Why do Native american org. allow the goverment to dictate what natives get what benifits?

I am an alaskan native, I was brought down to California by my non native mother(she is part Cherokee, but cant be proven besides the picture of her great grandma who was full blooded) when I was 1 years old. I grew up in California. Once I became an adult I have found that Native organizations that deal in Medical, Dental and Welfare for Natives will only help up to a point.

One point being how much native your blood line is. This not so picky. If you are native american and you go through the proper channels to prove it you will get free clinic care to certain extent, which i have used and its great. I tip my hat in that aspect.

Then found myself needing needing more than clinic care. I needed glasses for driving, and school. And the few times i need emergency care and needed help putting food in my fridge, since i was not california native I was not bestowed welfare.

The emergency care I wasnt worried about, I was able to sign up for medicare and i only owe a bit, the glasses i was a little peeved about because i know there cheap to make and many california natives get them for free or a allowance as needed but since i wasnt californian tribe no help, but then again i drive fine without and can always sit in the front of class if i get there early. But then i went to my clinic and asked them for a food card because of my situation which is....

My ex wife went crazy tried to kill herself and then went to New Jersey leaving our two children with me. I was not ready for this and being a student living off student loans did not have enough to money to feed all three of us till i get back to full time work, on top of that I need to break a lease on my small one bedroom shack in order to house them. I only had the one bedroom place because i knew in june i would be able to upgrade to a two bedroom before my children came to me for the summer. So i was in an unforeseen situation were money was tight and then became nonexistent.

Dont get me wrong I am so happy my kids are with, me but I literally was in no way prepared for such a drastic life change. So I asked a Native organization for help and they said "no we cant help because you and your children are not of a tribe of california".

I looked the lady in the face and asked "why" She claimed it was state policy.

My real question is this...

Why does a goverment get to almost eradicate an entire people of multiple tribes and then get to tell the remaining people who they can help and not help, Shouldn't Natives get to make that decision?

this should probably be in the rant section. but i do want general feed back because i am going to write a paper on this for school, yet the reason it is a rant is because i currently currently going through all this and pissed that Natives can not look after each other unless their masters say so.

The quick and easy answer is we are a conquered people who have been made to "live" an existence that is almost contrary to the creator. Because we are broken, we have adopted many ways and attitudes that are against our very nature; except we have not had as much time to perfect it and so it comes across poorly and thinly disguised. An example is what u were talking about is blood quantum. That is a very powerful idea that has shaped and will shape our very existance. But that is a white mans invention as they use it to divide and label with intentions of keeping us squabbling. Back in the day u were native or not and we adopted many outsiders into the tribe. Our way of thinging is family and tribe to determine if one is our kind or not regardless of blood. Hence why our elections and gov. are usually very corrupt, we fight and steal amongst ourselves while the same time forgetting who we once were. My fatjer is a medicine man and he deliberately skipped enrolling us into our tribe but my grand mother allows attributed our intelligence and heart are a result. Now as an old soul, they tell me that u did not receive help for two reasons. First you had to think about this very subject as it will help u better understand this world. Second, what seemed like assistance would of just interrupted what u were trying to do, i.e. receiving blankets for free as u shiver but unknowingly contaminating yourself with the small pox. Some times what seems like help is not help at all. I am tired so no proof reading, if mistakes then thats just the way its meant. If it does or does not help is of no consequance but if you truly believe and want to see, be prepared for a vision that is literally heart breaking.

Well my opinion might not be popular but often here in Manitoba Canada when chiefs and band councils get full monitory control they tend to squander the money on themselves and their own family's and not for its intended purpose. They have almost zero oversight. Many of their good tribesmen go without while they live it up big time. Here band members live in modest houses and the chief and council live in boarder line mansions.

Natives can look after them selves perfectly fine but nothing stops them from screwing over one another. Deceit isn't exclusive to the white man.


This isn't the case on all reserves but power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.


www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com...


www.cbc.ca...

www.bcafn.ca...



a reply to: DOCHOLIDAZE1

a reply to: DOCHOLIDAZE1

The way I understand it, funds allotted for people of Individual Nations plus services are administrated thru that particular Nation. To receive them you have to go back local to that Nation. Some cities do have Native organizations that can assist, however once again usually you have to be in their "catchment" area, as they get reimbursed based on their service areas.

As to the "WHY" of this, heck.....different Nations are fighting like crazy to get their treaty rights recognized, fighting addiction, poverty, lack of infrastructure and a thousand other things. Fighting to right this, by offering reciprocal pacts is probably just lost in the shuffle? Plus Native health care is underfunded to begin with?