Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Life on the Rez

I don't get the joke. 🤷‍♂️. Help me out here.

Indian love.

Aka it’s ruff….

The relationship between Native people and government (USA & Canada) is similar, and it is a Communist one.

JeffA: "Things" are NOT getting better on the reservations!
Alcohol, marijuana, meth, fentanyl and abused prescription drugs are destroying lives and culture on most reservations I am familiar with.
Sad.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Pretty much what we see down here. The casinos are a huge financial boom for the reservations. Most of the tribes use some of that income to pay the tribal members a monthly stipend. There are always exceptions but most of the tribal members use that money to buy drugs and alcohol. They have no interest in bettering themselves. Or they think it is futile.

Don’t worry, they make more.


Although it would be interesting to see birth rates compared to longevity.

What’s the blood percentage now? 1/4, 1/64th? To be an enrolled member of some tribes.

They must not be too desperate.


They haven't asked me to join yet.

I know a dude who that is blonde and enrolled 🤦‍♂️

I was up north of the rez not long ago in Colstrip and working in a place was one of the most beautiful young women I’ve ever seen, looked full blood. Im not sure if Crow or Shylala just going by the area.
All of 5’ 11, slender with legs to the moon and a striking face. I sure hope she gets discovered, beauty like that should not go to waste.

Osky

Living here in Appalachia West...we get a unique view of the American Injun and the white man side by side in similar situations. The little lumber towns, and some not so little, are the white man's Rez equivalent. When the Spotted Owl, Marbled Murralet, Sierra Club, 9th Circuit and mostly NAFTA destroyed the wood products industry in the west, tens of thousands family wage jobs disappeared overnight, then the businesses...with no hope of recovery. Imagine Youngstown, Detroit on just a slightly smaller scale.
Wood products industry, by it's nature, was mostly centered outside large urban zones. Overnight, your job was gone, your home was worthless, no hope of any job better than pumping gas...and lucky to get that. Unemployed dads, angry wives, disillusioned children. It was the same story as the rust belt. Where did these people turn? Same as Youngstown or Bethlehem...Divorce, drugs, alcohol, welfare, food stamps, despair. A white Rez in all but name. A few scraped together enough to flee toward jobs and hope, kept their families intact...most didn't. It ain't the Injun regardless of color...it's the system.

Osky: A few summers ago I was Hunting Varmints just east of the Cheyenne Indian Reservation here in Montana. I headed for the town of Ashland to get fuel and some food one afternoon and as I drove down mainstreet I look over and saw NOT one, NOT two, but THREE drunken Indians passed out on the ground in front of the towns only tavern.
This, in a town of maybe 550 people?
Now out of morbid curiosity I circle back and try to park the VarmintMobile without squishing a sprawled out Indian. For those not familiar Ashland it is on the very east border of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation - and reportedly that rez is "dry" (no alcohol allowed or sold there)?
I go inside the bar and order a cold beer and strike up a conversation with the gentleman bartender.
I eventually get around to mentioning the sleeping drunk Indians and his interactions with them. He relayed how the Indian folks often only have two or three beers and become intensely intoxicated. He and I commiserated on the plight (sorry state) of so many of the young Indian males.
Several decades before this recent scenario I used to "bribe" my way onto that reservation to Hunt Prairie Dogs and did so for several years. I eventually quit Hunting there as it was just to risky dealing with all the intoxicated drivers and the newly growing numbers of militant/racist and meth fueled Indian folks.
Like ALL reservations in Montana I plan my travels across them in the early/mid morning daylight hours ONLY.
Sad that.
I have visited the St. LaBre Catholic Indian school there in Ashland several times and indeed there are MANY beautiful young Indian girls in that area - they seem to "lose" their loveliness once into their late twenties IMO/IME!
I don't want to sound overly critical of Indian peoples or racist as I am 25% Montana Indian myself (quarter breed - father was a half breed) but in so many instances the Indian people fall prey to the demon rum and all manner of drug abuse. Perhaps I should NOT be so critical as I don't have a solution, that has not been tried over the decades?
Had a lot of great Hunts (Antelope, Mule Deer and Varmint) out of Colstrip - neat country.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Mild Varmint..
head a little west to Lame and on that stop sign highway intersction in town on a decent afternoon by 2:30 there are plenty in terrible shape around the gas station, across the street along the grocery store, and across south there in that empty lot. By 5:30 on that decent day there are dozens and dozens strewn around in a bad way.

Never should have given the people money. Whites came along with it and have preyed on the natives since.
Being given the land they then should have gotten livestock, seed, tools, implements, and doctors. They would have figured it out.
The absolute worse thing that was ever taken from the people was consequence. The bleeding hearts still keep that from the people to assuage their own consciences. It is the cancer that keeps killing the soul of the people, the same as it does all other races. Even the members in position of power on tribal council and in other authoritative position see the cancer and allow it, it leaves them free rein on the tribal finances, tribal mayhem hides their greed.

There are a few old members left, hardworking, running small spreads with beef on the Rez. The nearby ranchers off Rez are happy to work with them and vice versa. These are ranchers first, Indians second. They are aging however, soon enough to be gone.
The people have such low self esteem they cannot police themselves, but won’t let outsiders do it either. See the above.
Never understood how a closed society like the Rez could have so many fragrantly making drugs, supplying booze, and the other cancers that hook the youth with devastating consequences, ruining countless lives. There are ditches and canyons and even caves in that land well suited for body “disposal” if you will. I wish they would utilize them.

Other than passing thru I spend no time on that or any other Rez. There I see only cloudy sky’s over a beautiful land, elsewhere I see the sun.

Osky

A Montana guy goes to the doctor for a check up. After the check up the doctor tells the guy -

Doctor - I've got bad new for you. You have an incurable disease and only have 6 months to live.

Patient - But doctor isn't there anything that can be done?

Doctor - All I can do is give you some advice - Go up to the Rez and find yourself a squaw with a couple of teenagers and marry her.

Patient - Well, I could do that but I don't understand how that will make me live more than 6 months.

Doctor- You won't live longer than 6 months but they will be the longest 6 months of your life.

That is definitely all true. The ability/opportunity not to work, and perhaps even the reservations themselves, are a curse on the natives and their children - generation after generation.

I don’t believe that that there is a lot of racism around here toward them - stereotyping yes, racism no. Most people are happy to see a native succeeding, other than other natives anyway.

Hell of a thing.

I think I will go get pizzed now.

I have enough Irish in me that I can drink more than your average Eskimo can.

Not necessarily a good thing I guess.

Watch out for Rez dogs too.

Couple years back a pack of dogs in Lame Deer killed and ate on one of the members. There was an all out hunt right after that and lots of strays were shot.

Going thru there now I think they are more than before.

Anyone recall maybe 15-20 years ago all the young Indian girls found raped and dead along 212 between Crow Agency and Belle Fourche? Was it 9 that they know of? No one arrested yet.

Osky

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1118951

Here’s a pretty one. Who knows - did she walk away from that rest stop drunk, was she chased away, or was she in danger and ran?

Sad stuff, but the way things are hasn’t worked for a long time. That is one pretty girl - I’d be proud of my son if he brought that home. Depending on mentals, of course. Unfortunately, that would be a real concern.

I’ve heard they need to be real careful starting at 10-12, be careful of uncles, cousins. Ugh.