FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1969
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
PAGE 7
Continued from page 6
the reservation with the season. The food stamp program
is also Inadequate because the food itatnps cost too
much, she said. K "
Dental and health care are understanding a pro
blem because there is never quite enough money for
teeth or glasses. The health problems are perpetuated
by diet deficiencies and the fact that the Indians cannot
easily return to the reservation for medical care she
added. '
Mrs. Dakota feels that Indians drink because it
is the only type of recreation they can afford and because
they are not included in other forms of entertainment.
LAP IS working to help minorities Including the
Indians, organize negihborhood groups that will come
to LAP with their problems. Then LAP can adapt federal
monies to their needs, she explained. "We want Deoole
to tell us what they need." F v
Mrs. Dakota remembers one family that LAP moved
into a better house without talking to them. The family
moved back into the old house because they liked it
better. The woman of this family said she would keep
up the house if she had windows and curtains. LAP
supplies the windows and curtain material and she has
kept the windows clean, the planning aid said. "The
woman taught me a lesson listen to them."
AS HEAD START Project Supervisor, Miss Ruth
Eickman works with the Indians at the Head Start
school, Haywood School, 1215 No. 9th St. "We have
difficulty recruiting Indian families and their children
for the Head Start program," she said. The families
seem to have a real tie to the tribe and migrate to
the reservation when it is warm or back to Lincoln
when it is cold. This makes for irregular school at
tendance. Once the children establish a pattern and
Only a part-time tlogfood f actory
Economy is lifeless,
unemployment high
Continued from page 4
his deputy are located In Pender, about 20 miles west
of Macy. The law officers visit Macy infrequently.
Similar problems exist in Winnebago. Snake pointed
out that the town's total income is only $15,000 yearly.
The town does maintain a jail and jailkeeper. At time
the Winnebago jail has had 60 people at once.
On the Pine Ridge Reservation, 12 Indian policemen
are employed and law enforcement appears to be less
of a problem than on the Winnebago-Omaha Reserva
tion. MITCHELL AND COOK switched to other topic!.
"The government promised to take care of our sick.
The hospital we have is used to train young doctors.
There are four interns in the hospital, no real doctors.
We need good specialized doctors. We need some equip
ment to perform some operations."
Perhaps the most misunderstood thing on the
reservation is the medical care, all of which is provided
free to the Indians.
"Apparently the Public Health Service is not con
cerned about public relations," said Dr. Robert Chaefsky.
The four doctors on the hospital staff are not interns,
but full fledged MDs. The young doctors spend two
years on the Indian reservations in lieu of military
service.
The quality of medical care here is superb, but
the Indians don't understand this, Chaefsky continued.
Special cases are sent to Omaha hospitals where
specialists are available.
The number one disease is alcoholism, said Chaefsky.
And it is a disease. Some whites drink socially or heavily.
To some Indians, however, it is a disease. It is a
way of life.
"Alcohol seems to be a way out." Chaefsky said.
"The people use it to forget about everything."
ATTEMPTS TO COMBAT the problem have been
made, according to Snake. More than 1,000 people were
jailed last year for drunkeness, pretty bad for a town
of 6110.
"We tried closing the bars down earlier, but that
just caused more problems," he said. "The Indians
went elsewhere for liquor and had trouble getting back
to town."
Alcoholism causes problems throughout the reserva
tion. Miss Tegler said that drunkeness is one of the
causes for broken homes. The principal of Winnebago
school said that alcoholism greatly affects the students
lives as well.
Besides unemployment, alcoholism, housing and tho
like, many other problems beset the reservation. Not
the least of which Is that the reservation is being chopped
up and sold. Only a minority of the land is actual
tribal land.
MITCHELL SAID, "They said they would protect
our reservation, but look at It. It looks like a
cherkerboard. It's all cut to pieces."
Even with their problems, the Indians still want
to maintain the reservation. Some people have advocated
the breaking up of the reservation, selling the land
to either Indians or whites. Mitchell and Cook are ap
palled at the Idea.
"This is where our forefathers are. This Is where
we want to be," Mitchell suld. "We need help
buildings, homes, schools, maybe the government could
get us started in farming."
Mitchell explained that he wants to support himself,
as most of the other Indians do. They want to do
It on the reservation. But Cook and Mitchell both admit
that gigantic difficulties face the reservation.
ON THE PINE RIDGE Reservation, only 40 per
cent of the land Is owned by individual Indians. About
15 per cent bclongj to the tribe and the rest to white
farmers.
"Things are so bad that we're trying to hire a
lawyer," Mitchell laid. "Tilings have always been bad,
but it seems like they're getting worse. We've gone
to our senator, and they say to go to the bureau.
The bureau sends us here, there and back again. We 11
Just keep waiting and waiting. Maybe some dav they
will stop and think about us."
GREEK WEEK
CARNIVAL
SATURDAY NIGHT
7-11:30 P.M.
GAMES PRIZES
UNION BALLROOM
Proctvdi to Codart Homi
of employment, welfare
cause Indian social problems
make friends in their neighborhood, then their attendance
is better, Miss Eickman said.
Indian children are nonverbal and it takes them
most of a year to learn to laugh, she said.
Parents are reluctant to send their children to
school, she said. Motherhood is a real status symbol and
sources of comfort to Indian women and they are reluc
tant to give it up, she explained.
MANY INDIANS do not feel comfortable working
with us and we have little Indian leadership in our
parent group because we haven't encouraged it at their
level of understanding," she said. "We need to find
a way of simplifying what we do so that they will
find it comfortable to go pn by themselves." Whites
feel that Indians are irresponsible, but sometimes there
are so many restrictions that it is not in the Indian
nature to begin, Miss Eickman said. This is their way
of saying "I can't do it so why get myself involved."
She feels that whites lack a real understanding of
Indians. "We have to accept their social pattern, even
though we may not understand it and accept what hap
pens without making judgment," she said. For instance,
people always complain that the Indians have so many
dogs around their homes in the city, but on the reserva
tion a dog seems to be a necessary part of life, she
explained.
As of Jan. 31 there were 10 American Indians out
of 160 children enrolled in the Head Start program
as compared to 17 Negroes and 7 Spanish Americans.
AS DIRECTOR of the City Mission, George Chenot
worked with the Indians in Lincoln for 26 years, up
until his recent retirement. The Mission is a temporary
home for people who are hungry or homeless and
"presents the Gospel which is the solution to people's
problems."
Chenot feels that the Indians come to the cities
because of the miserable conditions on the reservations.
On the reservation they haven't had the discipline and
influence of the gospel, Chenot said. "White people should
give the Indian spiritual help and educate them about the
gospel."
The Catholic Social 'Service Bureau works with
Indians occasionally on a case work basis, according to
Miss Lotus Nicholas, case worker supervisor. "We serve
anyone who is in need who comes to us or Is referred
to us, but we don't have a specific program for Indians, "
she said.
"INDIANS FEEL at home here at the Salvation
Army and seem to come here more readily," said Randy
Streeton, director of the center at 27th and Potter Sts.
"They are really a fine bunch of people."
At a recent Indian dinner at the Salvation Army,
231 Indians were in attendance, he said. The center
has an Indian council that works on Indian problems
and plans their programs. 'I don't feel it is my place
to tell them what to do. We have to let them depend
on themselves and sooner or later they will do what
needs to be done." He feels that if whites keep doing
w
for the Indians, the Indians will continue to b too
dependent on whites. . 1.
The reservations were a mistake because Indians
did what the white man told them, Streeton said. You
never see a militant Indian, because here again JPhites
have told them not to be militant but they are
just as bad off as the Negroes."
IN ADDITION to government training programs,
someway is needed to encourage young Indians to stay
in school, Streeton said. Whites need to take more in
terest in the young people because a larger proportion
of Indians drop out of school or end up in reformatories
and penitentiaries.
"I think we can give people all the money in the
world, but it will only be a temporary release," Streeton
said. "As a final solution people must love people and
stop looking at their color, but I don't know how to
make people really love other people."
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What to do on the reservation . . . basketball among the rubbish and car shells.
Requiem for Brown Wolf
Brown Wolf, look down and see your little nephew now
aena your spirit to near me speak now:
I ride alone where once you rode beside me
Up, at break of day you called out for me
"Saddle up, Little One, and let's be gone"
I followed your footsteps and quietly it was done.
Felt dawn, saw sun rise in the land of Wanblee
The spirit and animal world seemed our own domain
Across the wide prairies and over rolling hills
Down through Buffalo trails over warrior paths of
long ago
Through winding canyons and along the Badlands walls
When the grass was green and covered with dew
When autumn leaves were falling red and gold.
Heard the mournful wail of coyotes, the sweet ring
of meadowlarks
The silence and solitude of a land of reverence
Saw cathedral-like spires along Badland walls.
With a war cry, we gave chase to wild mustangs
Ate wild berries and honey in a sacrament to our
Creator
Drank from springs of living waters from the bosom
of Mother Earth
Saw the splendors of western sunsets with their flaming
rays.
Then homeward our ponies turned when shadows stole
across the land
Back to the glow of camp fires when day was done
To hear stories from the Ancient ones of long, long
ago
To learn wisdom of the gray ones and grow In humble
stature.
To be within sacred hoop in the land of the Lakotas.
This is the wondrous life that beckons to me
These memories I cherish all my days.
But Wakan Tanka beckoned to you, and you left me
behind
You took the spirit trail across the milky way
To eternal northern camp fires in a wondrous land
far away.
These thoughts bring tears and tender memories to
me
Your Indian songs and war cries It seems I hear
them still
My tears fall softly in sorrow my heart is still
In loneliness, Leksi, I wait and pray.
Brown Wolf, listen and hear me
Come near and see my sorrow
Tell our great Tunkashila
That I'm your little nephew.
Tell him you'll meet me among the angels
And ride the heavenly trails with me forevermore.
Leo Wilcox
Pine Ridge, S.I).
Ogulala Sioux Tribe
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you let mature
take sts course
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you ma
You were supposed to cram for
calculus tonight, but somehow 35-24-35
looked more appealing than the
derivative of x
And now It's 1 a.m. And nature can
play some pretty mean tricks on a guy
at 1 a.m.
Relax, take a couple of NoDoz
and stop relaxing.
NoDoz has the strongest stimulant
you can buy without a prescription.
And it's not habit forming.
NoDoz will hnlpyou resist
nature, at loast until the next f ,
time a cold hard fact loses r - y
out to a soft warm one. tewf
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