Some people seem to think that the bigotry of low expectations is "social justice".
It’s not bigotry. Even if you want to ignore the centuries of active destruction of their families, the infrastructure gap is huge. Take a look at, say, the difference between Japan and Vietnam. Both got absolutely leveled by the US. One of them had infrastructure rebuilt by the US and investment in local enterprise by the US government. One is a rich country. One is a very poor country that’s only recently rising up… because other people are coming in and helping build infrastructure and providing jobs for a people who were crushed and isolated from the world for decades.
There’s a wealth and basic life standard gap that is impossible to bootstrap. Any successful place built from “nothing” got there through getting outside investment in some form, or through centuries of time left to grow through their own means. Plus their lands continue to be exploited. When oil or water or something is used by an outside company, instead of letting them have it and enriching the people on the land, eminent domain is exercised or companies buy it from the gov for pennies.
There are many poor communities across the country, in all races and creeds. The past can't be rewritten- focusing on "you are poor because X happened in the past" is just telling someone there is no reason for hope.
The way out involves both external and internal forces; external in the sense of support for development of infrastructure and economic activity, internal in the sense of a willingness and belief of capability of change. Many tribes who have successful casinos don't see significant improvements depending on their payout structure, because simply giving money to people with no financial literacy is a recipe for loss.
This is true for all communities facing poverty.
Casinos are a way tribes found to generate wealth as an exception to state laws. It’s one of the very few possible “true” bootstrapping examples. But no healthy community is dominated by casinos.
USA southern border is over-run with poor people trying to get in. I wonder what is different for these folks?
You seem to view the world as if any of these problems are unique to America.
I'm not saying "bad things only happen to native Americans." I'm saying "the American campaign of genocide against native Americans only happened to native Americans."
At this point you seem to be willfully ignoring the numerous modern day examples of injustices perpetrated on these people. This is not some long-gone history. As mentioned in other threads, governments kidnapped native children as recently as the 1970s. They showed up to houses, stole children, shipped those children to boarding schools to be raped, tortured, and killed en masse - optimistically to be brainwashed out of their culture. Governments are continuing to wrestle natural resources from tribes as recently as today. Right now. Across the entire country.
I know you're saying that countries can't develop themselves without external support, but I'm not convinced that a richer country = better quality of life for people which is an assumption you made.
I chose those examples because I’ve worked in each, but hours worked and birth rates really aren’t too relevant here. Vietnam was a nice country, but be honest: you wouldn’t want to live there making an average wage if you had a choice of living in a typical US or Japanese town with decent infrastructure and average wages.
People with limited resources don't devote them to mitigating once in a lifetime risks. Their everyday life is constrained: buy a more reliable car vs. save for a child's education. Eat healthier food vs. visit the doctor.
These Native Americans live in a vulnerable location that provides little land-based wealth, isolates them from population centers & thus opportunity, and exposes them to environmental threat.
If you can't see how that impacts their opportunity to "amount to anything," I suggest relocating. Become their neighbors and report back in 10 years whether you think this had any deleterious impact on what your career has amounted to.
Now climate change in winter makes wheel loaders not function properly and people are too cold?
The moment something of value is found on native land, even today, it’s taken from them.
I don't know that people who live there say "I'll never amount to anything", I don't think any of us participating in this conversation live there; probably none of us are natives. So we're not talking about what they say about themselves, we're talking about what we say about them.
If not the legacy of expropriation, displacement, and cultural destruction... the usual explanation is that there is just something wrong with these people as people, something diseased, pathological with their culture. I don't see how that is in any way useful, or somehow more respectful of "agency".
Up until the 70s, children (children!) were still being forcibly sent to prison-like (for real, prison-like) boarding schools.
https://archleague.org/article/cheyenne-river-reservation-bo...
I don't think there is anything wrong with Oglala culture -- I think they have the cultural and personal resources they need to thrive if conditions are changed to make up for generations of intentional targetted destruction of their material resources and cultural life and social networks. "Social justice" would be restoration of sovreignty, reparations (a massive "marshall plan" level of physical and human infrastructure investment), an apology and general cultural recognition and education throughout the USA of native history, legal enforcement of treaty rights that have been ignored/thrown out, etc.
While it's a situation with great differences as well as similarities, New Zealand's reparative policies toward the Maori can provide some models. https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/79224-new-zealand-leads-way-r...
Blaming the Oglala Lakota people for the result of generations of targeted destruction of their way of life and ability to survive is not somehow more respectful of their "agency" or dignity.
Like, what are we actually talking about here right now? The lack of capacity of people on the Pine Ridge reservation to handle a weather emergency? How is it more respectful of agency or dignity to say we shouldn't talk about how this is the result of generations of colonialism, that intentionally removed the material and cultural resources people would use to take care of themselves? Is it more respectful of agency or dignity to suggest that they are the poorest community in the USA because of their own cultural failings? I agree that liberals as well as right-wingers can pathologize native culture, suggest that their culture is broken and needs to be "fixed", that the problem is internal -- I think suggesting that there is something wrong with native culture is what is disrespectful of their actual dignity, agency, and continued ability to survive under conditions designed for the opposite. They are very strong people, the evidence is that they are still there, and I hope they think of themselves thusly.