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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1969
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Jjuby and Dwight Bear Shirt, their pregnant mother, and five other family members live in one
half of a converted government barracks. The barracks is on pilings, with no indoor plumbing or
by Susie Jenkins
Nebraskan Staff Writer
On the isolated, impoverished Indian reservations
a major result of the life "situation is immense social
disorganization. This absence of community is mirrored
on the Pine Ridge and Omaha-Winnebago reservations
in the prevalence of alcoholism, educational problems,
suicide attempts and weak family structure.
Surveys and research concerning the life of the
Indians on Pine Ridge have been compiled by the Pine
Ridge Mental Health Program, revealing that this
prevalence is not "just the Indians."
Dr. Carl Mindell, former director of the Pine Ridge
Community Mental Health program, writes in the Pine
Ridge Research Bulletin: "This way of behaving in
the world is not characteristic of Indianness, but of
any people who have lived in similar circumstances
i.e., city ghetto or Appalachia."
The resuK, according to the research done by the
Health Service, is the development and perpetuation
of a negative ethnic image, among all Indian residents,
especially among the younger Indians.
"The younger Indian kids scare the hell out of me,
said Dave Allen, VISTA volunteer in the Pine Ridge
border town of Gordon, Neb.
"They are already defeated. They don't rebel, they
regress. The imperialist culture has defined the Indian
role, and this causes emotional problems," he said.
Allen voiced an opinion similar to those of whites
and Indians working with social problems on the
reservation.
Dr. Robert Schefsky treats reservation residents at
the Winnebago hospital in Northeast Nebraska.
"Indian teenagers are in a shell," Schefsky said. '
"They see what is going on around them. They see
Tarpaper shacks typify reservation housing
Fire disasters
strike frequently
by Jolin Dvorak
Nebraskan Staff W?riter
"These tarpaper shacks are unfit to live in, especially
in the winter. It seems like the little children are con
stantly getting sick. We make daily trips to the hospital
with kids from all over town. Worse than that, the
shacks catch fire easily. One of them burned dcwn
recently. No one knew it until the walls fell in, out
three children were in it."
Clement Mitchell and Lawrence Cook, two members
of the Omaha Tribal Council spoke sadly about the
housing situation in their hometown of Macy.
An unincorporated settlement of 203, Macy lies at
the bottom of a valley only a few miles from the
Missouri River and about 30 miles south of Sioux City.
A MODERN, GREEN waiter tower stands guard over
the village but it hardly exemplifies the conditions sur
rounding it.
"I don't see how children can come out of some of
those homes," said the director of the local Head Start
center.
Dirt roads, car bodies
and tiny unpalnted bunga
lows seem to compose most
of east and south Macy.
Other houses are construc
ted of slats covered with
tarpaper. '
Some ot our nomes,
Mitchell said, have tanks
of propane for fuels. Tele
phones are raire. More than
a few Junk yards dot the
tiny town. In places, car
bodies are stacked right up
to the exterior walls of the
homes.
AND, ON A RISE IN
the east part of town,
on what would be a prime
comer lot in Lincoln or
Omaha, lies the snow cov
ered, Charred remains of
of the shack where three
children lost their lives recently.
Miss Bernice Tegler,
who has operated a Prot
estant mission In Winne
bago for years, described
one home. "Many homes
are like tills, she began.
There are five children and
five adults living in two rooms. Sometimes there is an
attic or part of an upstairs, but even so, there Is Just
no room to move around."
The situation Is not 100 per cent bleak, however. The
north part of Macy Is like another world. About 25
brightly decorated new homes have been built and rented
to families. The two story, frame dwellings would not
look out of place in the Meadowlane or Belmont areas
of Lincoln.
The new homes, according to Cook, were built by
a private firm under the auspicies of the Federal govern
ment. The homes are rented to Indians for varying sums.
"THE MORE YOU MAKE in salary, the more rent
you pay," Cook continued. The government has promised
more units, he added. At present only about 20 of the
new homes have been built; it is only a dent in the
problem."
Besides the dilapidated houses in Macy, there are
a few stores, a gasoline station, a 50 year old school
building, and several churches. The bright spot of the
town is a not-yet-finished red brick Tribal Council
Building, housing a gym and many offices.
"We are very proud of the new building," Cook
said. "We paid for it entirely out of tribal funds."
Ten miles up highway 73 lies Winnebago, a larger
town, population 632. The situation there is different.
Housing is far better, and the town offers a business
district, a high school, several churches, two missions
and a larger federal housing development
MISS BERNICE TEGLER, who operates one of the
missions, said that the federal housing is indeed
desirable, but units rent for $65 to $100. Is that ap
propriate rent for low income families? she asked.
The housing projects are well kept up, simply
because they are expected monthly, she said.
The Indians don't have much pride in their homes,
contrary to whites, she continued. Many homes have
just the bare necessities, no rugs, little furniture. Lack
of telephones, running water, and indoor plumbing is
not unique.
Out west on the Pine Ridge Reservations, housing
Is also in bad shape. A complicated study has been
made of the situation, so in many cases exact figures
and percentages are available. For Instance, only 40
per cent of the Indian homes have running water. About
60 per cent of the households have electricity.
SEVERAL FEDERAL PROGRAMS are In operation
to try and remedy the situation. Operation Turnkey
is a low cost housing project operated through the Bureau
of Indian Affairs. Money from the project can be used
to fix, rent, or buy homes.
Marge Loffredo, VISTA worker from New Jersey,
said, "This started four years ago. The Indians just
keep filling out forms and nothing ever happens."
Perhaps living conditions could be Improved, if the
reservation had more of an economy.
"We're trying to bring some Industry to the reserva
tion. We don't have a spot developed yet, but we are
competing with 16,000 other communities in '.he United
States. Now, the only industry we have in Winnebago
Is a dog food plant which processes dead animals. It's
strictly a day by day operation, however. If they have
gome work, they hire someone for a day."
THE SPEAKER WAS Sterling Snake, treasurer of
the Winnebago Tribal Council.
"We are negotiating for a government loan to develop
an industrial park In Winnebago," ho reported, There
has been little progress.
The reservation would not be a bad place for a
company to locate, he continued. Land and a working
force is available and a firm can take advantage of
many tax breaks by building on the reservation proper.
"We need opportunities," Snake stressed, Win
nebago's only Industry has never employed more thai)
ten people at a time, and then for only a short period."
Walthill, Neb., a town of 844 about five miles south
of Winnebago, boasts the only real industry on the
reservation. A plant makes hydraulic cylinders and thus
far has been quite successful. Like federal housing.
It is only a dent in the problem.
BEFORE THE ADVENT of the Office of Economic
Opportunity, unemployment was a drastic problem,
Snake said. In the past few years, unemployment has
been curtailed. But not
completely.
G. R. Branchaud, the
Indian agent, agreed. "We
are trying to make a stuay
. . . sending social workers
right Into the homes and
find out why a man who
has a job decides to quit.
We really don't know."
The Indian Agency has
a many faceted employ
ment assistance plan, but
much of the assistance
goes to help Indians get
off-the-reservation jobs.
The Bureau has moved
many Indians off the reser
vation, Snake said. How
ever many come back soon
er or later. "I don't want
to move off, I want to see
jobs, here on the reserva
tion." he said.
"I USED TO THINK
that industry was the an-
swer," said. Dr Robert
Chaefsky, an MD at the
hospital in Winnebago. "No
industry has been forthcoming, but the next best thing
happened some time ago."
A manufacturing plant in Sioux City which needed
workers decided to transport the Indians both to and
from Sioux City by bus. "I thought that was the answer,"
Chaefsky said. "But you can count the Indians on the
fingers of one hand who are taking advantage of the
situation."
On the Pine Ridge Reservation, Industry is a little
more prevalent although unemployment Is a big problem.
A mocassin factory employes 102 people, 41 in the
factory and the rest outside as lacers. The building is
owned by the tribe which rents to the company.
"WE PAY THE MINIMUM wage and up," said Mort
Tiensvold, plant superintendent. "About 95 per cent of
the workers are Indians, and they are excellent workers."
It seems, however, that the government Is the real
economy. Indians so depend on the government for jobs
that an economic disaster would prevail if the govern
ment abandoned the reservation.
Unemployment figures run around the 30 per cent
mark, depending on age grouping. More than 55 per cent
of the young people 16 to 19 are unemployed. More than
45 per cent of the people between 55 and 59 are also
unemployed.
Many Indians are employed at one time of the
year, but spend several seasons out of work. Nearly
30 per cent of the Pine Ridge Indians work at seasonal
employment. Potato and other crop harvesting are
popular.
Tiensvold said, "To me, jobs that have sound
economic bases have to be the solution, if there Is
a solution. We have stop-gap measures, but they are
not stable, viable and economically sound."
"IT'S NOT SAFE on the streets of Macy after dark.
There are drunks and gangs. My uncle was beaten
to death last year by a gang of people, right on the
street. We don't have a sheriff. The nearest law enforce
ment officers are nearly 20 miles away."
Cook continued, "We are governed by two laws.
Tills Is a state reservation, so we have both county
law and a state deputy."
It's not working out, he said. A county sheriff and
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alcoholism In the family: they see their mother going
to bed with their uncle.
"People who have gone outside the reservation to
work have come back broken, so they think it is useless
to try," he said.
RESEARCHERS AT PINE RIDGE have defined a
"terrific" inferiority complex among Indians, especially
Indian teens. Dr. Eileen Maynard, anthropologist with
the Community Health Service, directed an intensive
survey of Pine Ridge residents, the first of any kind
at any reservation.
Dr. Maynard conducted a survey among both Sioux
and surrounding white high school students, compar.ng
attitudes toward Indian problems. One of the major
important differences she discovered was a divergence
in opinions concerning the reason Indians have greater
problems than whites.
Seven per cent of the Indian students believed that
prejudice of whites was a major reason for greater
problems of Indians, while 56 per cent of white students
made this the major reason for the Indian's situation.
Indian students named lack of education, drinking,
and poverty as the three main causes for their failure
to conquer their problems.
Even statements blaming the social or economic
environment were amended by phrases of self-blame
Dr. Maynard wrote In her report. '
The most negative statement was "Indians have
greater problems because they're real stupid."
One Indian girl stated that Indians have more of
a chance for success because "If he wants to go on
to school, the Indian has everything paid for him."
"Indian adults sometimes characterize Indians as
lazy and drunken," Dr. Maynard said. "The Indian
child hears these statements, and may then observe
this behavior and even though these traits are manifested
by a small minority of Indians, it will reinforce the
negative image of his ethnic group."
ONE MAJOR CONTRIBUTION to the negative image
Is the reservation educational system, according to
sources from both Pine Ridge and Winnebago.
The principal of Winnebago school, Robert Wormsley,
discussed the problems of education on the Winnebago
and Macy reservations.
"I am the first full time principal here," Wormsley
said. "I am In my first year. The previous principal
couldn't stomach the situation.
Wormsley said that dropouts and truancy were major
problems in his school.
"Once a boy didn't come to school for a few days,"
he related. "We sent the bus driver out to look for
him. His parents had copped out or something, anyway
they were drunk or in jail.
"The kid was hiding in an old unused house. Nobody
cared for him, but now he is staying with his aunt
and is falling in line."
Clement Mitchell, an Omaha Indian and membr'r
of the tribal council, maintained that the Bureau ot
Indian Affairs (BIA) had promisd a better school on
his reservation.
"They haven't done it,". Mitchell said. "Our school
goes up to the eighth grade, and it is falling apart.
"I'm scared to send my kids to the school. There
are big cracks opening, since it was built in 1919,"
he said.
Sterling Snake of the Winnebago reservation agreed
that schooling is not up to adequate levels on Nebraska
reservations.
"We should have a vocational-technical school . ui)
here," Snake said. "They (the BIA) haven't let thu
Indians use their own initiative. They are just a bunch
of brainy guys with programs."
AT PINE RIDGE, Dr. Maynard noted several needs
to stimulate learning motivation. They wre:
Decrease the emphasis in Indian schooling on
helping the Indian student go into the mainstream. "This
philosophy so often seems to lack positive concrete
meanings and tends to the negative direction mainly
to dcemphaslze Indianness."
More research is needed on the relation of the
parental Involvement and power in the educational
system.
Install orientation programs for eighth graders
going to the boarding high schools (sometimes 100 mllci
from the students home) since the dropout peak occuis
between the eighth and ninth grades.
Escape from the realities of the reservation is a
constant contributor to the social disorganization. Suicide
attempts are mi;ch more prevalent than the national
average.
Of tho number of recorded attempts at Pine Ridge,
96 per cent were under age 40, and 36 per cent were
under age 19.
The suicide rate at Pine Ridge Is more than twice
that reported In the city of Los Angeles for the same
for Indians on the reservation. Dr. Schefsky said th
period.
ALCOHOL IS A very frequent escape mechanism
for Indians on the reservation. Dr. Schefsky said that
at Winnebago is the number one problem.
"People drink occasionally, soclaly or heavily." he
said. "For some people it is a disease. But for theso
people it is a way of life."
Of special interest Is the per cent of juvenile of
fenders aged 15 to 17. Of this group, 32 per cent of
the boys and 23 per cent of the girls were booked
on drinking charges.
"Being Indian is an extremely Important sourco
of satisfaction." Dr. Maynard said. "It Is now up to
the government agencies and the Indians themselves
to recapture the pride of the Oglalas to Its former
degree and utilize Indian Identity as a positive force
for advancement.
She noted that local groups needed more autonomy
In the political and economic structures, preferably not
connected with the government.
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Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) live on the Pine Kidge reservation, teach residents basic community practices.
