The Blackfeet Reservation.....

[Wetzelbill]

Not that long ago I was talking to my dad about the financial crisis and a possible depression. He said something to me about how people back home on our reservation almost live in a permanent depression. This video just sent to me reminded me of it. This is what Browning, MT looks like, it's at the heart of the Blackfeet Reservation. -WB

The Blackfeet Reservation set to "Hurt" by Johnny Cash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pba_YSOoIk

[prairierose]

1. Looks very famililar...

very much the same as the reservations here in SD.

[Wetzelbill]

2. yes

Same type of housing, same basic economic and resource situation. Reservations are surprisingly stark.

[jwirr]

3. I have worked on several reservations and it is a common understanding

that while most of America came out of the Great Depressions both reservations and inner cities did not. They were passed by and have lived in poverty ever since or for some of them until coal/oil/casinos made up for it. Hopefully this time will be different.

[Wetzelbill]

13. I think the younger generation of leaders coming up

will make a positive impact and cultivate innovative ideas.

[jwirr]

18. Yes, here we have some really activist members. Interested in keeping

our native plants free of the genetic taints and very politically active for Obama this year and for Kerry last year. Some even have their gardens planted. A good sign.

[sandnsea]

4. Wind Energy

Why in the world is Browning not rich? Somebody needs to get up there and put some windmills in.

[Wetzelbill]

5. leadership issues

Backstabbing and infighting. As long as I remember they've been interested in doing that, they even got some info from Schweitzer on some contacts for it. I also know a company that wants to do that on the reservation, so we'll see if it comes to fruition. :)

[Marrah_G]

6. I'd like to go there some day

When I found my birth family my great grandmother was 103. I did not get to meet her as she died 6 months later. She was a blackfoot Indian. I would have liked to have heard her story.

[Wetzelbill]

14. when I move back

feel free to come visit. You're family, you can stay with me anytime you like.

[Marrah_G]

17. Aww thank you Wetz!

I just may take you up on that. Finding my birth family confirmed so much about myself.

[FirstLight]

7. I have lived right next door, such a different world,

and it was only a block or two then you realized you were in a whole different america.. One of the Washoe reservations is right next to gardnerville NV, the Ranchos is a little suburbia, and then a few blocks past the high school you realize you are heading into a winding road that will spit you out farther down 395... all the houses (if you could call them that), water tanks, abandoned cars, etc reveal a poverty below even "normal" poverty... It looks like a 3rd world country ...
I even was blessed enough to work at one of the valley schools as a teacher aide, 80% of my kids were from the res...some raised by grandparents while mom & dad both worked, or maybe one parent was in jail, alcoholism touches nearly everyone's life, and many grandparents are even working to try and help the family with survival...

[Wetzelbill]

15. it's amazing the difference

I am middle class back home, pretty well off really, my folks have always done ok. But when I moved away and had to pay for college myself etc, I realized how different it was. People are lucky to get by let alone save, and that's the people who are doing well. 30 thousand a year for a family on a reservation is quite well off, not so much everywhere else. You're right, often it looks like a totally different world.

[cilla4progress]

8. Joblessness

I was told today by some tribal members that unemployment is as highs 60-70% on Indian reservations in our country. They kind of roll our eyes when whites complain about double digit unemployment.

[Wetzelbill]

12. in my home county

There are 12000 people and the aggregate yearly income is about 12,000 a year. People on average live off of 1000 a month, and that's with the more wealthy non-reservation town figured in. Most people probably subsist on around 300-500 a month. The ones who have it good work for the tribe, Indian Health, BIA etc. Around 200 people control most of the jobs in govt, though, they create a bit of an oligarchy, which is modest by most standards but on a reservation they are pretty well off.

[cilla4progress]

9. Joblessness

I was told today by some tribal members that unemployment is as highs 60-70% on Indian reservations in our country. They kind of roll their eyes when whites complain about double digit unemployment.

[SharonAnn]

10. I'm not sure that the plural of Blackfoot is Blackfeet. Seriously.

[Wetzelbill]

11. It's not necessarily meant to be plural

It's a band within the Blackfoot Confederacy. Think of it this way, you wouldn't say that you weren't sure if Oglala is the plural of Sioux.

[Roadless]

16. That video could be most towns - my experience with Browning

Those mountains are Glacier National Park. The prairie there is the last place in the lower 48 where the grizzly still wanders onto the flatlands. There is no peer for scenery in the lower 48. That video focuses on ramshackle buildings, not the busy and active main street or the busineses that operate, or the people smiling, or the numerous dogs that roam the streets. It doesn't show the Native American ranchers working their cattle on the lands, or the workers in the woods getting timber for the community.

Sure, the place needs a hand, but it is GORGEOUS country, the air is crisp and clean, the skies sunny and pure, and wildlife is everywhere. I'd much rather live there than a decaying midwest town. Trust me, that's far, far uglier.

No scenery, no wildlife, no wild spaces, no money < no money, scenic beauty, wild spaces and shit kicking ambiance. One place has potential.


When I spent some time in Browning this fall, Obama signs were everywhere.

[ljm2002]

19. No, it doesn't look like "any town"...

...and to minimize the poverty there because the scenery is nice is, to put it simply, ludicrous.

[Roadless]

20. I spend time there every year

And I can tell you right now that the town has more life, spark and potential than many of the decaying midwestern towns I run into. Not to mention the reservation has tremendous value in terms of energy resources, wildlife resources and "draw" resources (tourism).

The broken down midwestern towns I know have *nothing*. No money, no draw, no real energy potential, no protected wildlands to base a tourism economy on. And yes, living in a beautiful area does help. I'd rather be poor on the res in a shack and look at the absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking scenery around the res(Lewis and Clark National Forest, Rocky Moutnain Front, Glacier National Park) than sitting in some shack in a busted midwestern town in a winter inversion staring at a dead strip mall.

Yes, there are issues that need to be resovled and they could use a hand. But as far as my experience, I see much more potential for making the town upright than I do in the towns that people are fleeing from in the overdeveloped and busted midwest.

[ljm2002]

21. I grew up in Montana...

...and go back a few generations there. I have a daughter who lives in the state now. The reservations have always been under-served and have always suffered debilitating poverty. The scenery is great, to be sure; but as my Mom used to put it, You can't eat the bark off the trees.

As for the Midwestern towns, I think that pretty much everywhere has something to commend it, geographically speaking. You just have to look for it. But while many of these towns are indeed suffering poverty and blight, the reservations have an especially long history of dire poverty and subsistence. And by the way, I don't know what time of year you typically visit Browning, but try it in the winter -- I'm sure it will rival any of those Midwestern "winter inversions" for grimness.

Anyway -- it seems pointless to try and pit one against the other. All I was trying to say is, while the scenery is great, the facts are still pretty bleak, and the poverty is pretty entrenched. In saying this I am not trying to take away from the positive things or the people who live there. There are many places where poverty is entrenched and you can find beauty there as well. One of my favorite artists lives in West Oakland and paints the people and subjects he finds there. It is amazingly beautiful. But I tell you what, you don't want to go walking around there by yourself at night. You just don't. Sometimes the facts are contrasting -- so I have no doubt that you find energy and beauty and spirit in Browning. That is wonderful, and good for you for sticking up for them. I guess if you're trying to say that the broken down buildings don't tell the whole story, I would have to agree, the external facade never tells the whole story, and there is energy and humanity to be found in the slums and in the poorest places here and everywhere. But that does not mean we should accept the facts of grinding poverty.

I suspect we agree more than we disagree. :-)