceptance of other cultures. The discriminatory beliefs that have plagued the minds of the people in our society since the beginning of history.
While the government is supposed to give free education, housing, and healthcare to Native Americans, they do the absolute bare minimum, which is hardly sustainable for Native reservations as well as for the rest who live in urban communities. Nearly all of the agencies responsible for providing these resources are incredibly underfunded and disregarded, and the consequences are much lower graduation rates, inadequate and crowded homes, and shockingly high discrepancies in health.
Their impoverished state of Native Americans is extremely detrimental, particularly regarding the education of their students. Schools on reservations and schools in poorer areas are not capable of providing sufficient resources that are necessary to do well, not to mention that someone who grows up in a poor environment has a much more difficult time learning basic rudimentary skills. These setbacks so early in their lives prevent them from reaching their full potential, and are what keep Native Americans trapped within the same cycle. If nothing changes, they will continue to face high unemployment and poverty rates, unable to break out of the cage that the US government quite literally put them in.
Low income and deficient living situations further result in serious health concerns, with over half of Native Americans depending on support from the Indian Health Service (IHS), a government-funded agency––underfunded, actually. However, it is still far from enough, and Natives often don’t receive adequate health coverage, especially because many suffer from more severe health conditions. In comparison to Caucasians, “[Natives] are 177% more likely to die from diabetes (2011, Indian Health Disparities). 500% are more likely to die from tuberculosis (2011, Indian Health Disparities). 82% are more likely to die from suicide (2011, Indian Health Disparities).”
These shockingly high numbers and the lack of effort from our society to do something about it highlight the discriminatory nature of the United States, which, although many claim that we have “come so far,” is arguably still as prevalent as it was a century ago. As the government continues to ignore the lives and struggles of Indigenous People in the United States, it is now up to us, the American people, to fight for equality for all minorities.
What can you do?
Raise awareness on Native American issues by talking about them with your friends, kids, and family.
Donate to organizations that support Native Americans.
Support Native-owned businesses.
Educate yourself, your kids, and others on Native American culture and history, especially since schools do not always teach the subject accurately and comprehensively.