“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue… [Arawak Natives] gave the sailors food and spice… Columbus was brave and bright.” 1492 by Jean Marzollo
About 500 years ago, a man by the name of Cristoforo Colombo famously sailed to the Caribbean instead of a spice trade route to India. With this, what many natives call the Great Genocide ensued. This Great Genocide still continues today, but under wraps of dressing up as a “Sexy Indian” for halloween, or dressing up children as natives. Lesser known examples of modern day genocide are things like buying and selling fake turquoise, wearing fake moccasins, expensive groceries on reservations, reservations themselves, Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), and even rights to cultural lands, rituals, and hunting tactics. While reading, please note that the use of the word “genocide” is a lofty claim, and may be used in a way that does not fit your definition. Genocide to many natives ranges from cultural whitewashing and appropriation to the overturning of protective acts such as the Indian Child Welfare Act.
It is vital to talk about the price of groceries in native reservations. In 2000 to 2010, a study was done in 40 different native reservations by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), where scientists took the average price of a food basket and compared it to the average price of a food basket in predominantly white areas. “This study designed a hypothetical basket of goods including milk, bread, eggs, chicken, ground beef, apples, tomatoes, regular coffee, and decaffeinated coffee.” as stated by Blogs Puget Sound. Scientists found that natives were paying a little under $9 more than the average American food basket. “In October 2014, the average cost of a gallon of milk was $3.76, and the average cost of milk across reservations sampled was $4.20” according to First Nations Development Institute (FNDI). The average food basket in white communities was an average of about $21.78 compared to $27.85 on reservations. Between these two studies, native communities have to pay anywhere from about $5-$9 more than white communities. Natives also have to travel miles for access to grocery stores, leaving many of them to wait until they have no more food left to buy, or buy too much and the food goes bad before it can be eaten. Along with that, there are many cases where grocery stores are located just off the reservation. Natives already face a high amount of systemic racism, leaving low income families to pay for expensive basic needs. Putting together both the systemic racism that natives face and the highly inflated grocery prices, many people cannot afford other basic needs like housing, clothes, and even medicare.
Not only does the cost of living make life on reservations difficult, but the physical and psychological conditions of Natives are poor as well. “Nearly 40% of American Indian adults are obese…” according to the National Library of Minority Health (NLMH). In this same study done by the NLMH in 2014, results showed that Natives do not feel safe walking outside with their children due to rampant violence in reservations, there is no access to a gym, and many parents struggle to find time for physical activity, as they are often single parents working multiple jobs to support their families. Not only that, but suicide rates are 20% higher in native adults compared to white adults, and 84% of women in the indigenous community face domestic violence in their lifetime. Natives face suicidal ideations more often than other racial minority groups because of things like familial disruption, as well as disruptions to their ethnic identities. Along with this, native women also face more domestic violence because of “legal loopholes” that prevent native officers from arresting non-native abusers as well as persecuting them. Many Natives don’t know how to seek help, so they suffer in silence which leads to suicide, being murdered via domestic abuse, or end up going missing, adding them to the mile high statistics of missing and murdered indigenous women and men.
Along with the fact that natives face harsh circumstances on reservations, children also face having a high chance of being displaced from their family members, and an even lower chance to be adopted. In 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed to protect native children in the foster care system. This would prohibit the US Government from removing native children from their biological parents, protect them from abuse and neglect, and keep their culture tied to their souls. Prior to the passage of ICWA, the adoptive system would neglect to acknowledge indigenous practices. Additionally, natives that lived in a white school district would have to remove their child from the school in order for them to attend “Indian Boarding Schools” which forced many natives to have to move hundreds, if not thousands of miles, away from their home. Recently, in June 2023, this act was overturned in a 7-2 vote from the Supreme Court. This means that the US Government and foster care system can go back to taking native children from their families, even if there is no reason for them to be taken. According to Circling Eagle Law, 25-30% of Native children were removed from their tribal lands and adopted into a non-native home in 2020. These children would then be placed under state care, but only have an 8% chance of being adopted in comparison with White, African American, and Latinx children. This causes an erasure of native culture in children, and creates a faded cultural path for native relatives in the future, as well as a feeling of worthlessness which raises the suicide rates in children and teens of indigenous decent.
Overall, natives are a target for systemic racism, and their living conditions are widely neglected. People here in the US who are of privilege tend to ignore the many issues of marginalized communities like the indigenous community. If these conditions were brought to the attention of organizations like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose main goal is to improve the comfort of natives across the US, we could potentially fix some of these issues. Along with that, if warehouses that export out to reservation grocery stores, the cost of food on these tribal lands would significantly decrease. Moving forward, with these new generations of natives coming in and stepping up for their communities, there is hope to treat reservation conditions just like urban neighborhoods anywhere else in the US.
