I want to welcome you to the lunch. My name is ben ginsberg, and i am delighted that we have as our speaker today, naomi schaefer, who is a distinguished journalist and writer whos written for many publications including the wall street journal, the chronicle of higher education, the weekly standard, too many to list, and is also the author of six books with a seven on its way to. I went to graduate school with her father which tells you how old i am. Hes a little ahead of me. I first met naomi when we debated one another for the New York Times blogging heads series. She wrote a book called the faculty lounges, which was an attack on the tenure system which i thought it was outrageous. Id written a book called fall of the faculty, which defended the tenure system. So we had good fun debating that entire set of questions. Im very confident that i have one but i have to confess she held herself very, very well. Her most recent book deals with the topic most of us dont know much about the shameful condition of the indian reservations and the treatment that native americans receive from the federal government properly and titling the book the new trail of tears and you will see why this is such a fitting title and why the story she has to tell is so important. [applause] thank you all for coming out today. I usually offer a kind of warning before i give a talk about the subject, not the kind you may be used to but a warning that you might want to get something stiffer to drink. I dont have a lot of good news today but i will begin. About 3,000 people lived in south manderson south dakota inn a pie iinthe pine. She nation that makes up the second poorest county in the United States. In 2013, the five Police Officers assigned to patrol the area received 16,500 calls for emergency assistance. I want to take a minute for you to do the math. 3,000 people 16,500 calls in five Police Officers. As of 2009, there were 39 games on the reservation involving more than 5,000 young men. The average Life Expectancy for men on the reservation is 48. Tying ridge is one of the worst reservations but the statistics im afraid are not much better. American indians have the highest rate of poverty of any racial group in the nation. Hi School Graduation is around 50 and is falling. Suicide is the leading cause age ten to 14. Help a whole use disorder are high. Involvement in the Gang Activity is prevalent more than it is with latino and african americans. Native american women report being raped at two times the National Average. The rate of child abuse is two times the National Average. An estimated one out of every four girls and one out of every six boys in Indian Country is molested before the age of 18. 18. If you want to understand what is behind the statistics you to visit indian territory. A couple years ago, that is what i did. I spent some time visiting the Elementary School in manderson. Its called wounded knee and its received 600,000 in turnaround funds from the federal government. It is clean, freshly painted and mostly quiet in the holes. They installed a computer room to reward kids for Good Behavior and laundry machines so local parents have an incentive to meet with teachers. Academically it is appalling. The principle offered to help a student with two math problems. She gave the boy incorrect answers to both of them. They recently fired the staff of the school and hired the teachers who had come from teach for america. Despite the fact some have degrees from the best colleges in the country they felt it wasnt the right fit and other tribal leaders were more explicit and told me tha the fos were simply too white. But in manderson it must be said of the schools first job is to keep children safe. Mostly the problems are not serious enough to merit a response to the learned how to handle matters on their own. One weekend a month we have walkins wondering what theyve done to deserve such a punishment. A login is not a punishment she assured me. Its when children stay at school or weekend for their safety. Although it is a Cultural Enrichment even for the children they sing songs and play Traditional Games in the school gym. They say that its time to coincide with the government checks go out when the pairings are likely to drink and become abusive. But over 1 million living on reservations is dependent on the federal government. To know just how much the economy on the reservation depends on the public funds they look at the effects the federal government shuts down pat in the fall of 2013 on the reservation. Some 364 crewmembers were for load. The only way a somewhat to travel across the 2. 3 millionacre reservation was a Home Health Care aid for aider tribal members was suspended. The tribe in Northern California relies almost solely on federal financing to operate and its reservation has an Unemployment Rate of 80 . When i wrote this and editor wrote me back saying you must mean the end going rate is 80 but i ensured her identit her eo the Unemployment Rate. As a result of the shuts down day for load 60 of the ten employees and closed childcare center. Financing for a program that ensures clean Drinking Water ran low. The tribes are so dependent on the federal government that without money from the bureau of Indian Affairs the Economic Activity comes to a complete halt and members may not have access to clean Drinking Water. This is a third world country that exists in the nation. The question is how do we get here. It was formed as a way to get indians out of the way to push them onto undesirable plots of land so that americans could pursue westward expansion. Today though a surprising number of people seem to view it as a way of protecting native americans and ensuring no one can take anything away from them. The reservation land is held by the federal government. The only other people that we hold things for our children or the mentally incompetent. The goal of the policy originally was to keep them contained but now its shifted to preserving the land for Indigenous People. But the effect is the same. Indians cant own reservation land. No one on the reservation can get a mortgage because the property on the reservation is held in trust by the federal government. Most also is owned communally by the tribe. A banker could no longer foreclose on a property because the bank cannot own reservation land. Despite millions of acres of empty space, there is a housing shortage on many reservations. More and more families crowd into small trailer homes. We visited a Tribal College on one of the reservations and they were talking about the possible expansion and they said we have to build up. I looked out the window at acres upon acres and they explained they could never get the loan o build on that because its land that they dont already have in their possession so they are thinking about building in the way people do in new york city as opposed to montana but this is only part of the problem. More than a quarter of Small Business owners in the u. S. Use what he owns or financing existing ones. But American Indians do not have access to that capital. They dont own the land so they dont own their homes so they cant use the equity. Indians long suffered from what nobel prizewinning economist hernando has called dead capital. They may possess a certain amount on paper but they cant put it to use by selling and buying more to take advantage of economies of scale or borrowing against it. Indian reservations may have thought to have been useless once but that is no longer the case. In fact they contain almost 30 of the coal reserves west of the mississippi, 50 of the reserves in 20 of the oil and gas reserves. These resources are worth nearly 1. 5 trillion or 290,000 per tribal member. Tragically, 86 of land with energy or mineral remain undeveloped because of the federal control. In order to tap those reserves come indians must follow a 49 step process as one legislator explained to me. These steps involve the bureau of land management, department of the interior, department of justice and Commerce Department indicated months if not years for each step to be approved. To dig the hole requires a 6,500dollar upfront payment for an application for a permit to drill. Compare that to the process just off the reservation that requires about 125. 5. The bureaucracy that oversees the reservation is mind boggling. The bureau of Indian Affairs is hasa total of 9,000 employees. Thats one employee for every 111. And as with all bureaucrats, they need to find something to do. One indian man i spoke to try to purchase a few acres from his neighbor, another indian on which to raise a few cattle. The two men had agreed on a price but then a representative of the bureau of Indian Affairs told them that youl hell coulo through because the price they had agreed on was not fair market value. In the real world of course fair market value is what someone would actually pay you for the land but not in the bureau of Indian Affairs. The agency as it turned out recently commissioned an appraisal on the reservation and apparently have told the appraiser to overvalue the land so as not to screw over the indians, which is of course what happened. Its no wonder they say that they are bossing indians around. But what about the casino . Im literally aske asked if thee enough from gambling to qualify out of poverty. Most indian casinos, those that those in the northeast dont see rdd affai affairs in isolated communities and the customers are other indians but even successful casinos dont bring the kind of prosperity that you might expect. In upstate new york theyve made over a billion dollars on their operations. The profits are distributed in the form of communities. According to the Economic Development company, quote, these annuities created entitlement attitudes and that is a downfall. They enabled people not to work. Now that more and more states are opening up to non indians, tribes are facing increased competition. The nation has offered low or no interest loans to anyone who wants to try to start some other business, there is almost no takers. Michael john who is the manager of the Small BusinessIncubator Program on the territory said his group conducted a survey to find out which businesses residents should open. He tells people that there are too many pizza places around and instead he recommends Outdoor Recreation maintenance landscaping and professional massage. You dont have to go to beijing to see the Central Planning at work. The Economic Outlook on the reservation is bleak. Indians have no Real Property come access to capital for building their businesses, little ability to develop their own Natural Resources and no incentive to work. We give them regulatory Tax Advantages and things like alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. Industries none of us would want in our backyard. But even those dont help them because the industries are all collectively owned by the tribes and the profits are distributed like lottery winnings or welfare checks depending on your perspective. More money isnt the answer here. Washington spends about 20 billion a year on reservations. The Health Service has a budget in 2015, 4. 6 billion. It is perhaps the last place in the country you would want to see if the are. The bureau of Indian Education spends about 20,000 per pupil compared to a National Average of 12,400. Not only did the schools failed to educate students but even the roofs are caving in. They had gone through 33 directors in 36 years. More cultural sensitivity is unlikely to do the trick. After the media launched a National Campaign to get the owner of the Washington Redskins to change the team name the Washington Post did a survey and five at nine and ten couldnt care less about the name of the team, which isnt surprising. If your community is facing an epidemic of suicide, what nfl mascots be at the top of your list of concerns . The tragedy of American Indian policy demands immediate media examination, not only because they make the lives of millions of american citizens harder and more dangerous, but also, because they are a microcosm of everything that has gone wrong with modern liberalism. They are the result of decades of politicians and bureaucrats showering a victimized people with money and sensitivity instead of what they truly need, the autonomy, the education and Legal Protection to improve their own situation. American indians like all americans must be able to avail themselves of the economic and legal freedoms this country guarantees. Until then they will remain mired in social pathology and the kind of anger that comes from knowing that your faith is controlled by an ineffective and illinformed bureaucracy. The solutions here are not easy that they can start with education. The states that have the largest indian population were also some of the only ones that have no charter law. These children have no alternative to places like wounded knee. We could start to scale back some of the regulation in washington allowing them to develop National Resources without having to pass through and saw them legislators are working to curb the power of the agency. But ultimately it will be hard to undo this Economic Disaster without Real Property rights. A number in canada are pushing legislation that would create the Legal Framework for individual members of the nations to Access Capital through secure Property Rights. They see the reserved land that is treated similarly to the reservations here is becoming more like cities and even if it was for they would still remain part of the city just as no one can so a part of new york city to new arc. But any would be able to buy and sell among themselves without the permission or oversight of tribal or federal officials. This would allow for the true free market. First nation members who want to lease their land for development of National Resources would be able to do so without seeking permission from the National Government and would want to sell their property and be able to select the highest bidder to take that money and put it to use for themselves and their families. Finally, those who want to keep their land would be able to borrow against it to build a home or start a business. As one from North Carolina told me, quote, the only solution i see is to divide everything up and give it to the native american family. Let them disperse it, spend it, keep it, whatever. I dont need no government taking care of me. This kind of freedom, thats why the pilgrims left europe. Thank you very much. [applause] any questions . [inaudible] i didnt interview a lot of officials because most of the research i was doing was on the ground that the reservation. Its actually made up 75 of native americans. Its not i think a lot of people misunderstand it as some kind of a white paternalist bureaucracy thats just imposing its will. But i think that they see their job as kind of essentially the way a lot of people see the reservations which is a last step hope for protecting American Indians but just as i think many bureaucrats in washington see regulation as a way of protecting people who are at the heart of the field it isnt much different. But when you talk to people on the ground about the way that the regulations were interfering in their daytoday lives and any kind of even small form of commerce but they may engage in, the results are much different than the intentions. So im a little curious to know what the advantages are a and also what are the differences. What would be the advantage . One question i get a lot is why dont they leave. Thats kind of at the heart of this question and i think there are several reasons behind that. Some of these you drive 100 miles and there is nothing around. One of the things im noticing d because ive done a lot of research on families who live in inner cities. You see people in the middle class and get on the subway every day and go to jobs. If you are living on the Pine Ridge Reservation you might not have anybody with any kind of employment or anyone that has a problem with drug or alcohol use or that has a high school education. Theres all these aspects of life that seem normal to most that would seem like life on another planet. So the isolation is definitely part of it. In terms of the advantages, its not as if people are living on thwere living onthe reservationd immediately say move to rapid city and find themselves rolling in dough. Even if you have the wherewithal to leave the reservation, it would still be coming at it with an inferior education so you would be trying to get your self into a workforce and there would be more opportunities for employment but you may not be very qualified for any of those opportunities because of the disadvantages you have until that point. In terms of the rights thats an interesting question. Many people dont realize they are american citizens. That is a fundamental thing when i go around talking to audiences i think some of the talk you hear about tribal sovereignty as its impact on its audience where they think are you a citizen of another country, argue part of the country. They are citizens and should have all these rights. When you look at it, the book gets into all these questions about what the actual rights are that they are being denied so for instance, it is severely restricted. If the tribe doesnt like with a paper has written about the tribal wall that has been passed or something they said about the tribal legislators they could be in the paper from being sold anywhere on the reservation. There have been and there was a case this year about the rights of people in tribal court and there was a question about whether youve been granted due process and the tribal court. The association for defense lawyers in the United States has returned several letters to congress complaining that people who have been accused in certain kinds of cases havent been granted the right to a lawyer or a speedy trial. All these things we take for granted in court in the United States as a resident of an indian territory you might be denied. And i think the biggest question, im sorry to go so long with your answer but one of the biggest questions has to do with the indian Child Welfare act you may be familiar with the gives them a say in custodial battles over children so in cases of divorce and the death of a parent and even in cases where an indian woman might get pregnant and she might want to get hegive her child up for adon to another family a tribe could come in and say if you are a child has a drop of indian blood essentially in you the tribe could say no we dont think that you should be raised by white family members, though we dont think a pregnant mother should be able to give up her child for adoption to a white family, so a lot of these decisions are being made differently than they are for children of any other race. The cases are not being decided in the best interest of the child which of course is the standard for any other case. They are being decided what is in the best interest of the tribe so those are some of the rights aside from the economic rights is talking about those are some of the rights that american citizens have that a lot of American Indians unfortunately do not. [inaudible] resided on the reservation and how often they go back to find out how they are playing out on the reserved land versus those that remain . I do know there are officials that certainly have contact with people on the reservation or officials that live on the reservation. The other thing that you get aside from how they are offered in the best of intentions and how the regulations are being promulgated in the best interest is this question about money and i think that the line you certainly hear from the leadership of the tribe and sometimes the officials is that they are underfunded. It is a question of if only we had another grant program, another federal obligation whether it is for housing or schools or Health Programs then we would be able to fix all of this and increasingly what was interesting as i talk to American Indians on the reservations particularly those that were older, i felt like they had heard this line over the years a lot and felt like the next program around but then was going to be the one that saved them. They have become quite cynical about the possibility because theyve seen the money come in either there is a great deal of corruption on the reservations and the money didnt go to where it was promised for it did go where it was promised but it had dispersed the kind of Economic Growth and educational quality, the kind of things that were promised and i think that overall, especially in the order older indians felt that had been played out. Some of the reservations are multicultural themselves there is plenty of intermarriage outside the reservation is very rare to find somebody who doesnt have mixed blood. It is not uncommon sidle think that they believe america is the White University would not be welcome to but the message on the reservation that they get from the tribal leaders and schools in is one of victimization and where thou problems we are experiencing here can be blamed on president sort things outside of our control. And some of these policies are outside of their control and i am torn try to figure out when i was writing the book because you want to go to washington but these are people you want to give autonomy but the point of changing these wouldbe to help see themselves less as a victim. Even that the tribal love alive mention in passing the teach for america people are to bite it is shocking how often the accusation is thrown around by tribal officials the Red Cloud Indian School which is catholic and there is another one on the north end of the shiny and and preservation in montana they offer kids a decent education they said credit you to college each year, and providing with so much with afterschool tutoring actually both will provide with free boarding there is no tuition that is required it is all outside donations for and if you talk to the leaders of the tribes you get nothing about insults that they claim the best of the students are this is just a legacy of the boarding school something you hear about that lot it is almost all problems but youll hear somebody whether the alcoholism or the sexual abuse or the economic problems. And what is interesting is the links at which these two schools have gone to to make up for that they are completely run by American Indians. There is not white did ministrations of the person who runs a school is half crow and halfbrother and shiny and. Almost all the teachers are native americans they will bring people and from the jesuit volunteer corps because theres not a lot of qualified teachers on the reservation. This woman fired half of first daff through it at the elementary but what she did was hired teachers from another local elementary now they have a teaching shortage so any fall at pine ridge there are 40 or 50 classrooms at have no teachers. So the adm that you can say i liked you because you are white stain need is some kind of quality or educated adults in the front of the room offering tools for the future. Plus of objections that you hear would be deeply worrisome to parents who want Something Better for their kids. So how is us situation differed . Obviously with the different policies in place. The reserve system is very similar to our reservation but Indigenous People and bin have a lot more political power because they make up the slight lead greater portion of the population it is how wisconsin traded like in British Columbia where they would have saved over policy. Indians make up a similar proportion of the population in montana or south dakota but that is only a few out of 15 so they will not have the same degree of influence interestingly back policies certainly, they have had a lot of push back from other first nation leaders on that proposal but it actually is the opt in loss so if you want Property Rights that you dont have autonomy you can opt into this ownership. If you feel you are protected and the last the standing mitt is the reserve system you can keep it. So i think they have managed to reassure leaders to say this in is an option and a lot of First Nations leaders have signed don because they have been experiencing these frustrations for so many years especially British Columbia. It is so interesting as a stark contrast i compare it to north korea or south korea if you look at it uc almost no light on the reserve side because there is no Development Bill holmes are almost all temporary because of the land question you cannot get a mortgage to build a house just with trailer home to stuff your family members. Not only rich with Natural Resources but the side of the river and that is not reserved land burying is falling apart but the amazing lesson of what the means. Even a real house on the reserves side is 15 years the point that which they will tear down the new house. They tried to get around the mortgage question to have the tribe back the mortgages to say if you fail to pay the bank millions of dollars per year because the number save this is your problem and if you try to make us pay we will vote you out of office you can see how this is so perverted nobody has a sense of longterm asset they believe it is somebody elses responsibility. Could you talk about of a support system would. But getting at the root cause with the Catholic Church with the widespread sexual abuse and then coming back to the reservation to have huge emotional problems to and understand sexuality your their rule and blue ashley role of the family. But what about now . Because this is not a problem now so the question is how to move forward . Unfortunately we had a situation we are not properly protected the rights of women that is one of the cases where i do think of the enormous role of the federal government because these are citizens of cases of the tribal courts are not collecting a rape kit properly or at all or were the judges are presiding over cases in which family members are there own party is against them even the defendants is different so beyond that a couple of cases of whistleblowers who have said like spirit lake made the news with the just widespread what is going on and one of the of people said we have to make this public was fired from his job for saying that outloud. So sometimes the impulse impulse, nobody wants to say widespread sexual abuse of any reservation. The real problem of the boarding schools but we have to say it. We have to think about the children who are the victims it isnt a question of the leak and blame him but move forward and the only ways to do so is by holding those perpetrators accountable to make sure not only are they subject to tribal courts but to the same laws of other americans are subjected to. Talk about the broken welfare state or the gulag . Who defends what we have no the system that we have in place right now is a partnership that exists between the tribal leadership and their representatives and washington. Did to vote for the xyz representatives to bring home more money to us that is more money. And they have no incentive and then the rest of congress but if you are the representatives to washington from rhode island and connecticuts it was this your incentive about the corruption on indian reservations . You go see that as your job. So incentives are wrong. The things that could be done from my perspective the lowest rating fruit and with enough push you concede the adoption of educational alternatives. One quick anecdote when i interviewed some parents on pine ridge to go to the Charter Schools on done for the parents from the plane m blown away pesach the schools that were high performing Charter Schools teaching kids the kids to not even speak english chap first. And to explore them to be other options because of that isolation that that this is all there is and to give a sense you did push for a Charter School legislation you could get one off the reservation with the northern cheyenne reservation it would not be everything but the least get them the knowledge that they need to take the next up and right now they dont have those tools. And it has been falling. To spend billions of dollars so you can see with each succeeding generation per goslow to start with to change these policies are so deeply ingrained with the constitutional law is hard to untangle that Property Rights issue i dont see any way around it. If your following the north dakota pipeline issue federal law currently says those treaties that people keep mentioning are not valid. Well have to like that but it is the bottom line. The federal government has said the Supreme Court cases this treaty signed in the 19th century are meaningless they do not have to dictate the current policy but we still have this argument that was signed in 1858 and the problem is we cannot move beyond that to so take the land that is reservation land to start having that same Economic Freedom that the rest of us already have instead of doing that we are arguing about what happened 150 years ago. That is not going anywhere and is not helping anyone so i understand why people dont want to hear that it does seem deeply unfair to take this land but this is for the federal policy ends. The same as the boarding school questions what will be due next . What were doing has not been working to make them worse with each succeeding generation. Who are these champions . There are some in the utah delegation and have been trying to cap the legislation to curb the of powers particular with the Natural Resources over the lowlands that the illustration as the National Monument with the Economic Activity that is already happening to preserve some cultural artifacts and they have gone to their legislators to have said figure out a way to protect these artifacts without designating a National Monument and to to figure out how we do this in different ways and as partners in the Natural Resources gamble of policies that we are enacting that they are so deeply paternalistic. And the Research Shows otherwise. So when but in charge of Natural Resources and a partnership with the federal government for those economically than anybody to say this is how we do this. But as the policies look back with that multi generational approach with the fact of how each individual working on reserved land does not take those blanket policies for all. But just like a forestry industry. And with these issues of the reservation. Not just the current generation and to give them opportunities that they have. And that culture that has bank completes disrespect did. Is a question that faces heavy every of how much were africanamericans . Practice assimilation question and in the same way as those that our most able to protect and the Cultural Heritage have some type of economic resources. If you are a korean family who moved here and you want your children to speak korean going forward, you will send them to Korean School they will earn their heritage and go to a Korean Church with those resources to preserving that Cultural Heritage. And dealing with basic subsistence sometimes people ask me arent you concerned the preservation of any language . I am. But the best way to do that is to give the tools and the resources to do this themselves. With tribal language is the Catholic School to partner with University Research researchers but to have this preserve for the future there is a whole curriculum to teach the of lakota language that the school and involve the community as much as possible. So to figure out the best way to give them their autonomy but the tribes that use talk but in the Pacific Northwest would be doing even better because even though they do relatively well with the same regulatory obstacles with 1 billion of gaming revenue because in that time the standard of living has improved a a little bit health care is marginally better. This still go to some of the worst schools and they said had you thought about opening your own school . And to talk about a partnership which is one of the top prep schools and they said this is too hard were not interested. The local Catholic School the parents said it was not worth it to to send them to the other side of the reservation so they dont give these resources but these are some of the worst schools in the states to find those at the local public school. Was is not a community lifted up by the money but no somebody dropped a planeload full of dollar bills and nobody has picked this up to take the initiative to make their lives better, the difference between Economic Development coming from the organically grown businesses into drop of planeload of money. And i would not compare those from another country to come to live with their want to preserve those elements of their culture to the people that did not choose. Because there is a question that comes from having your land stolen from you without negotiating with the government ban to be continuously reminded other treaties so our policies are negotiations a continuous trauma of the people because even as i said here and listen to find ways, not to be respected and because the ways of a typical american although White American would be told this is how you have to be living or what you need to be successful in maybe now with what they are learning. But i think that is terribly patronizing when i went to the reservation people really wanted them to get a highschool education they really did not like the level of poverty and a wanted material goods. Plating qsr underestimating how much they would like to see the success l. Other americans have. Sometimes the house or the way differs i dont say that is what theyre happy about the change that they want to see the of how they want to see it is then the economy. Project remember the reservation off the top of my head bent also allows the surrounding communities to bring in ways to preserve their culture. Models that would allow American Indians to succeed. I think that the reason i keep harping on the tribal leadership is because its only the tribal leadership that tells me its too white. Its not the parents of these kids. They didnt go to the kids schools and say can i get back to . To me the answer is yes absolutely. Im not suggesting i am in favor of all