Over the past years, the Native American Indians population has decreased dramatically due to the mainland American treatment towards the indigenous people.
Past vs. Present Comparison
In the year of 1492, the population of the Native Americans, pre-contact of the mainland Americans, was around 112 million. Throughout the years that number has decreased to less than 6 million people. In the year 2019, the U.S government revealed they have their own way of keeping the Natives in poverty. The federal government controls the Indians’ lands and letting them handle all the power against the lands. This leads to reservations having complicated legal and property systems that are detrimental to economic growth.
Treatment
Due to all the treatments from mainland Americans, the Indians have run into multiple problems through the years. Unemployment and impoverishment are the Indians’ number one problem. The dramatic downfall of the population within the Indians has leftover 27% of them jobless and in poverty. Leaving the unemployment rate at a high 69% as of 2014. Due to the high poverty rate, many of the indigenous rates live in overcrowded and poor conditioned houses or are completely homeless. The home conditions the Natives currently live in are equal to ones in a third-world country.
Education has always been a problem for the Indians. They consist of 1% of all U.S students meaning the graduation rates for the people get lower each year. The federal government plays a huge part in the ways the schools run. Many of the reasons that students drop out before graduating are because of the poor equipping of schools due to insufficient funding. According to Indigenous Language Institute the Native Americans Language is becoming more outdated leaving only 175 languages out of the 300, used in the olden days, spoken are used today. Many educators that want to teach the children the Native languages face a barrier of poor funding and resources for schooling.
Rights of the People
The U.S first amendment states we have freedom of speech, including the right to vote. However, the Native Americans are unable to exercise their right to vote due to the unavailability of polling units which leads to their applications for voting cards being rejected. Along with the right of voting, the abuse of women and children gained higher rates each year. 46% of Native American women had gone through some sort of physical abuse. Not only is physical abuse a problem however on some reservations women are murdered 10 times higher than the national average.
How to Help
Many associations have started movements to gain more attention to the indigenous people’s lives. Associations such as “Partnership with Native Americans,” shine a light on the problem of education. They show that anyone in the world can make a difference.
