What to Do About American Indians?
June 10, 2009 3 Comments
Today we drove from Durango, CO (very cool, my kind of town) to Chinle, AZ. The last 50 miles or so were through reservations. It was beautiful country, but pretty sad to behold. Some of the ‘farms’ we passed were almost nothing but sand and the houses make parts of Eastern Kentucky look downright luxurious by comparison. So at dinner tonight I was talking to my father-in-law about some of the realities of life for Indians in this part of the country. I wondered why the heck they don’t get off the reservations. But there are so many cultural and social ties that hold them here it’s easy to understand their hesitancy. Not to mention there are a lot of government programs that incentivize a subsistence lifestyle for these people and for whatever reason many seem satisfied with it.
So my BIG idea is this: I’ve been on a couple of cruises. The first time our crew was mostly Korean and Eastern European. The second time there were a lot from India and Malaysia. So why not use the power of Washington to try and lure these cruise lines onto the reservations to recruit men and women for these ships? It would give them some exposure to the rest of the world and put some real money in their pockets.
Is this a workable solution? What am I missing that would render this impossible?
Short of an economic incentive, after seeing what I have seen, my secondary impulse is for the federal government to give every American Indian $100,000 and then drive them off the reservations. That seems to be the only way to save these people.
Mike,
One thing you missed ia that all the nations in question have maritime traditions, so a certain segment of thepopulation is often trained to work on ships. Many Native American Tribes are not, though that may in the end be an economic issue.
Another consideration (and perhaps a far larger one) is which country the ship is registered or “flagged” in. If they aren’t American ships (and many aren’t) we can’t exactly impose any conditions on them regarding hiring.
I’m not thinking so much about forcing them as much as I am persuading them.
And I would think providing service duties or (blatant stereotyping here) working in on-boat casinos would be totally do-able.
That may be why the land-locked casino idea has worked so well for the American Indians is that they can remain near their families and land where their ancestors lived, continue their traditions – but also make a more 21st century wage and a liveable wage. It has worked pretty well so far.