Native American; Poverty

Native American; Poverty

          Native American have a very high percent of poverty. Their percentage of poverty is the highest out of any ethnicity in the U.S. according to Pew Research Center.  Not only is their poverty percentage rate very high, so is their unemployment rate. I find this interesting since our class just talked about how from the first books mentioning Indians they described them as lazy. Maybe Native Erik Stegman, there is still 70% of native adults who are under the poverty line.

Native Americans being unemployed could relate back to their stereotype. Their poverty and unemployment rate are both high but most have access to education. I thought there could be something wrong with the education. Only 19% do not complete high school and there is a 58% graduation rate, according to Erik.
         
         The graduation rate is not high, but since there is more people who are under the poverty line it makes me wonder what is going on. I further looked into what their education looks like and found that if they attend school they attend Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), they served about 41,000 children in 23 states in 2010. At this school there is little safety. According to a report 60% of administrators at BIE said there was at least one building that was not in shape to use to educate. Their schools do not have a lot of safety and there is still a ton of poverty even if they graduate high school. It is a possibility that Native Americans have such a high rate of poverty because their education is not helping them to obtain a job. Education is supposed to help each student to have the opportunity to work in any work place as they please and that is not happening for the majority of Native Americans.

          Not only is education a problem, their reservations are an issue too. According to Running Strong 120,000 Natives did not have access to water sanitation. Also 60% of the roads to reach their reservations are not paved, they are just gravel or dirt. Not only that, but that their percentage of overcrowded homes is 3-6 times higher than the percentage in the U.S. Obviously there is plenty of problems that relate to why Native Americans are in poverty. They have horrible education, a very low graduation rate, they do not have updated reservations, or many safe schools to attend.