Native American Poverty as a Harbinger of Things to Come
Access to Capital is Essential
Native American properties are some of the most rural and poverty laden lands inside of the American nation. The reasons for this condition are many and have persisted for many generations of indigenous civilization. Some of the reasons for the persistence of poverty and deprivation harkens to the culture itself. Other reasons are promulgated by the geographic location of the lands themselves. Many of the sources of the poverty and deprivation are legacies of the occupation of the peoples’ lands by settlers from the European continent. Forced relocations of tribes and collections of tribes left them without access to the bountiful waters, hunting and farming lands they once inhabited. They were people in equilibrium with their environment.
This equilibrium was cultivated over centuries of use of the resources and an implicit understanding that they must allow the land to rest after intense exploitation. Exploitation is not really the right word for their paradigm of resource use. They did not fully use it up and move on leaving a wasteland behind as is the image of resource exploitation commonly seen in capitalist endeavors.
Although the moniker of Indian is an error made by the Europeans who ‘discovered’ the flourishing civilizations of people already on this continent, this treatise will use that name as its reference for all the noble indigenous peoples of the North American continent. Where specific tribes and Nations are mentioned, their noble names will be used.
When Indians were in charge of the land and its uses, they needed only the basic resources it could provide. Land provided a place where dwellings could be erected. Land provided the food for animals to eat. Animals were food, shelter and clothing for men, women and children. Land provided a place for trees to grow that could be harvested for fuel and the building of dwellings. Land provided the courses where rivers and streams ran and provided water for consumption and irrigation of crops.
Nothing beneath the surface of the land had any value to the peoples of this continent. They lived on the land and took only what they needed. Their presence was not felt by the land for long periods of time. If they killed too…
