Poor Cherokees being left behind

Will Chavez

By Will Chavez
Staff Writer

I attended a meeting recently that was meant to educate Cherokee Nation employees about the needs in Cherokee communities and increase their involvement in community development. As an observer and participant at this meeting I heard some interesting viewpoints and some troubling information.

Despite the wealth generated from our casinos all is not well in our communities, which may have been a surprise to some people at the meeting but not me. If you go far enough into the rural areas of our Nation you’ll see the other side of the prosperity we hear so much about. There are still people in our communities living in “third world” conditions, which was how their condition was described during the meeting.

Many of the people living in these conditions are full-blood Cherokees. I don’t know the statistics and wouldn’t care to recite them if I did because I believe we get lost in statistics and lose sight of the people behind them.

A group of community leaders, some of them elderly and all Cherokee speakers, spoke to employees and tribal leaders as part of a panel. One of them spoke of full bloods being left behind as the Nation continued to go to “the moon” with wealth generated by our casinos. He emphasized that these Cherokees don’t care that our new casino is called Hard Rock or something else. For them, he said, it’s about survival.

The heartfelt stories I heard about people’s needs and concerns are some of the same stories I heard when I first began working for the Nation nearly 16 years ago. Back then, too, it was the full bloods who were being left behind or were in need of basic services. I’m not a social studies expert, so I can’t tell you why some full-blood Cherokees still get left behind or go without. Do they distrust or lack faith in our government?

A CN worker sitting at my table during an afternoon session of the meeting said, full-bloods apply for help and if they are denied they walk away, sometimes forever, believing the CN is never going to give them a hand when they need it. He also said, as a community worker who constantly works in Cherokee communities, he constantly hears Cherokee people say the CN cannot be counted on to help them.

Maybe he’s right because I’ve actually heard some bureaucrats in our tribe say that our poorest citizens choose to live in poverty, that they just don’t qualify for help or they got help before and shouldn’t get more.

I don’t believe anyone chooses to live in poverty. From my own observations, I think there is something to the thought that poverty is passed from one generation to another. If a poor couple with kids doesn’t have the skills or education to pull themselves out of poverty, they can’t very well pass on skills or an appreciation of education. Thus the cycle continues. I’ve witnessed individual family members find a way out of the cycle but not too often.

How do we help the poorest citizens of our Nation who need a hole in their roof fixed, a door repaired or a window replaced? How do make it easier for those truly in need to get help quicker and easier than before?

We have a quick response team for natural disasters. Why can’t we have one for people who need small things repaired but can’t afford the cost? It may be something small, but it also may be affecting their quality of life. Rain coming through a hole in the roof or having no hot water because your water heater isn’t working are certainly quality-of-life situations.

As we look at the needs of our communities we can’t discount how far we’ve come in the past 20 years or even 10 years. Many organizations envy our social and human service programs for the money they receive. And we annually give to human service groups in the area. We could not do that without the money generated by our businesses.

But out there are full-blood Cherokees who are just surviving. I imagine some of my family members and people I know who are wondering how they will afford to buy wood to heat their homes or find a way to patch the gaps in their homes where cold air is already coming in. They may be used to living that way, but it’s not right when the tribe has so much money but doesn’t spend it wisely.

Reach Staff Writer Will Chavez at (918) 207-3961 or will-chavez@cherokee.org