WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH OUR GOVERNMENT….WHERE ARE VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS, WHERE ARE THE TEACHERS TO START THEM ON A NEW PATH FOR THE FUTURE….NO ONE IN OUR RICH AND WONDERFUL COUNTRY SHOULD GO TO BED HUNGRY, COLD AND WITH LITTLE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE…..THE CHILDREN SHOWN ON THE PROGRAM ARE THE BEGINNING OF BETTER THINGS TO COME…..LETS ENCOURAGE OUR GOVERNMENT AND VOLUNTEERS WITH SKILLS TO GO THERE AND TRY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE…IT IS EASY TO GIVE SOME ONE FOOD, BUT MUCH WISER TO TEACH THEM HOW TO GROW THEIR OWN…THESE PEOPLE ARE PROUD OF THEIR HERITAGE, AND I FIND THEM TO BE GENTLE AND KIND….ALL THEY NEED IS THE SAME OPPORTUNITIES THAT MANY, MANY OTHER PEOPLE ARE GIVEN.

But I also learned there is often just as much corruption (and nepotism) within the Tribal governments as there is within the federal government. When my friend told me he’d given up, he meant he’d lost hope that any agency would take care of them & make things better. “Walk in Beauty” to him had become “Walk Without Hope.” There was also a huge dichotomy on the Navajo rez between holding the land sacred & using it as a dumping ground. I can’t tell you how much broken glass (usually liquor bottles) I picked up or how many times we found old appliances & furniture, once even a mobile home, abandoned out in the beautiful woods. Another Navajo friend, Darryl, told me he didn’t realize that kind of dumping was wrong until he was in his teens.

I believe the thinking should shift from “who can we blame” to “who will take responsibility.” Although it is up to each individual to take responsibility for their own life, the children need healthy guidance & role models. They need to know that violence, gang life or suicide is not the answer. I applaud those Native Americans who take in all of those children and try to do just that, or who find the courage to leave the rez for a time to get a higher education to bring back to the rez, or who want to carry on cultural traditions even amid a fast-changing, ever-encroaching world. That is proof that not everyone gives up or gives in to alcohol, and that, yes, the warrior spirit is still very much alive.

There is so much more to this story, as on all reservations, & I would love to see ABC News investigate why the BIA, the BIE, & IHS aren’t doing more for the Native Americans as they are supposed to be (the school s, housing, health care, food, business opportunities). Someone needs to hold those agencies, as well as the Tribal governments who are failing their own people, accountable. I would also love to see you do a piece on the Native American firefighters, some who have done it for decades. That firefighting work is often the only work some of those folks get all year. And as for those college graduates you also featured recently who have a lot of student loan debt? The feds will forgive some of that if you go to the rez & work at the schools or the hospitals. If the feds expanded that program to include other career paths, perhaps both the Native Americans & those debt-burdened college grads could benefit. Just saying…