Their ancient way of life is gone, it ain’t coming back and they don’t want it to anyway. They’ve been coddled and given special treatment so long that they have no desire to be normal functional members of American society. There are rare exceptions of course.
The odd thing around here is that the older generation, my grandparents’ age and about gone, were just normal folks. They were farmers and painters, carpenters and electricians, mechanics and plumbers, just like everyone else around here. They weren’t generally really good with money, largely due to always being willing to help someone out. But they’d keep their word and pay their bills. Many of them were good friends of my family.
Now the last two generations are about 180 out from the oldsters. They get casino checks for sitting on their asses, tribal houses so cheap they may as well be free, same for car tags. Free healthcare that they rarely take advantage of, special scholarships and school programs. And for a large percentage of them, a burning hatred of the white man. There may have been some of the old ones who were like that but I never met one, they were by and large polite and generous people even the drunks.
Probably a little different here where there’s not a designated Res. The whole state is a Res of some type or another but not in the same sense as Pine Ridge or the Rosebud.
