Before completing this blog post ASSIGNMENT, read the transcript excerpt from the Tribal Nations Conference that President Obama held on November 5, 2009. Using the information from the learning stations and the Obama transcript, what issues or policies does this have you thinking about? In a comment on this blog post, generate ideas and resources for your letter and to help support your classmates with their letters.Also, if you'd rather watch the video of the Tribal Nations Conference, you can do that here. It's the whole thing, while the transcript we gave you is a reduced version.
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ReplyDeleteIn his speech Obama makes it clear that he is going to try to help out/ further the Indian reservations. Like Ryan says, he wants to not just "fix" the reservations, but help them grow and give them the right tools and help they need to be able to fix themselves. Obama is trying potentially trying to do what the other presidents have been saying for years; make the reservations a better place- less poverty, higher education, more jobs etc.
ReplyDeleteIn this speech, Obama states that over 80% of the Indian population are unemployed. We can relate back to this through the walk-through that we did today. From this walkthrough, I learned that there are a lot of Indians that are living in poverty (most of them) and a massive chunk of them, unemployed. He also states in his speech that he has appointed a couple leaders from different Indian tribes, to help out the other tribes come out of poverty, extend the Health care benefits to them, and try and help them move "up" in the world. To do this, he has laid out many plans to help their economic problems, their health problems, their job problems, and most importantly, their food problems and education problems.
ReplyDeleteIn the questions presented by many of the Indians, they talked about how many of the tribes were dealing with issues regarding the misuse of their resources, and exploitation of their land. Today in the walk-through, my group learned about how Indians had supposedly earned the right to control what goes on in their lands, but they are still struggling to do so.
ReplyDeleteIn Obama’s speech he plans to outdo all the previous presidents and follow through with extending a helping hand to Native Americans. Improving poverty and overall life styles on reservations is a portion of Obama’s intentions. He also wants to provide Heath care benefits, better educations and jobs.
ReplyDeleteAn idea I have for my letter is to write to the president and tell him that essentially I agree with these ideas and I hope he is able to follow through with them- Resulting in an overall better life for Native Americans.
Like what Garrett said, some of the reservations have 80% unemployment rates. This surprised me greatly because from the walkthrough today, I read that the it was around 23%. Considering those articles were around 1997 or so, that is a massive unemployment increase. From the text, Obama appeared rather driven to address these tribal problems. His funding to bolster Indian education by $170 million and school construction by $277 million is evidence of this. Also, his work with Secretary Salazar to make it easier for Native Americans to connect to the transmission grid is notable. Maybe in the near future, electricity would be so difficult to obtain for tribes any longer. And finally, as Ryan said, Obama did not really answer questions during the Q&A. Because they did not even ask him direct questions and simply asked him to come out and see, it appears that the tribes strongly believe in him. Already, it is a large step for Obama to keep his promise to see the tribes within his first year of administration.
ReplyDeleteI think the government should be giving more funding twoards the reservations so that they can make more jobs. Some of the reservations are up to 80% unemployment and if they give the reservations more money then they can make jobs and that will give people jobs. The reason why the rates of unemployment are so high is because the reservation has no money to fund jobs and to give money to people to start buisness's. Also they need to give them money so that they can keep all of the electricity on because over 14% of people dont have it. They should give the reservations money just to pay for all of the electricitie bills for everyone because if 80% of people are unemployed they cannot pay for that so they spend what they have on food and on basic necessities. I hope that he keeps his promises and helps out reservations all across America.
ReplyDeleteIn my letter I want to talk about how i support the changes the goverment wants to make for the Native Americans, and that I also support how they are listening to the voices of the tribes to know what they also see to be improved on. As Obama said, "Tribal nations do better when they make their own decisions". So when tribe nations make desions on what they want to be improved the goverment can help them out. One thing i think the goverment needs to improve on in helping the tribes get better land. In the video we watched in class, "30 Days", the video told us about the biggest reservation in America and how most of the land is like desert land. Dry, sandy, and ruff. These kinds of land are not sutiable to grow food, and for some farmers not a great place to help them make profit. In other places in the country such as Alaska, many of the villages are ready "to slide off into -- into the waters of Alaska." This must be a scary fact for them to think that one day due to the cause of golbal warming, that their house could be flooded of freezing cold Pasific water. In another part of the country, the Quapaw tribe has "72 million tons of mining waste", on their lands.
ReplyDeleteIf we were able to provide better lands for the Native Americans or educate them on how to use their waste properly, then that could lead them into having a better lifestyle. It could help lead them into the pursuit of happiness which is the orignal American dream, and i feel that orignal dream should be an oportinity for the orginal people of America to.
I really liked how President Barack Obama associated the most common problems with the treatment of Native Americans. He discussed the extremely low employment rate, which is up to 80% on some reservations. He also discussed the Health Care benefits he plans to provide. Like Christian said, Obama plans to better the schooling system; education by $170 million and school construction by $277 million. Something I noticed in the speech was that Obama promised this speech wasn't one just to quiet the Indians and their complaints, but that he knows how it feels to be "on the outside looking in" and wishes to work diligently to fix the poverty the Indians face.
ReplyDeleteA few things in the speach that caught my eye were the percentages. Obama said that the reservations face unimployement rates of up to 80%. Also more than 14% of the reservation homes do not have electricity and 12% of the homes do not have access to safe water. This reallysticks out to me because today we can not live without the internet or our cell phones and these people do not even have eletricity or running water.
ReplyDeleteIn Obama's speech he talks about how he wants to help the Native Americans, but I couldn't find anything that said he'd work on fixing the water situation. The fact that some Native Americans don't even have water is crazy to me. So, I want to write about it. In the movie 30 days it showed people having to drive to the nearest well every two days so they could have water. I don't think it's fair that I can just walk two feet and turn on my sink or my shower, but Native Americans can't always do that.
ReplyDeleteIn the speech, Obama says that he will make a promise and accomplish it, while other presidents made promises and did not accomplish them. In my letter, I think I might want to talk about the education of the Native American children who don't have an education because there is alcohol involved and they just drop out or I might want to talk about how the Native Americans deserve land because aren't they apart of our country? Didn't the citizens act tell us that? I have not really decided yet on a definite topic, those are just my idea.
ReplyDeleteIn the speech Obama took notice to talk about land rights for Native Americans, along with education, healthcare and criminal justice. He said, "There was too little consultation between governments", and that was the main reason for the conference to take place. Obama also gave the Native Americans a right to have a say when important decisions were made about their nations and people. I think that this was a good step for the Indians to have a voice in Indian affairs, and I think the other good thing about this was the fact that he appointed members of Native American tribes to act in the different departments. One guest at the conference said, "There's so much potential for economic development, we ask that the federal government become a partner in that journey." I think that this is a good idea to say, because the Native American nations do deserve to have a shot at economic success, and they have the potential because the people who live on the reservations want to have as good a chance as anyone and provide for their families while working a rewarding job. This also gives me an idea about what I'm going to write in my letter. I think that I would like to include the economic potential that everyone on a reservation has and that they deserve to have a shot at successfully providing for their families.
ReplyDeletealong with a lot of people who commented, i agree with them when they mention the unemployment issue. i feel like that's such an issue because without jobs, there is really nothing in life that can be accomplished. because jobs result in money, it is crutial to an american to have one. and in the indians situation, they don't. the other issues i really find disturbing is simple thing such as running water. i never really think twice about it, when i go to my sink and grab a glass of water. it really makes me sad to think that most people can't even do that. life in america isn't destined to be the way that it is for some people, and i really feel like those are some of the main ideas im going to address in my letter.
ReplyDeleteIn this speech Obama addresses many of the issues that are currently happening on many Indian reservations. Some of these problems include eighty percent unemployment rate, twenty-five percent of Indians living in poverty, fourteen percent of homes living without electricity, and twelve percent without access to safe water. All of these problems are being addressed by the United States federal government. Our government has to go in, and pump money into these reservations to try and create better conditions. I'm not trying to say their situation isn't bad or that we shouldn't feel for them but right now they need to decide what they want for their tribes. I hear constantly from all the sources we've seen and the Tribal Meeting transcript that they want to be their own people, but then they want the U.S. to help them with all their problems. I found a perfect quote to demonstrate this when Teresa Tibulz of the Sioux tribe says "Honor the treaties...work with us to exercise our sovereignty, our self determination. And the second issue is our children...we ask that you help us ensure a better education, a better life, well-being four our children..." The definition of sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. So if you think about that quote this president is saying that the tribe wants complete control of their land, but they also don't want the U.S. to stop pumping support into their tribe. I'm saying that before we can support them in anyway, either treating them as a 3rd world country who we can use for natural energy, supplying them with jobs and money to support them, or as part of our country where we would supply them with all their basic needs. They can't walk the line where they want the best of both situations, they have to decide before we make our decision on how to support them.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I really liked how President Obama said that, while he has his current position, "you [the Native Americans] will not be forgotten." Also, I think it's good that rather than just giving them everything they need, Obama is giving them the oppertunity to change things in the way that they want. For example, he said he wants the first Americans to get more job oppertunities, giving them proper funds, and helping them in desperate things such as health care (gave 500 million dollars to Indian Health Services). He also takes a big interest in the Indian education system. He says that with a better education system, the dropout rate will be dramatically decreased. With these concerns, he gave 170 million dollars to Indian education, and 277 million to Indian school construction. I completely agree with what he is doing, and I believe this compassion toward the Native Americans is long overdue, and very well-earned.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama’s speech brought issues of the Indian people alive that were unknown to me, and also expanded on them. He spoke of the issues with unemployment, which some reservations face rates of up to 80%; the issue of poverty, and the fact that roughly a quarter of Indian people are experiencing it; healthcare, which many Indians do not even have access to. Also, violence, alcoholism, education, healthcare, land issues, and rape. Something that really stuck out to me was that violent crime is more then 20 times the national average, and that 1 in 3 Indian women will get raped within in their lifetime. It is terrible to think that the Indian people remain in reservations these days to preserve their culture, and pass on their beliefs from generation to generation, but really these places are filled with evils that disable the Indian people from practicing these beliefs. Culture is the basis of the Indian people, and a large portion of the culture is sewn together by hope. I think that something has to be done to help these people get their hope back, and that with that problems will slowly diminish, and their cultural roots will slowly climb up to what they used to be.
ReplyDeleteObama is his speech had made some important points about the Native Americans. He has said that treaties were broken and so were promises. He is concerned about the living conditions of the Native Americans. He wants to fix the problems and keep the promises he had made in his running for president. When he talked about how he wanted to help healthcare because many of the Native Americans are dying of diseases at higher rates then the rest of the United States population. 5 hundred million dollars is put into the recovery act to the IHS. Another topic he had focused on the most was the education of children. He is providing a bunch of money to making the schools better and helping education for the years to come.
ReplyDeleteWhen Obama had talked about these important topics it had strong my attention on what I would like to do on my letter. On my letter I’m leaning towards talking about the healthcare problem that the Native Americans are having. I find this important to the United States because the more deaths on the reservations the more the culture will actually die out if we don’t do something about the native America healthcare. It’s very important and needs to be looked at more just as Obama had said.
I was aware of most of the problems that the indians have that Obama mentioned in his speech, but one thing that I found to be unbelievable was the whole rape thing and not to mention the crime rate. Those facts really stood out because they are on the reservation to be with their own people and to feel safe, even among their own people they cant feel safe or secure, thats the least they could have, should have is a feeling of security. Also every person iving in america should have running water and electricity I would think because those are basic needs of everyone, it is sad how much poverty could exist just in one reservation. All I know is that these needs, need to be met soon so the Indian people can get on with their lives and perserving their culture to the best of their abilities.
ReplyDeleteOne of the major issues that most Indians have that Obama mentioned in his speech is their economy. In his speech he stated that "a quarter of all Native Americans live in poverty." This shows how unemployment has a lasting effect on the reservations, especially when most reservations face unemployment rates up to 80%. This really stood out to me because in the United States (not in reservations) there are many different employment opportunities for almost anyone, but on the reservation there are very few and even outside of the reservation it is extremely hard for the Native Americans to find a job to support their families.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that really stood out to me was that "1 in 3 Native American women will be raped in their lifetimes..." The fact that the government is just now realizing that they have to do something about it and how it is "an assault on our national conscience that we can no longer ignore" shows that the Native American tribes aren't really given much attention. To have violent crimes on reservations be 20 times the national average, that clearly shows that something needs to be done to change that and fast. Not only did the crime rate surprise me, but also the rate for suicide. In Obama's conference, Bill Martin informed the president that suicide in Alaska is a very high rate. He said that "for all of Alaska, is twice the national average. For Natives it's five times the average, and for young men between 15 and 27, it's 12 times the national average." This actually made me disappointed in our country because we definitely could be doing something/could have already done something to prevent this from happening and reaching such high suicide rates.
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ReplyDeleteI think this is a very important speech made by President Obama. He really supports the native Americans and has a sense on how they feel because he grew up in poverty in Chicago. It's very clear he is determined to get the Native Americans back on track, get the reservations back on track. He explains how they have an 80% Unemployment rate, and some families live with 20 people just to support them. He really wants to fix those numbers and create a greater environment for the Native Americans.
ReplyDeleteWhat i found very intersting in his speech was how he was addressing the Native Americans. For example he says "Your reservations". I think that makes the Native Americans feel more welcome in our society. Also i noticed he called out the US government on policies that are not working for the Native Americans. I think this is good because the government should be aware of their faults, and what is and isn't working.
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ReplyDeleteObama's speech showed his loyalty to the Native Americans and his dedication to improving their life. He recognized the history between the Native Americans and the white people in which "treaties were violated [and] promises were broken." Later on in his speech he states that he understands the struggles of being an outsider in America and as long as he is president the Native Americans will not be forgotten. He has appointed Kimberly Teehee and Jodi Gillette, two Native Americans, to work in the goverment directly for the Native Americans. Obama is hosting the confrence where he is given the speech since he realizes that "Washington can't and shouldn't dictate a policy agenda for Indian country." A large amount of money has been put into the Recovery Act to help with schooling, jobs, health care, and more. One goal is to "make quality insurance to all Americans who don't have coverage... [including] our first Americans." This will benefit the Native Americans with their poor conditions of health.
ReplyDeleteAlong with problems in health there are also problems in education and safety. The Recovery Act has already given $170 million for Indian education and $277 million for the construction of schools. It has been shown that when Indians grow up and are raised through their own schooling they are more succesful. Out of three Indian women, one is raped during their life in an assault. To help with this tribes will be provided with better law enforcement capability through training. The Indians have gone through so many struggles, but Obama is trying to solve these problems.
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ReplyDeleteIn Obama's speech he makes it obvious that there are some problems in the Indian community. Some is even an understatement. The Indians faced a lot of hardship in previous years. Obama delivered a breath-taking, connecting speech. He is trying to connect the people and create the need to help the indians. What made me think yesterday and today was the lack of education in the reservations.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the transcript, my thoughts were similar to Jess's. I already know that running water is an ongoing issue with the Native American community, so when I read the transcript I was surprised and disappointed that Obama had little to offer about this matter. In the transcript, Obama does addresses that twelve percent of reservations have no water, but later he does not propose any real solution. I think that possibly this is because the other issues, such as unemployment influence 80 percent of Native Americans, so maybe he finds water is less of a priority. I wish to write about running water on reservations for that reason; to prove to Obama that it should not be overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of writing my paper on the issue of the Indians being in extreme poverty and not having access to running water or electricity, these are the most basic needs that everyone should have including the Indians.
ReplyDeleteIn president Obama's speech he relates a lot of it twords insubstatial funding twords Native Americans weather it be in Health care, creating Jobs for the unemployed, or restoring what the Natives believe is still thier rightful land. In his new budget for the funsing of Natives he states that he will help all Native tribes in thier efforts to make thier own reservation a better and easier place to have a life. finally in his Q and A with the tribesmen he is not directly asked to answer questions he is more asked to go out to the reservations and see for himself what is the problems that are so wide spread. this all goes back to other presidents in past years making promises they can't keep and the Natives want him to see why they need his help so desperately.
ReplyDeleteI plan on writing about the Native American's severe underfunding of their Health Care with this they lack proper medical care and many are starting to become more desperate in finding cheap health care but the lack of that causes the Natives to just not go for their checkups that most Americans take for granted. thus causing many important infections going unnoticed until its to late to reverse the effect of the disease.
I am thinking about writing my letter on poverty, and how it can lead to many situations such as suicide and increased crime rates. Also, how the native americans reached such a low status; being the economically poorest group in america.
ReplyDeleteObama's speech talks a lot about helping to get the Native American reservations up and going again. He wants to not only donate money, but give them guidance so the people on the reservations can live good lives. Also, its gets into depth about certain things that the Native Americans should be provided with, such as running water/electricity. A place to live wouldn't be bad either. Obama's speech also talked about keeping some of the Indian culture alive. They were the first type of people here and the president feels it necessary for them to keep at least some parts of the tradition alive.
ReplyDeleteFor my letter to President Obama, I am leaning towards writing to him on the issue of no jobs for native americans on reservations. More than half of the people on reservations dont have jobs. This lack of jobs leads to lack of money to be used for every day living, such as water, food, gas, etc. This issue is really important and is connected to other aspects of Indian life both directly and indirectly, therefor makes for a great topic to write to Mr. Obama about.
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ReplyDeleteI think I am going to write about education and how the Native Americans should reclaim their language and how low their percentages of kids who are dropping out because alcohol is involved in their lives.
ReplyDeleteFor my letter I will write about a possible tax break to businesses that hire Native Americans. Obama has already given tax breaks to mainstream Americans that give tax breaks to people who have been out of unemployment for so long. So why not offer tax breaks in order to increase jobs for Native Americans?
ReplyDeleteFor my letter I will write about the creation of jobs on reservations and how that will help there community begin in the right direction. With creating jobs it will bring money to the reservations and bring in money to family's and also give businesses wealth and will open the opportunity for more small businesses to come in and prosper. this is hard though with no running water and no money in the first place for people to go and spend money at these small businesses.
ReplyDeleteIn my letter to President Obama i want to talk about the health of the Indians living on reservations. I want to examine the bennefits Native Americans recieve in their Indian Health Services, and talk about how many kinds of illnesess are causing Native Americans to die at higher rates than the rest of the US Population. One point i really plan on bringing up in my letter is the alchohol problem on reservations and how the native americans should be given help for their problems.
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ReplyDeleteLike what Garrett said, some of the reservations have 80% unemployment rates. This surprised me greatly because from the walkthrough today, I read that the it was around 23%. Considering those articles were around 1997 or so, that is a massive unemployment increase. From the text, Obama appeared rather driven to address these tribal problems. His funding to bolster Indian education by $170 million and school construction by $277 million is evidence of this. Also, his work with Secretary Salazar to make it easier for Native Americans to connect to the transmission grid is notable. Maybe in the near future, electricity would not be so difficult to obtain for tribes any longer. And finally, as Ryan said, Obama did not really answer questions during the Q&A. Because they did not even ask him direct questions and simply asked him to come out and see, it appears that the tribes strongly believe in him. Already, it is a large step for Obama to keep his promise to see the tribes within his first year of administration.
ReplyDeleteI think that, after reading about Obama's speech, the focus of my letter will be about the encouragement of reservation land expansion. The Fort Berthold Reservation is one million acres large. However, on the other end of the scale the Hoh Tribe's reservation is about 905 acres large. I understand that allotment of land can be difficult but they should at least bring the lower end of the scale closer. Maybe Obama can expand the smaller reservations by taking some land from national parks. This is similar to the Hoh Tribe situation, however on a slightly larger scale.
I think that I want to write on unemployment. Over 80% of people on reservations are unemployed and I want to know what type of jobs that the government or people on the reservation make. What type of opportunities are given to make jobs or to get one? Did he give them money from the huge stimulus package he signed earlier this year? If so what type of jobs would be made or what job opportunities would be made? A lot of people have no money at all because they do not have jobs so therefore they are poor.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama's speech was good to hear that the Native American's do have some support from our government. I liked how Obama said that "You are not forgotten." and how he can relate to the Native Americans how he grew up, being an outsider working his way in. The stats that shocked me was the 80% unemployment rate of Native Americans and how a quarter of them are living in poverty. I am amazed on how bad their economic situation is, and how they are lacking all the necessities on their Reservations that most Americans live with today.
ReplyDeleteI believe thats what I am going to lean toward in my letter, I think that the economic situation for the Natives is a shame, 14% of them don't have electricity, 12% don't have access to a safe water supply. I think that all the money that they are spending on education for the Natives, giving them hundreds of millions of dollars to improve education could be used to going towards ways to improve their living conditions and building business's to getting people jobs, and jump-starting their economic crisis.
The letter that I am going to write is going to be based upon the water rights of Native Americans. I will elaborate on the importance of the water and attempt to answer the question "who owns the water, is it the Native Americans, the state, the federal government?" I will ask Obama to propose legislation clearing up the water issue and and allowing Native Americans to have access to the water.
ReplyDeleteIn my letter I will propose that President Obama should inform both Congress and the people of the United States what is going on with regards to the Native American's current problems. I think that by giving the public more knowledge of the issues that Native American's face everyday more people will begin to step up. I will look up examples of past speeches that inspired people and set a chain reaction making the people solve problems.
ReplyDeleteI think i'm going to do the water and electricity deficiancy. we all take having running water for granted. at least i do.i take electricity for granted even though i know i could live without it. the natives for teh most part don't have running water or electricity.
ReplyDeleteI plan on writing about how the U.S. Government is supposed to support the Native American Tribes with basic necessities, but fails to do so.
ReplyDeleteFor my letter, I plan on writing about Federally recognized tribes, what land rights/trusts they have obtained, how much it cost for this, and any law suits that were made. But, I will also look at some that have been recognized, but have not gained their land (both aboriginal, and what they need). I will also talk about some tribes not recognized, and I will talk about some acts that are involved in this (Indian Reorganization act of 1934). Basically, I will talk about what should, and should not be granted and argue towards that.
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