Barack Obama

reprinted here by permission of author, mike kohr.
From "International Brotherhood Days" http://www.brotherhooddays.com/

-Interesting Facts- http://www.brotherhooddays.com/interestingfacts.html

Of all ethnic groups in the United States, Native People are the most economically disadvantaged, 22% live below the poverty level, nearly double the national rate of 12.4%.
Seven of the ten poorest counties in the United States fall within various "Indian reservations." Of these seven poorest counties, three are on the reservations within the borders of the state of South Dakota, home to many of the Lakota people.
Over the the last forty years, Shannon County in South Dakota, has been our country's most poverty stricken county. Shannon county is comprised of The Pine Ridge Reservation.
Pine Ridge has the nation's lowest per capita income, the highest percentage of families below the poverty rate, the highest percentage (63.1%) of persons below the poverty level, and the second highest percentage of children below the poverty level.
Indian Health Services reports suicide rates that are triple that of the national average.
Harvard School of Public Health reports that the life expectancy of Lakota People living on Pine Ridge Reservation to be the lowest in the United States, and only in Haiti is the life expectancy lower than the Lakota of Pine Ridge in the entire Western Hemisphere.
The average life expectancy of a man on Pine Ridge is 61, 16 and 1/2 years lower than the national average. At 70 years of age the life expectancy of a Lakota woman on Pine Ridge is 13 and 1/2 years less than the national average.
Unemployment on Pine Ridge Reservation ranges between 80% and 95% of the population of about 22,000 people.
The average household occupancy on Pine Ridge is 17 people. There are over 900 families on waiting lists for housing. Many of those fortunate enough to have a house live in sub-standard structures.
Thirty-three percent of homes do not have electricity or running water. Twenty-two percent of all homes are in need of major repairs or need to be replaced.
Seventy percent of Lakota people living on Pine Ridge Reservation do not have access to transportation.
Nationally, telephone service reaches 98% of the populace. On reservations phone service only reaches between 46% and 55% of Native people. On the Pine Ridge Reservation more than 70% of the homes are without phone service.
Native People are victimized by violent crime at a rate that is more than twice the national average. Approximately 70% of these violent crimes against Native People are committed by people of a different race. This cross-race victimization rate of Native People is substantially higher than black or white victims.
Approximately 30% of all Native People have been a victim of violent crime. This figure is probably much lower than reality however. Many Native People are reluctant to report crimes because of indifferent or racist attitudes they face in the criminal and the judicial systems.
82% of all rapes and sexual assaults against Native women are committed by whites, 6% of sexual assaults against Native women are committed by blacks. Indian Nations have no legal jurisdiction over White people or other non-Native People. Even if a crime against a Native Person is committed on reservation land, and if the perpetrator of that crime is a non-native person, justice must be sought in the white dominated justice system. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072707P.shtml 74).
In spite of all that has happened to the First Peoples of this land they remain extremely patriotic. In WW I, 7 of 10 (compared to 3 of 10 eligible men of the general population) eligible Native men joined the war effort as soldiers. This, in spite of the fact that they were not yet citizens of the United States.