>I'm sure to get slammed for this comment, but once again I am speaking from firsthand knowledge. I have some relatives who live on the reservation and they receive free housing and a new pickup truck every year like clockwork. There is absolutely no incentive to take care of anything because it is replenished every year. They shoot their windows out and put cardboard over them until the government replaces them. Most of my relatives will not return to the reservation because it is considered to be lazy and 'good for nothing' to live there instead of 'working for a living.' There is very little cultural practice there these days. Elders still work at teaching the young the original practices and beliefs but it is mostly just small groups attending weekly classes and not actually practiced. Some still are but it is the minority - like the wild rice harvesting in northern Wisconsin. The rest of the world seems to think they should be given more restitution though. I won't even
>visit anymore and I'll never take my daughter there.
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Well, I won't slam you. I've got a cousin who is a missionary in Arizona and she and her husband say they wonder if the culture can ever be productive. Giving people something forever, regardless of whether they are productive or not, is not a good idea. Too many people think we owe the indians everything because they were here first. As I study history, there are many instances of people who were displaced by a stronger group and I don't hear any whining about that. The group that "owns" a country is the group that can hold and defend it.