How North America’s Indigenous People can Grow & Prosper

How North America’s Indigenous People can Grow & Prosper

By

Terrance H. Booth, Sr. – Nishwilgun – Tsimshian

No one knows it better than North America’s Indigenous People that their social and economies are not growing and prospering.  When did the governments of Canada and United State of America provide meaningful legislation to take the Indigenous of North America out of poverty? 

The poverty facts concerning Canada: “Amidst incredible wealth, more than 3.5 million Canadian live in poverty. In fact, poverty is increasing for youth, workers, young families and immigrants and people of colour in this country. Poverty in Aboriginal groups remains appallingly high, both on and off reserve. While Canada officially ranks an impressive 4th on the UN Human Development Index, the statistics measuring poverty in Canada's Aboriginal communities would place us 78th—a ranking currently held by Peru.

The inherited poverty facing our youth is especially emergent. On average, one in every ten children in Canada struggles to have their basic needs met. In First Nations and Inuit communities, one in every four children grows up in poverty. More than twenty years after the House of Commons passed a resolution to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000; our government has failed to take any meaningful action in this direction. [1] 

Written in 2010: “Half of Canada's First Nations children are living in poverty, triple the national average, according to a new analysis of census statistics that pegs the cost of easing the problem at $580-million a year. “Canada cannot and need not allow yet another generation of indigenous citizens to languish in poverty," the study states.” [2]

"Failure to act will result in a more difficult, less productive, and shorter life for indigenous children.” [3]

Overall impact of First Nations in poverty: “Poverty has an impact on and cost to society as a whole, from greater demands on the health care and criminal justice systems, to diminished workplace and economic productivity, to harmful and unwholesome divisions in society based on economic status and “class.” In dollar terms, this loss to Canada has been estimated to range from $72 to $86 billion annually, and is estimated to cost every individual over $2000 annually.” [4] 

For the United State poverty among Indian reservations: The official poverty rate on reservations is 28.4 percent, compared with 15.3 nationally. Thirty-six percent of families with children are below the poverty line on reservations, compared with 9.2 percent of families nationally. [5] These figures are absolute poverty rates as determined by the US Census. In 2010, the poverty threshold for a family of four with two children was $22,113.[6] Some reservations in Washington, California, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona, and New Mexico fare worst, with more than 60 percent of residents living in poverty.[7]

“The truth is that health care is merely one example of the way we consistently deprive Native American communities of the services they desperately need. A 2003 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that, per capita, Native Americans receive disproportionately lower funding than the general population for federally administered services and programs. This means that for every essential service our government agrees to provide for its citizens – including basic law enforcement, education, and infrastructure – Native Americans get less than any other segment of society.” [8]

Each tribe of North America has a story and some stories go untold for both countries of North American their history points out their insensitivities, non-responsiveness, completely ignoring the social and economic plights of North American’s Indigenous Peoples.  Any person of the North American continent simply has to go through the archives of both Canadian Government and USA Government way back when both countries started and see testimony after testimony on the governmental treatment and government relationship toward North America’s Indigenous Peoples. 

What is being said of tribal economic development:  What is being said about tribal economic development and how are they succeeding? Professor Robert Miller writes, “Any viable economy comprises different components. Miller builds upon the historical and current background that he has reviewed to describe the roles of tribes, individual Indian entrepreneurs, and non-Indian investors and businesses in a reservation economy. If there is a bottom line to Miller’s work in this book, it is that tribes are key to establishing functioning economies on their respective reservations. The creation of reservation economies will not happen by accident or without the pursuit of a thoughtful course of action designed to attract, create and nurture economic ventures. As is obvious with gaming and myriad other businesses, tribes are in the business of business.” [9]

This writer wonders why corporate America outsources when Alaska Native and Native American Tribes have a whole listing of tax incentives whereby both the corporations and tribes benefit.  Tribes not only have tax incentives but a ready work force and well-educated tribal people too for several tribes have tribal colleges using or not only education but professional development.  A Native non-profit, in Portland, Oregon has partnered up with Salish Kootenai College and Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians implement accreditation of their economic development training conference workshops on tribal programs.  The Tax Incentives. [10]   More Tax Incentives working with Tribes. [11]

Will Corporate America and Alaska Native and Native American Tribes collaborate to step into a new era of global business opportunities and learn from one another and both take steps to move America back to even a higher level of quality of life? More importantly, write corporate and tribal history together for not only the future of America, but put into place a new chapter establishing new corporate and tribal legacies of corporate and tribal collaboration and have a prosperous future for the coming generations.

1.      http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/learn/issues/end-poverty-in-canada

2.     http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/18/first-nations-children-50-percent-poverty_n_3462808.html

3.     Ibid

4.     http://www.cwp-csp.ca/poverty/the-cost-of-poverty/

5.     National Center for Education Statistics (2008). Statistical Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Washington, DC: US Department of Education.

6.     US Census Bureau. "Poverty Thresholds". Retrieved 12/10/2011.

7.     US Census Bureau (2000). US Census FactFinder. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.

8.     http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/ExclusiveCommentary.aspx?id=0fe5c04e-fdbf-4718-980c-0373ba823da7

9.     http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/capitalism-on-the-rez%...

10.   http://www.michiganbusiness.org/cm/files/tribal_business_development/guide_on_incentives_for_joint_ventures_with_tribes.pdf

11.   http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/supportdocuments/taxincentives051701.pdf