Cross Country Mission News
Gradual Genocide:
The tribes haves endured 'welfare reform' for years
When the war was on to bring
the tribes to their collective knees, promises were made--generally under
the guise of 'treaties'--that no one intended to keep. It was a shell,
a sham--a program designed to entice them into surrender--and surrender
they did.
Today, the torn and tattered
remnants of those treaties hang in offices and tribal chapters across the
United States as a reminder of all they lost--and what little they gained
in the process. Sold 'a bill of goods' to entice them into silence, it
would be decades before all of the cracks and gaping holes began to appear--in
the systems, in the programs--in the people.
Ask anyone--and typically they
believe the remaining tribal citizens have been given what they need. Few
recognize that the housing offered tribal members is frequently that without
running water, heat or electricity. Just as only a select few recognize
the false sense of security sold to the tribes when their lands were forcibly
taken from them... or what's happened since--fewer still see the parallels
between the way the Native poor have been treated for generations and the
'methods' utilized against the poor in the U.S.--across the board. But
from an eagle's perspective, it isn't difficult to figure out. In a smaller
sense, it's exactly the same thing that's happening to everyone who enters
into a 'bargain' with the governmental officials of today. They are
denied access, forced out, encouraged to 'stay silent,' and turned away
by a system that focuses its efforts on providing so little to its citizens
that they are hoping you will ultimately determine are, simply put,
'not worth the effort.'
Within the tribes, we have seen
women and babies denied even the most basic forms of welfare, the WIC programs,
intended to protect women and children from from subsisting on diets without
even the barest of nutritional necessities. We've see them completely denied
access to medical care to which they are entitled--with medical personnel
refusing even to examine a sick child if they believe there is the slightest
possibility that they can dissuade the mother, who typically has driven
40-50 miles even to arrive at the hospital, from demanding that medical
care.
I've seen patients publicly humiliated
for trying to obtain mental health services or drugs commonly available
to others for dealing with mental health issues--and told, point blank,
that they were wrong to even ask for such services. (The latter not being
accurate, of course, having witnessed the individual being advised as to
which offices they must apply in order to obtain care).
In a year-long survey designed
to ascertain who in today's society is actually receiving food stamps and
where additional meals are being obtained by the poor, results concluded
that while 23 million individuals received emergency food from primarily
private charities and religious organizations--only 17.7 million relied
upon the federal food stamp program. And programs designed only as "back-up"
solutions and 'stop-gap" enterprises were 'buried' by demand as the need
for food drove the poor to utilize these programs on a regular basis--taxing
the programs and causing organizers to try to determine why their programs
were overwhelmed by the needs of the public.
Seen as a 'less-difficult' alternative
to the food stamp program, estimates reflect that over 12 million truly
needy (and eligible) individuals are seeking help from outside sources
and not even applying to the federal programs which were, in effect, designed
for them.
Roberta Begay, a young Navajo
mother, explained her plight in these terms:
"I went to the food stamp program
at Gallup," she said. They allowed me to file all of the papers, then would
repeatedly tell me that there were papers missing. I would have to keep
calling them," she stated, "asking the supervisor if she had received the
material--and she would almost always tell me, 'No.'"
"I spent days going back and
forth to the food stamp office, providing over and over the same materials--which
I kept copies of and which I am sure were misdirected intentionally."
Begay, with an extensive background
in office work during her stay in the military, eventually persuaded the
officials it would be simpler to allow her to obtain welfare--than to continue
battling her thorough approach to their paperwork trails. She 'won the
right' to obtain her welfare benefits.
Isabelle Hot, on the other hand,
called us repeatedly to advise that she was simply removed from the lists--without
a means of feeding her children without obtaining the food stamps promised
her through the social services department. Week after week she waited
for her check to arrive--and it did not come. Isabelle, disabled, could
do nothing but ask Christians for intervention and wait to see if her applications
would eventually be approved. Though social services workers were frequently
guests at her home, her benefits were still, ultimately, questioned--leaving
her for weeks without any income or means to feed her children. She worried
a lot and called often. It wasn't the first time she'd been left out of
the state food stamp programs.
Marie VanDeVeer, her aunt, had
watched from the sidelines as Isabelle was refused food stamps shortly
after the birth of her first son. VanDeVeer advised Isabelle to obtain
food stamps from a welfare office across the border from New Mexico--in
Colorado. Out of desperation, Isabelle quickly arranged to be taken to
Colorado--where she applied for the stamps in order to obtain WIC.
The authorities promptly charged
her with fraud and prevented her from obtaining food stamps or WIC for
an additional nine months. All this for attempting to feed her newborn.
To watch the 'authority' figures
in these various institutions--most of whom are white--is to quickly obtain
a lesson in racism. When challenged with such attitudes, our Native brothers
and sisters typically shuffle their feet, look towards the floor and remove
themselves from the discomforting situation. Often, they don't try again:
and this, would appear to be the 'method behind the madness' in almost
every situation. When they leave and don't return, the system has worked
and 'welfare reform' has succeeded. It simply works to take away the benefits
from those who need them but will not continue to subject themselves to
humiliation in order to obtain them.
Interestingly enough, combine
such tactics with the denial of education--another commonly utilized ploy
to keep Native Americans in a position of subservience to the system while
still under the auspices of the federal programs, and they are relatively
guaranteed to continue damaging the tribes in such a way most will never
succeed.
While some of the wealthier tribes
have found ways to 'battle back,' most have not: and among the results
are schools so poor the children frequently leave boarding schools after
eight years still illiterate. For these, of course, High School presents
nearly insurmountable obstacles and Native students are frequently expelled
permanently for infractions that would not result in expulsions for
other students. "Black-listing" then frequently prevents them from attending
schools anywhere within the entire system. Again, then, 'the system' succeeds
in keeping them down. They will either succumb, or fight. If they fight,
there are jails and prisons across the country to house them until the
desire to fight is beaten down. The same tactics we see utilized against
more of our citizenry, the poor, the children, the minorities. Even those
who have something the goverment has decided to 'attach.'
Quite a program.
If it brings with it a feeling
of victory, it's one (thank you, Jesus) I will never know.
