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Story by Lee Rood
Photos by Butch Ireland
Indian leaders face challenges to better life on reservations
Just outside of Center, Ncbr., Highway 13
heading north toward South Dakota ends
and curves west. The smooth, flat high
way continues north until it changes into a worn
stretch of road winding around hills that seem
to appear from nowhere.
There are no signs telling drivers that they
arc approaching the Santee Sioux Indian reser
vation, only subtle hints.
Government upkeep of the road seems to
stop at Indian territory. Businesses arc few,
compared to surrounding areas. Freshly
painted houses, new buildings and streets mix
with other run-down buildings and dilapidated
areas.
The tribal headquarters and school arc busy
with activity, but the streets arc empty and
quiet.
The reservation is not like the surrounding
rural communities, where homes, people
and their way of life seem to blend. The
reservation sends a message of conflict.
A minority of active, new tribal leaders, who
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lion Aclof 1968, public law 93-638, has given
Indian people on reservations “control of their
own fate,” said Stephen Provost, administra
tive assistant of the Nebraska Indian Commis
sion.
Provost said PL 93-638 provided tribes with
the ability to contract and use federal monies
directly instead of having to go through the
government.
Despite these advantages, economic and
social changes are hindered by the inescapable
roadblocks the Indian people face daily.
While each reservation is di fferent, lead
ers say they face similar problems.
Generations of poverty, poor health
care, unemployment, lack of opportunity and
assistance is common on all three reservations.
Individual problems on the reservations are
“chain-linked” to other problems, the leaders
said. To improve all of the problems, they said,
plans need to be developed to encompass all of
the factors involved.
Along with Rick Thomas, administrative
assistant for the Santee Tribe of Nebraska,
Winnebago reservations.
Many people on the reservations drink alco
hol because of the “psychological hangover" of
the past, Blackhawk said.
‘The despair, hopelessness and powcrless
ness," from the way the American Indian has
been treated is a “tribal memory" and many
drink to escape it, Blackhawk said.
Thomas said Indians drink to escape past
oppression.
Problems with “fire water," as it was once
called, have been reported as far back as
1837, Thomas said. And some Indian
families have experienced six to eight genera
tions of abuse.
“They (white people) gave us alcohol, but
they didn’t teach us how to use it," Thomas
said. American Indians have learned to drink
until they gel drunk, he said.
When more people go through alcohol
awareness programs and learn the impacts of
alcoholism on tne other facets of life, then other
problems can be addressed, according to Rich
ard Kilto, a member of the Nebraska Indian
Tribes also face a huge risk when they
attempt to invest in economic development, he
said.
Land is often “checker boarded” or split
between privately owned land and tribal
land. Much of the land owned by individ
ual Indians has been sold or leased to the gov
ernment. Because of this, it is difficult to farm
large areas, Kitto said.
Tribes can’t use tribal assets as collateral
when trying to secure money for development
and because most Indians do not own their own
land or homes, they have no access to capital or
equity, he said.
Any loans that arc extended to the reserva
tions are usually backed by the federal govern
ment, but when the government pays the bank,
the debt accrues to the tribe, he said.
Every time a plan for economic develop
ment is proposed, the tribe is asked to go into
debt, Tnmble said.
“The tribe will take the hit,” he said.
Tribes need help with the technical and
planning aspects or development, as well as
Upper left: Richard Lincoln,
Winnebago, relaxes against a
wall on main street in Winne
bago. Lower left: A replica of
an Indian head coin stands
posted on a wall in Barry
Blackhawk’s office. Black
hawk is the director of public
relations at the Winnebago
reservation.
Commission.
People need to be able to reduce the level of
drinking and drug abuse on the reservations to
a point where other projects can be successfully
started, he said. At that point, he said, other
economic development programs could be
synchronized with substance abuse programs.
Many people say that without sober people
and leaders, attempts toward growth would be
moot. Others say people need to be given
reasons to stop drinking.
In order to give people a sense of self
worth and incentives to avoid alcohol a
buse, something must be done about
chronic unemployment and lack of economic
opportunity on the reservations, according to
Charles Trimble, former executive director of
the National Congress of American Indians.
“An awful lot of people wouldn’t have to
turn to whatever peace or fantasy they find in
alcohol’’ if they had jobs and if they .. could
break free of the strangle hold of colonial
bureaucracy,” Trimble said
Trimble, who now owns his own developing
business for Indian reservations, said the big
gest economic problem facing the reservations
is growing out of their past dependency on the
federal government.
“People need jobs and want jobs, but the
prolonged stale of dependency has had an
adverse effect,” he said.
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the most serious problems on the reservations
because it is an important factor in determining
the success of the other aspects of life: family,
education, employment and health.
A recent report by the Indian Health Service
shows that 99.9 percent of all American Indians
are affected or effected by substance abuse. A
vast majority of the abuse is alcohol abuse,
Thomas saiu.
“Eighty five percent of youth from 6th
through 12th grades are using or experiencing
substances, primarily alcohol," Thomas said.
Thomas, who was hired bv the Santee
tribal government to deal with substance
abuse in January 1988, said he has devel
oped a comprehensive health curriculum for
the community to deal not only with alcohol
ism, but the factors that drive the people to
drink in the first place.
The curriculum is based on "mcology” —
the study of self, Thomas said, and-provides a
coping mechanism to promote self-esteem and
self-motivation.
Thomas said he has also unified all the
separate entities on the reservation and formed
a Crisis Intervention Task Force to deal with
alcoholism through education, law enforce
ment, social and health services.
Similar alcohol prevention programs arc
being used or formulated on the Omaha and
unanciai assistance, in oraer to avoid economic
failures, he said.
Kitto, who is also executive development
director for the Santee tribe, said people
on reservations face other problems
when trying to build the economy as well.
There are no lending institutions on the
reservations, Kitto said, so much of the money
spenton the reservation doesn’tgo back into the
community.
Most of the grant money for development on
reservations comes from the federal govern
ment, he said.
“Grants are very competitive,” he said. So
many times, smaller tribes, such as the Santee,
don’t have the money to compete with larger or
richer tribes for grant writers, even though their
need might be greater.
“You don’t nave the revenue to find good
wnters to reflect the needs of the community,”
he said.
Onceaplan has been developed, many times
the biggest roadblock facing its implementa
tion is red tape, Kitto said.
“The tribes are developing their own bu
reaucracies from contracts with the Bureau of
Indian Affairs,” Kitto said.
“Whenever a tribe wants to do something, it
has to consult a number of agencies,” he said.
See RESERVATION on 8
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for the future, struggle against a mostly frus
tratcd, sileiu or apathetic majority.
Innovative projects have helped put a "new
face” on the reservation schools and health and
work incentive programs, but financing is
limited and qualified help is sparce.
The Santee reservation is cnanging. So arc
Nebraska’s two other federally recognized
reservations, the Omaha in Macy and its neigh
bor the Winnebago about 2 1/2 hours from
Lincoln.
Leaders say the challenges and problems
facing the communities must be met. Popula
tions on the reservation have been slowly rising
in recent years and new incentives have rc
inspired American Indians to fight for a better
wav of life on the reservations.
The Indian Relocation Act passed during
Dwight Eisenhower’s administration was an
attempt to "mainstream” Indian people, ac
cording to Barry Biackhawk, public relations
director for the Winnebago tribe.
Biackhawk said the act was responsible for
many Indians leaving reservations dur
ing the 50s and 60s until the act was re
pealed. Since then, Biackhawk said, many
American Indians have relumed to their homes
along with others who left seeking job opportu
nities or higher education.
The Self Determination and Indian Eduea
