Stossel: No Group Has Had More Gov't Help Than American Indians

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Here's the interesting thing about Alaska, drunkenness, debauchery, shiftlessness and government dependency are not limited to Natives. I saw plenty of bad behavior up there. In Juneau, the shelter for battered women is huge, and a lot of fishermen receive welfare off season. I knew more people there that were ex cons than I've met anywhere else. Incest is rampant, trailer park culture the norm.

But, that's not just the Natives.

I remember Bristol Bay well. A lot of licensing fraud there.

Ok, you did live up here. That post pretty much proved it. But things have changed up here...Anchorage is getting more like Seattle...barf, and there's not so much fighting, knifing, and shooting as there used to be. And that DV/battered chicks thing is way over rated. A guy up here can get a DV just for looking at his ol lady in the wrong manor...if she deems it was wrong.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Alaska Natives aren't the only Native Americans and it sounds like you're more than a bit prejudiced. You do understand the history, why so many behave in a manner you despise? Or are you completely ignorant of the full story? Don't care?

I was raised next to two Indian reservations (Muckleshoot and Puyallup) and I did read the book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and I know the Indians got totally hosed by the white man. I'm not denying that. What does p8ss me off is when they take the Fed money and then rub our face in it like they do here in Alaska. I can't say much about anywhere else, but I do know the score here in Alaska and down in Washington state.

[^_^ 5,021]

A guy up here can get a DV just for looking at his ol lady in the wrong manor...

Hey, if you're not supposed to be in that manor, then you sure as hell shouldn't be looking at her in it. You could at least hide. Or go back to your own manor.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I don't think the aboriginals do as well in other parts of the country. Life in Nevada seems to suck for them. Of course, they can work the mines, or the casinos, and there is always the brothels.

It sucks for them because they depended on the government.

Edited March 25, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Actually, you're wrong there Why_Me, California has the largest native American population. That still doesn't diminish the fact that Alaska receives the most government assistance. You can blame that on the natives all you want, but we both know it's not true.

Why_me is referring to "per capita" and "real" Indians. Not Hollywood Indians. Most of which are far from being "native" they are simply people from other places that got here before Europeans.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Hey, if you're not supposed to be in that manor, then you sure as hell shouldn't be looking at her in it. You could at least hide. Or go back to your own manor.

Exactly...because we both know a woman would never lie to the cops.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Last week a lady hit my car in the supermarket parking lot. I wanted to exchange insurance information with her, but she refused. I said, "you did the damage to my car, don't you think you should be responsible for making it right?" She replied, "certainly not. If I hadn't hit your car, somebody else eventually would have. So you're just trying to hold me responsible for doing something that would have happened anyway."

Okay, that didn't really happen. But it's a good story, no?

no

[^_^ 5,021]

A guy up here can get a DV just for looking at his ol lady in the wrong manor...

Hey, if you're not supposed to be in that manor, then you sure as hell shouldn't be looking at her in it. You could at least hide. Or go back to your own manor.

Exactly...because we both know a woman would never lie to the cops.

Exactly?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Anchorage was becoming more like Seattle since the 80s. I don't doubt that things have changed crime-wise. The criminals were seriously stupid. I remember going to court for a burglary case where the defendant showed up wearing the victim's shoes. Another time, a dope called a cab to get away after robbing a bank.

A moose showed up in Juneau once. It made front page news coz there are no moose in Juneau. The headline asked please that no one shoot this visiting moose. It was never seen again. I suspect poaching.

Alaska is breathtakingly beautiful, but the folks are very odd. I sure miss fishing after work, though.

Ok, you did live up here. That post pretty much proved it. But things have changed up here...Anchorage is getting more like Seattle...barf, and there's not so much fighting, knifing, and shooting as there used to be. And that DV/battered chicks thing is way over rated. A guy up here can get a DV just for looking at his ol lady in the wrong manor...if she deems it was wrong.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I was raised next to two Indian reservations (Muckleshoot and Puyallup) and I did read the book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and I know the Indians got totally hosed by the white man. I'm not denying that. What does p8ss me off is when they take the Fed money and then rub our face in it like they do here in Alaska. I can't say much about anywhere else, but I do know the score here in Alaska and down in Washington state.

You understand how large the Puyallup Reservation was when it was set up and since you lived there you also know it is now a postage stamp right?

Every piece, virtually, of real estate in the US no longer in the hands of the Tribes owes it's title to the treaties. Abused or not, the funds Natives receive are a drop in the bucket compared to the value of what was lost.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

You understand how large the Puyallup Reservation was when it was set up and since you lived there you also know it is now a postage stamp right?

Every piece, virtually, of real estate in the US no longer in the hands of the Tribes owes it's title to the treaties. Abused or not, the funds Natives receive are a drop in the bucket compared to the value of what was lost.

And so? we should now punish them further by making them dependent on the federal government?

Here is an interesting note for you. what was the very first government subsidy of a business? Buffalo hunting! Why? When prices for skins were high the business attracted hunters who killed millions of buffalo, the main food source for the troublesome plains Indians. They were also killing antelope by the millions but they get little ink. As the railroads expanded it brought hunters deeper into the Indian territory and they killed more buffalo. Finally the bottom falls out of the market and no one wants to hunt buffalo.

General Phil Sheridan, charged with controlling the Indians went to President Grant and told him that the buffalo hunters were doing far more than the army to control the Indians and they needed to get them "back to work". Thje government arrived at the brilliant idea, still in use to control people they want to control, that if you can be the source of their food, they will live where they get food. The government subsidized the value of buffalo skins, the hunters came back, the government bought the skins and burned them in huge piles at collection points all over the west. The Indians lost their food source and had to submit to living on reservations. It was NOT the repeating rifle that tamed the Indians (the army didn't even have repeating rifles until 1892)it was something mre basic than that. Food and housing. Still the perfect formula for control.

The government "giving" things to people is nothing but a calculated and "humane" way to control their lives and take what is left from them.

[rika60607 215]

Agreed! Now only if the Indians could take back from the government what was theirs

Mmmm.... Indians on horseback with rifles, taking hostages and returning them in exchange for increasing the borders of each reservation... Ah heck, just demand Vermont from the government and create a single sovereign territory. If their demands are not met, they are returning hostages heads by thousands. Woohoo! That would be some event.

Seriously now. Not depending on government is great. But how do you suggest a nation take from US government instead of being "given", when such nation is diluted, outnumbered and all resources are already taken away? They are at the mercy, they are a minority both in number and in wealth. It is not possible to go back in time.

The government "giving" things to people is nothing but a calculated and "humane" way to control their lives and take what is left from them.

Edited March 25, 2011 by rika60607

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

We could give the Indians California.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

We could give the Indians California.

We would have to take it back from the Mexicans first.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

You guys are pretty silly. By your definition every time a product is purchased it is a 'giveaway' from the customer to subsidize the business.

Yes Gary I am very familiar with the buffalo history.

Alcohol bans to Indians, then use of alcohol to gain property and resources. The history is ugly. The treaties however are why goverment expenditures are NOT handouts.