as far as the problems of alcohol and drug abuse on reserves, what must be remembered is that natives have a lot of the same problems as everyone else. their government (chiefs and bands) tend to porkbarrel for themselves while basically stealing form its constituents (tribal residents). i have a native friend originally from brockett. when he was younger, he tried hard to convince the others on that reserve to work together with what they had to make things better for all. the example he used was the hutterites. he tried to explain that they all work together for the common good and everyone has everything they need, they have money to buy all of their neccessities, and for the most part everyone is happy. he urged his neighbours to unite and build a better furture for all. he was met with the typical defeatist attitude and was told the usual "its the white mans fault for everything bad". he gave up and he and his wife left the reserve to join society. they both obtained decent paying jobs, bought vehicles, a home and nice furnishings. the whole while he has refused to send money to his family on the reserve. his response has always been "you can do it too. get away from the problem and build yourself a life. the responsibility is yours and yours alone" i admire him for his courage and his inner strength. if there were more like him, there would be fewer problems in the world. for many years....usually in the spring, he and his wife would get into a pretty good argument. she gets homesick and misses her family and talks about moving back. his argument is always the same....."why move back to poverty and squalor. look around at what we have. look at how happy our kids are. why move back to nothing". sadly, she left 3 years ago. he fought tooth and nail to keep his children and thankfully he was successful. i am proud to call that man my friend.
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